Liesl walked with Isaias to the front door of the house and stood back as he opened the door to let her mother in.
She immediately noted how tired she appeared. Her hair was pulled back in a messy bun, grey hair peppered through her usually dyed deep brown hair. Her eyes were rimmed with dark circles and the lines which edged them were deeper than normal. Her mouth was set in a sad frown and even her clothing was not the normal casual chic she wore.
“Hey Mom,” Liesl spoke first. “Everything okay?”
“I just wanted to see you. I miss you. I figured if I came in person, it might be harder for you to send me off. Fred gave me the address but told me he’d never let me see Winnie again if gave it to Sandy or Merlin or anyone else for the matter. I only wanted to see you for myself.” She wrung her hands together.
“Come in,” Isaias motioned her to enter the house and he gave a wave to Mallory who was already walking back down the driveway.
“Mom, this is Isaias Machado. Isaias, this is my mom, Lorraine Wilson.”
“It’s nice to meet you,” Isaias shook her hand. “Please, let’s have a seat in the living room. Can I get you anything? The housekeeper doesn’t work Sundays but I’m capable of making tea and coffee or drinks if you’d rather something else? Mimosa?”
She smiled at his hospitality, “no thank you Isaias. It’s nice to meet you too. I might get a cup of tea from you if Liesl doesn’t throw me on my ass. I tend to piss her off so much lately, all of our conversations are usually only a few minutes long.” She looked around the room, “this is a lovely place. Don’t let your sister see it Liesl. She’ll want it.”
“She’d never get it,” Isaias said firmly.
They sat in the living room, her mother taking a spot at the end of a sofa.
“You look good Liesl. Your sister said you were sick last night and left a party early. She called me saying you refused to talk to her and left her there all alone with strangers.” As Liesl opened her mouth she held her hand up, “I know it’s bullshit. She was with the McGraths.”
“Isaias was running behind and the four of them cornered me. It gave me a headache. I ended up taking a room in the hotel and Isaias came up after he gave his speech.”
“Oh, your sister thought perhaps you’d had a fight. She told me she was worried about you and Isaias breaking up or something. I called Fred this morning and he reassured me nothing was further from the truth. I want you to be happy, Liesl. Sandy really made it seem you were in a crisis last night.”
“Nope.” Isaias quickly shot down the fishing expedition they could both see her beginning. “Though I will say, I was quite disgusted by Sandy’s behavior last night, this week really. Between slapping Liesl at the gallery on Thursday and then berating her last night and then cornering me to tell me Liesl is flaky with no career path and not the kind of woman a businessman needs in his life and offering to blow me,” he was blunt as Lorraine paled, “I got a very real insight into the hell Liesl’s life must have been growing up.”
“She doesn’t mean it,” Lorraine protested half-heartedly.
“Lorraine,” Isaias lifted his hand, “in front of my sister she bluntly tried to seduce me away from Liesl. She’s jealous and unhinged. She is not content unless she is taking from Liesl. She is fixated.”
She sighed loudly, “she’s been getting worse. She’s off her meds because of the baby and I swear it’s making me want to check myself into a facility for a break.” She rubbed her forehead. “If I have to hear one more time how Merlin must be cheating on her because he isn’t sleeping with her or how you ruined her life by crushing the house, I’m going to lose my mind. Plowing down the house was spiteful Liesl,” she gave a look to Liesl who didn’t respond to the comment, “and it’s made her hyper fixated.”
“She was always hyper fixated, Mom.”
“Well, it’s worse now,” her mother sighed and flopped backwards against the sofa. “God, I miss your father, Liesl. He used to be able to help me figure out a way to get through to her, but I’m lost. I love her. She’s my daughter and my baby but she is going to get me fired from my job with the way she keeps showing up freaking out. She will randomly show up at the house at all hours of the day and night. She keeps flipping back and forth on whether she wants to have an abortion. She’s too far along for one now but it doesn’t mean she won’t stop talking about it. I want to be excited about the birth of my first grandchild but jumping Jesus in jeans, she’s sucking the life out of me.”
Liesl’s lips twisted as her mother used the phrase her father used to all the time.
“Jumping Jesus in Jeans?” Isaias chuckled, “it’s a new one.”
“My dad said it a lot. Usually about Sandy.” Liesl smiled at him as he squeezed her hand softly.
Her mother sat up, “enough about Sandy. Tell me about you, Liesl. I want to know what’s been going on with you. Fred has refused to tell me anything other than you’re happy. Are you?”
She smiled at her mom. “I am happy, Mom.”
“Are you living here now or what’s the deal with living arrangements?”
“Yes.”
“No.”
She and Isaias spoke over each other, and she chuckled, “I rented an apartment, but it turned out it was owned by one of Trent’s subsidiary companies. I didn’t know. Merlin used the master key to the unit to enter my house in the middle of the night with the intent of trying to sleep with me. Trent used a key to get into my unit to put recording devices all through it.”
Her mother sat up straight, “are you kidding me?”
“No,” she shrugged, “so the alternative until I find a new place is to stay with Isaias where they can’t get to me.”
“You don’t need to find another place,” Isaias grumbled. “I want you to stay here.”
“You only recently met,” Lorraine commented seriously.
“I don’t care. I love her and I want her here.”
She felt her cheeks going rosy at his blunt statement and her mother raised her eyebrows at Liesl.
“Love? Isn’t it a bit soon for love?”
“No,” Liesl stared back at her mother’s condescending question. “I love him too.”
“Sweetie, I’m not trying to be mean.” Her mother spoke softly not looking at Isaias but straight at her, “but you’ve been through the ringer the last few months. You’re not in the right head space and the things you’ve been doing lately are not normal for you. You don’t usually go for confrontation and conflict. I’m worried you’re rebounding.”
“You’ve never worried about me before,” Liesl shut her down.
“Yes, I have. I worry all the time. Just because I need to focus more on Sandy because of her illnesses doesn’t mean I don’t worry about you. I promise I worry as much over you as I do her.”
“No, all you care about is making sure I don’t fight back against Sandy.”
“Liesl, honey, I’m worried because it’s not like you to argue with her. I worry for both of you equally.”
“No, you don’t,” Isaias interrupted. “I don’t believe you’re here out of concern. You’re here because you got wind, probably from Fred or Meredith, Liesl has someone in her life who loves her and puts her first and Sandy’s jealous rage has escalated, and she’s put it on you. You’re here to make sure Sandy’s desire to be the center of attention isn’t disrupted with Liesl being happy. Now, you may be thinking you’re doing this for Liesl, to reassure yourself Liesl is safe and happy, but the minute I said I loved her, your demeanor changed.”
“That’s not true.”
“It is,” Isaias continued as Liesl studied him intently. “You don’t want Liesl to be happier than Sandy because it means Sandy gets even more psychologically twisted than she already is, and it makes your life infinitely harder. It’s better from your perspective for Liesl to be second to Sandy because it means less drama for you. You didn’t come here to check on Liesl and to reconnect. You came to make sure Sandy wasn’t wrong when she said we broke up or we were fighting, because for your sanity, Liesl can’t be happier than Sandy.”
