“He’s nothing like his father,” I say quickly.“Nothing like him.”
“But why ishehere?”she demands, not piecing it together.
“He came here mistakenly thinking he could pay me to walk away from Zach’s life.”
“Oh,” my mother says coolly.“At least he’s offering money now.Be glad he hasn’t planted some more of his late wife’s jewelry here.”
“No, nothing like that.”I say quietly.“He’s trying to play a different game, and losing.”I smile at him.“You are so going to pay for this.”
He sneers.“It’s my word against the two of you.And who would believe you?”
“Zach would,” I say.“And so would the rest of your sons.I don’t mind telling them.”
His face darkens, lips pressing into a thin, furious line.The vein along his forehead throbs again, like a warning, like he’s almost on the verge of combusting.“You wouldn’t dare.”
“Try me.”
My mom lets out a chuckle.“Men like you think silence is loyalty,” she says, her voice calm and steady.“It’s just fear, and fear runs out, eventually.”
His eyes narrow to slits, and then he just walks out.
I close the door behind him.I lock it.My hands are shaking so badly I have to try twice.Then I turn, and I fall straight into my mother’s arms.She wraps herself around me, and I feel safe, and grounded and protected again, breathing her in like the oxygen I so badly need.
“Mi niña, mi vida,” she cries, smothering me with her kisses.
My girl.My life.
She frames my face, pushing my wayward strands of hair out of the way.“You gave me the biggest shock when I saw him here, with you.”
“I’m sorry, Mamá.I’m sorry.I didn’t want you to see this.”
“It would kill me if you had hidden it.”
“I’m sorry.I was going to tell you… about Zach.”I jolt into awareness.“What areyoudoing here?”
“I was worried about you,” she says softly.“You would have visited me many times by now, but you haven’t for months, and you haven’t sounded the same.”
“I thought I hid it.”
“You’ve been phoning me every day this week, mi niña.Every single day.”
My voice cracks.“I missed you.”
“I know you did.”She takes my hands in hers and kisses them in turn.“I knew something was wrong, and that’s why I came.”
“Your timing couldn’t have been more perfect.”
She pulls back slightly, nodding to herself.“A mother knows these things.”
“Oh, Mamá.”We hug again.“I’m sorry,” I whisper.“I’m so sorry you had to see that.”
“It was meant to be.I have often dreamed about facing him, instead of running away …”
“Mamá,” I snap, not allowing her to blame herself.“You didn’t run away because you were a coward, you ran away because it was the only thing you could do at the time.How could you have gone up against that man?Who would have believed you?You did the right thing.”I pause, then ask, “Did it help, to say those things to him?”
She studies my face.“More than you know.I have kept those words hidden in my heart for years, and this now?It was karma.”She looks so vindicated, so triumphant, like she finally got her day, not in court, but in front of me, and she was able to tell him exactly what she thought of him.
I tell her why he was here, and it all comes out in fragmented sentences and broken words.I tell her about Zach, about the party, about Paul Knight thinking he could buy me off.
