When my mom had told me what happened, I’d taken it personally. Maybe I’d jumped to conclusions. Maybe I’d let my teenage-boy insecurities take the reins. For sure, I’d been pissed as hell that anyone had treated my mom like shit.
And the aftermath my mother suffered…
I locked down on that memory, unwilling to be bowled over by the emotional tsunami it was capable of stirring.
“You mean what you said about my mom?” I asked in a raw, gravelly voice.
“That she was pleasant and kind? Of course. I grew up with a front-and-center view of what cold, manipulative, and vengeful look like. That wasn’t your mom. She was quiet but sweet to me. Respectful. Sometimes I wondered if she knew about you and me.”
“If she did, she never said anything, but you know how moms are. They have a sixth sense.”
She shook her head. “I don’t know how moms are. Not normal moms. Not good moms.”
“My mom was good. Kindhearted. Honest. But also depressed. Getting fired and then blacklisted…” I shook my head, pressing my hands together in front of my mouth. “It sent her spiraling. She sank further into depression. She became sickly, staying in bed most days, plagued by chronic pain that the doctors couldn’t diagnose.” I swallowed hard around the lump in my throat. “She never recovered. Was never herself again.”
“I’m sorry about your mom, Luke. Truly. She sounds like a special person.”
“She was a good one.” My throat swelled with the loss of her.
Silence grew between us. Magnolia emptied her glass again and set it on the desk, but she didn’t refill it.
“For the record, I told my fa—Felix I didn’t believe your mom stole my ring. He didn’t care what I believed. And now I know why.”
I glanced up at her, curious what she meant.
“He made it all up. After my mom’s visit today, I’m ninety-nine percent certain he knew your mom didn’t take the ring.”
I narrowed my eyes, trying to follow.
Magnolia opened a desk drawer, took out an envelope, and emptied it. A single ring with a large green, heart-shaped stone surrounded by diamonds rolled onto the desk.
“It turned up?” I asked.
“About an hour ago. My mother took it with her when she left.”
I listened with my mouth hanging open as Magnolia told me about her parents’ history, particularly the parts her mother had revealed to her today, about the battles between her parents and their twisted agreement. It sounded like a damn soap opera, not someone’s real life. That was the environment she’d grown up in?
Jesus.
“She took the ring because she knew he’d figure it out. In her mind, she won in the end because she got the ring that was supposed to be hers.”
I couldn’t come up with a response. Her family life was something I couldn’t even imagine. No kid should have to be exposed to immature, hateful games like that.
Magnolia skipped the glass and swigged directly from the champagne bottle as I attempted to process her story. I believed it. You couldn’t make up shit like that.
“Why would Felix accuse my mother of taking a ring he knew his wife had stolen?”
“I haven’t figured that out yet. Your mom was an innocent bystander. A scapegoat. I don’t understand what would make him do it.”
The bastard clearly had a black soul.
Another question popped into my head. “If you didn’t think my mom stole it, what did you think happened to your ring all these years?”
She shrugged. “I thought maybe it fell off when I wore it or went down a drain or into a heating duct without my noticing. It’s bothered me ever since. I can’t tell you how many times I turned the house upside down searching for it.”
“And now you have it back.”
“I don’t want it. But it’s worth a lot. Felix James has always used money for evil. I want to figure out something good to do with it. I don’t know what yet.”
