The Grass is Greener Read Free

– she had loved every minute away from her parents’ world. Oak Hills Winery was a family-run business with a family-run flavour. It felt more like home there than any of the mansions her parents had shifted her through during her choppy childhood, which was characterised mostly by their contentious and long-winded divorce. The memories she had of Oak Hills were more meaningful than anything she’d experienced in the city. It had been the best sort of therapy, squished as she was between stressful study and the nagging of ambitious parents. If anyone deserved to be envied, it was Claudia.
    â€˜Claudia, you have a family. A real family.’
    Claudia’s large blue eyes rolled. ‘Tell me about it. Can’t bloody get away from them.’
    â€˜You don’t know how lucky you are.’
    Claudia had two brothers and two parents who interfered in her life as much as they loved her. Sure, the Franklins had their problems, but they talked about them bluntly or fought like cats and dogs. Bronwyn couldn’t imagine speaking her mind to her mother. Ever.
    â€˜Believe me, my family takes as much as they give,’ Claudia remarked bitterly. ‘You know where I would be right now if it weren’t for them? Here in the city with you.’
    After her graduation and before she had been called back to Oak Hills, Claudia had worked for two years in Perth as a lawyer. She had loved every second of it. Bronwyn remembered whenever they’d caught up for lunch Claudia would be high on the case she was working on. Eager to discuss what hole in the evidence there might be, the missing link in her circle of witnesses or the latest gossip from the bar, when all Bronwyn had wanted to know was what was going on in Yallingup.
    Once they started working, neither of them made it back to Oak Hills often. Bronwyn even less so than Claudia. In fact, she was sure she’d only been back a handful of times since becoming a lawyer and that was in the early years. She emailed the family regularly, of course, and often made plans to visit but then always seemed to have to cancel at the last minute. Law was a profession that more or less swallowed your life.
    To make her feel even more guilty, just before they graduated there had been an accident in Yallingup and one of Claudia’s brothers had become permanently disabled. When Chris Franklin had been sentenced to life in a wheelchair after a stupid prank, it had hit everybody hard. Bronwyn often thought of him and the events leading up to his terrible trauma. Not that Claudia didn’t. But she was more positive about it and proud to tell Bronwyn about how Chris was handling it.
    â€˜He’s amazing, Bron. If it had been me,’ she shook her head, ‘I’m not so sure I would have bounced back like he has.’
    â€˜It’s your family,’ Bronwyn had reasoned. ‘The support and encouragement you’ve given him.’
    Claudia had snorted. ‘Everyone except Jack, that is.’
    Pain throbbed in the centre of Bronwyn’s chest whenever Claudia mentioned her other brother.
    The black sheep of the family.
    The outcast.
    The man who had broken Bronwyn’s heart and abandoned them all when it counted the most.
    Not that she didn’t feel partially responsible for that. It was the one reason she couldn’t put her time in Yallingup to bed. She had to know news of Chris’s progress, if only to assuage the terrible feeling that it was her fault the two brothers had never fully reconciled and Jack hadn’t been home in years.
    Two years ago, tragedy had struck the Franklin family again. Horace, Claudia’s father, was diagnosed with glaucoma and had to pull back on his workload. With Jack gone and Chris unable to fully take the reins, Claudia had been called home to help out. If she hadn’t, Oak Hills most definitely would have gone under.
    The problem was, Claudia’s return was only supposed to be