Hostile Takeover

Chapter Seven

Quinn decided her twenty-seventh birthday was the worst one to date. It was Sunday, two days after her official birthday and she was sitting at her parent's house watching her dad cook the barbecue with Ronan while her and Imogen sat and talked. She was breastfeeding baby Sienna and Ava ran about the backyard playing with some crayon bubble machine. Her mother was fussing in the kitchen with the salad and side dishes and wouldn't let them anywhere near her to help. She conceded things could be worse, it was just that everyone else was so happy and it stabbed at her heart to see that level of contentedness when she was missing out. She hadn't even realised that being with her family this weekend for her birthday would make her feel this way. Her mum placed a bowl of salad on the table and finally took a seat with her and Imogen.

"Mum, you really go to too much trouble for these things," Quinn said.

"You know how much I like to cook," Rachel said. "So how was your birthday on Friday?"

"I had to work," Quinn said.

"Well, hopefully you didn't have to work too hard," said Imogen.

"Finished an article, started research for another. Lucky I like my job."

"Did Gray call you?" her mother said.

"No, why would he?" Quinn answered but she would never admit to her mum that she'd been holding out all day for the hope that he would.

Her phone had bleeped almost constantly on Friday with birthday messages but there was nothing but silence from him. Not even her brand new haircut had lifted her spirits. By the evening she'd told herself how stupid she was for thinking that he would text and consoled herself by drinking a whole bottle of wine. She'd spent all day Saturday in bed with a massive hangover. She'd started to feel better today until she saw the front page of The Metro. The sight of Gray with another woman at a party, a gorgeous young actress made her want to barf all over again. Just to make things even better she had to face Gray tomorrow for their next mediation.

"I still don't understand why he left you," Rachel said. "Are you sure you pleased him enough in bed?"

"God, Mum." Quinn pressed her fingertips to her temples like her head was really pounding.

"Just a thought," she said. "It doesn't matter what age you are or how long you've been married, it's always important to please your man. Your father and I-"

"Ugh, Mum! Please stop."

"I'm just making a point. We still pleasure each other-"

"La la la la la. Stop talking, la la la."

"Fine. But at least I got you to stop thinking about Gray."

"I can think of better ways to make someone stop thinking about their impending divorce. I might need to scrape out some brain cells."

Even Imogen had a squeamish expression on her face

"Lunch is on!" called her father and Quinn was eternally grateful.

Quinn sat and ate with her family, talking and occasionally laughing, but in reality, she was just going through the motions. Her whole life had been like that since she'd left Gray. But what was she to do? She couldn't have stayed with him, not with all the mistrust and suspicion. And even though Gray had fought for her in the beginning, he'd now given up, the latest photos in the paper proving that he'd already moved on much quicker than what she'd managed to do. Gray didn't want her back, her marriage was well and truly over.

As Quinn helped her mother clear the table after lunch, she decided she needed to move on, too. When her mother placed a chocolate cake in front of her, with the rest of her family singing happy birthday, she knew exactly what she wanted when they yelled out to her to make a wish and it no longer had anything to do with Gray. She just wanted to be happy, whatever that meant. Ava helped her to blow out the twenty-seven candles on the cake, a tradition that her mother had insisted on keeping up even though her children were now fully grown adults. At least everyone else got some joy out of her birthday cake, Quinn thought as she watched the thin trails of smoke rise into the air.