“Is Grandfather still active in the business?”
“He is to an extent, though at seventy-nine years old, he only works two or three days a week.”
“Does he know you’ve been separated?”
My mother nodded. “As long as we didn’t divorce, he could still have Felix as his next in command.”
“Do you think the paternity issue and a divorce will make him change his mind about Felix?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know, and I don’t care. My motivation is freeing myself. I’m nearly forty years late, but as they say, better late than never. I regret so much, Magnolia…”
I didn’t know what to say, so I didn’t say anything.
Did I feel sorry for her? Yes. She was a weak person who’d needed a health scare to find her spine.
Did I forgive her? I wasn’t sure. I needed time to sort through everything she’d dropped on me.
Did I hope Felix’s world fell out from under him?
Yes. Yes, I did.
Call me petty and vengeful, but I hoped he suffered the way he’d made others suffer all these years.
My mother picked up her purse from the floor—a Hermes that probably cost more than a new car. She rustled through it, took out a business envelope, and handed it over to me. A small, bulky object made it bulge.
I frowned at it. There was no writing on it, but it was sealed. “What is this?”
“Open it.”
Puzzled, I used my letter opener to slice it open, reached in, and pulled out a ring. I gasped.
Between my thumb and index finger, I held the heart-shaped emerald ring that had gone missing eighteen years ago. Right around the time my mother left, I realized for the first time.
“You took it?”
The weak woman across from me wouldn’t make eye contact.
“I know it was awful of me,” she said quietly.
“Yes,” I said, astonished and beyond disgusted. “Why would you do that?”
She ran her hands over her face, taking her sweet time to say anything. I stared at her, waiting, my mind spinning through the consequences of that single self-centered act of hers.
Who stole from their own daughter?
The same woman who deserted said daughter, leaving her with a controlling asshole.
This woman was something else. I hadn’t thought she could drop any lower in my opinion. I’d been wrong.
“Nothing will excuse it, but I’ll tell you the story behind it. Felix purchased the ring before you were born. It’s a somewhat-famous stone that I can’t remember the name of or the history, just that it had some kind of Russian origin. Felix originally bought it to appease me after I confronted him about his extramarital activities.”
That sounded like a classic Felix James move.
“He made a big deal of it,” she continued, “saying his wife would have the best, which was really about his ego more than me. Anyway, it took several weeks to arrive. While I couldn’t wait to see that ring on my finger, his purchase didn’t erase my resentment as he’d intended. In the meantime, I met Jimmy and became pregnant with you. In retaliation, Felix informed me I would not be gifted the ring. I never saw it again until he gave it to you, allegedly from both of us, for your sixteenth birthday.”
Just when I thought I couldn’t be shocked by anything either of my parents did…
Unable to come up with anything to say, I stared at the spectacular green stone surrounded by brilliant white diamonds. How could such a thing of beauty be used for so much hate, control, and revenge?
