“She’d want us to take what was ours,” Mara said. “Be happy. Do good.”
Regardless of whatever else was true, even I couldn’t deny my mother’s intentions when it came to us. She’d somehow managed to get a selfish man to do what she wanted. Take care of her kids.
“I wish I had a sign from her,” I said. “Telling me what to do.”
“The sign was the trust she set up and the will itself. And she brought money into the marriage. None of it was possible without her.”
That truth slapped me right in the face. Mara was right. My mother couldn’t have been clearer about what she wanted. She wanted us to have what she felt belonged to us. Maybe it was time I did too.
The weather remainedwarm that afternoon and into the evening. Hank had called to say he wouldn’t be home for dinner, so Mara and I decided to grill burgers and eat outside. Mara had soothing Hawaiian music playing in the kitchen as she cut vegetables and put together a salad. My niece and nephew shrieked with laughter as one of them launched off the diving board. I stood at the grill, flipping burgers. The scent of grilledmeat reminded me of summer and all the fun times I’d enjoyed at Gillian and Alex’s pool with Esme and the kids.
Jordan stood at the side of the pool, dripping wet. “Uncle Grady, watch this!”
“I’m watching,” I called back.
He took a running start and cannonballed into the deep end. Water sloshed over the side, soaking the concrete.
“Ten out of ten,” I said.
Jordan grinned, triumphant, and swam off to join his sister in a game of catch the beach ball.
I took a sip of my beer, enjoying the sounds of the kids’ laughter and the warmth of the evening. This was the type of life I could have with Esme and the kids if I could stomach how we got there. I thought again of Gillian and Alex’s beautiful deck and the happy afternoons and evenings we’d spent around their pool during the last few weeks of summer. I'd felt envious of Alex more than once. I hated to admit it, even to myself, but it was true. Not just the money, but what it represented. Security and the ability to provide for and protect the people you loved from worry.
I’d walked away from a job that could have given me all of that. At the time, it had felt imperative that I reject anything to do with my father for fear I would become him. But there was also the sense that I shouldn’t get to have such a wonderful life after what he’d done to innocent women. I’d wanted to punish myself for being too naive to see who he really was. Perhaps, though, I didn't have to keep punishing myself for his crimes. I could take the money. Transform it into something good. Use it to take care of the people I loved. My mother would have wanted that.
Tomorrow I'd fly home. And tomorrow night, I'd tell Esme how I felt about her and about the inheritance and the dreams Ihad of the kind of life we could enjoy together. It was time to be a grown-up. Long past time, actually.
13
ESME
An envelope from USC came in the afternoon mail, thick and official-looking, with Robbie’s name printed across the front. I stared at it, wondering if I should open it or wait for Robbie to get home from school. I couldn’t imagine what they would be sending him. Maybe they were trying to recruit him? But he was only fourteen. Was he going to be one of those kids who started college four years younger than everyone else? With his intellect, he could handle the academics. However, he was much too young emotionally for college.
“What’s that?” Madison was reading at the table, her cast propped on a pillow.
“Something for Robbie.”
I set it on the counter and continued to gaze at it, questioning whether I should leave it be until he got home.
Trevor came to sit on his haunches beside me, looking up at the counter. “Oh, for heaven’s sake. I can open my own child’s mail,” I said to him as I slid my finger under the glued flap of the envelope and immediately gave myself a paper cut. Ignoring that, I pulled out the paperwork.
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
USC Young Innovators STEM Academy
Dear Robbie Taylor:
Congratulations! We are pleased to inform you that you have been selected as one of eight students nationwide to participate in this year’s USC Young Innovators STEM Academy.
This year’s program received over 400 applications from exceptionally talented students. Your application stood out for its demonstrated excellence in your computational mathematics and innovative problem-solving approach. Your teacher’s recommendation and your algorithm design portfolio were particularly impressive.
Program Details:
Dates: June 15-July 12 (4 weeks)
Location: USC Campus, Los Angeles, California
Focus: Advanced computational modeling, artificial intelligence, and data science
