She reached over and grabbed a small wooden box. When she lifted the lid, there were many small coins, shells, trinkets, and more carefully placed at the bottom.
“He never asked for more than I could give. I knew it hurt because love comes so easily to him. On one trip, he was gone for much longer than he should have. I couldn’t eat, couldn’t sleep; every time I closed my eyes, I knew he was in the belly of a seamonster or at the bottom of the sea. When he finally came home, I fell in the foyer because my legs wouldn’t stop shaking. I knew then that I loved him. Since that day, we’ve shared the same room, and I learned that love looks different for everyone.”
“What about the man you loved before?” I asked.
I wanted to believe that there was someone destined for everyone. That anything else was a mistake. Mostly, I tried to convince myself that what I felt for James wasn’t real love. There, kneeling before my mother, I was just a young girl asking about true love.
She nodded and stood, gesturing for me to take her spot. I did as she said, and she slowly took out the clips holding my hair up before brushing it with gentle strokes.
“Why did you cut it?” she asked.
“To prove a point,” I answered.
Her lips curled up. “That sounds like you.”
“Mama?”
She took in a long breath, never stopping her work on my hair.
“He was angry with me for marrying your father. He thought I was a coward for not standing up to my parents. He never forgave me for it. Even after he married and had a family of his own, he always hated me for not being brave enough.”
“Do you ever wonder what could have been if you were?” I asked.
Her smile was warm like hot cocoa on a rainy day.
“No,” she chuckled. “This life, your father, you, and your siblings, it would hurt too much to think about a world where they didn’t exist. So no, I don’t think about it because there isn’t a day when I regret my choice.”
My heart swelled, and while I always knew my parents loved each other, I knew that our family was lucky.
“I’m sorry that I left in the middle of the night, and I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about Edward. It was selfish of me, and I’ll try to do better.” I said.
The brush stilled in my hair, and my mother’s eyes bore into mine, seeing everything I was and wasn’t. After a long moment, she bent down and rested her chin on top of mine. In the mirror’s truth, I saw what I never quite did before.
I was my mother’s daughter.
“Are you happy?” she asked.
“Yes,” I said without hesitation.
“Then that’s all I need to know,” she said.
She pressed a kiss to my head and laughed, a deep, rich laugh that she saved only for the walls of Bailey house.
“What a relief not to have to watch you torture suitors any more,” she said.
I stared at her with wide eyes, wondering who this woman was and what she’d done with my mother.
When I couldn’t take it a moment longer, I laughed with her and felt that I finally understood something I hadn’t before.
Chapter twenty
Where You Go, I Go
Bash
They say the Siren lures and the Kraken drags you under, and in that London tavern bearing their names, both legends prove true.
— Anonymous mariner
