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When the phone finally stopped ringing, Lydia swore she could have jumped for joy. This was not her first attempt at contacting her father directly, Aunt Bea had given her the number to his latest address — a villa in Switzerland — for this exact purpose, but this was the first time he had actually answered. The first time she had done so, she believed he was just busy and hadn’t realized she’d tried to reach him, but after multiple missed calls over the years she had come to the conclusion that he simply did not wish to speak to her.
And yet, every once in a while she would try again hoping he’d changed his mind, much to the detriment of Manderley’s bank account. Making calls abroad was not cheap, as Frank gently reminded her, so she was over the moon that this time it had been worth it. It was almost enough to make her forgive her father for leaving her. She hadn’t seen him since she was nearly 11 years old, and her 16th birthday was fast approaching. If he would not see her in person, hearing his voice and laying bare how much pain he had caused her over the phone would have to do.
No doubt they would argue, yell, curse, cry, but if he at least tried to atone in some way, she would be ready to forgive him in time. A long time, but still.
“Hello, who is this?” A young, distinctly feminine voice asked.
Lydia had not expected a woman to answer, let alone one who was clearly a native English speaker. Thankfully she got ahold of herself just quickly enough so that the “What the fuck?” she had uttered came out as a mere whisper.
“What’s happened?” Lydia lowered the telephone from her ear upon hearing the voice of her best friend. She had asked Rudolph to be with her during this call for moral support, and he had eagerly obliged. If Mr. de Winter decides to stop ignoring you, maybe Mrs. Dan-…Mother will do the same for me, he had said.
Lydia turned her head towards Rudolph and whispered once more, “Some woman just answered the phone.”
The woman asked if Lydia was still there, to which she cleared her throat. “My apologies, I was trying to call my father, but I might have the wrong number,” she explained.
“Oh,” the woman paused, Lydia assumed that she was trying to figure out where to go from here. After a moment, the woman spoke again. “What is his number?”
Lydia double checked, triple checked, the piece of paper she had written it down on before answering. Much to her surprise, instead of telling her she had the wrong number and hanging up, the woman continued to question her, asking what her father’s name was.
Why a stranger needed to know that was beyond her, but nonetheless Lydia replied, “His name is Maxim de Winter.”
“Excuse me, did you say Maxim de Winter? As in Maxim de Winter of Manderley?”
The woman sounded quite shocked, which puzzled Lydia for just a moment before she decided not to think too much of it yet. “Yes, do you know him?” she asked, telling herself that it was probably nothing more than coming into contact with someone living abroad who happened to know of Manderley.
“What did you say your name was?” The woman asked with the slightest hesitation.
“Lydia de Winter,” Lydia told her, realizing just then that she had neglected to give her name.
A pause, then the woman asked “Could you please come in here?” The question was obviously directed towards someone else in her home. There was a long pause and Lydia thought the woman had hung up until she was addressed once more. The woman’s voice faltered again, like she was trying and failing to stay calm, “Lydia, I’m Maxim’s wife, Ileana.”
Lydia’s jaw dropped. His wife? This had to be some kind of sick joke. Her father was not above abandonment, but surely he would’ve told her he had remarried, or at the very least told Aunt Bea or Uncle Giles to tell her. He was cruel, but he wasn’t that cruel, not like Rebecca. She had expected to get angry, but she thought it would be at her father, not this Ileana, whoever she was. “Ileana, you’re a sick and twisted bitch if you think playing a joke like this is funny,” she said sharply.
Ileana began to stammer through the phone, “I swear I’m not joking in the slightest. We were married 5 years ago.”
Lydia didn’t know what it was, but something told her that Ileana was telling the truth. 5 years, to think he had kept this from her for so long. She still didn’t want to believe it. “She says she’s Father’s wife,” she told Rudolph, who stood there as if waiting for her to explain why she had just spoken to a stranger in such a manner. She knew he wouldn’t admonish her for though, or tell her that it wasn’t like her to do so. He knew her better than that.
“What do you mean his wife?” Rudolph seemed just as dumbfounded as she was.
Lydia inhaled, then exhaled deeply, repeating the process a few times. “Her name is Ileana. She said she married him 5 years ago.”
Rudolph furrowed his brow, deep in thought. “Is he with her now? Ask if you can get him on the phone,” he suggested.
She cursed herself, why had she not thought of that?
“Lydia, are you still there?”
Lydia startled a little when Ileana’s voice came through the phone once more. “Yes,” she answered, realizing she ought to apologize for her earlier outburst. “I’m sorry…for what I said before,” she added, timidly asking if Ileana could please hand the phone to her father.
She heard the unmistakable voice of her father on the other end of the line. It was hard to tell what he and Ileana were saying apart from bits and pieces, but Lydia could’ve sworn that she heard him tell his wife “I don’t want to speak to her.”
Her heart sank, despite knowing deep down that it should’ve been the expected answer. He thought she was another Rebecca, he hated her just as he had hated Rebecca, why else would he have abandoned her? In another moment of rage, she slammed the phone down, hanging up the call.
Rebecca flashed before her, chuckling to herself.
She was gone as soon as she came.
Rudolph placed a hand on her shoulder. “What did he say?” he asked, trying to tread carefully. He knew what was happening.
Lydia didn’t bother to hide just how much she was seething. “I hope he doesn’t come back. If he does, I’ll fucking kill him!”
“You don’t really mean that,” Rudolph was not asking a question, and the very slight sternness made him sound just like Danny. “Just breathe for a moment.”
Lydia did so, inhaling and exhaling in rhythm, though she didn’t want to acknowledge that Rudolph was right. She didn’t want her father back, not when he had proven himself to be even more of a shitty excuse for one then he already was. Or maybe she still did, but mostly she just wanted to know why he had lied to her, lied to his wife.
Clearly she and Ileana were never supposed to know of one another’s existence, but this twist of fate had made it so.
Where on earth was she to go from here?