"Did she ask to speak to Nate?"
Eileen nodded. Huh. That was nice. We hadn't seen each other or spoken on the phone for a long time, yet the person she'd driven all the way out here to see was Nate.
Whatever she'd come to say, I wanted to hear it. I was done being managed and shielded from things. I pushed back from my chair and stood.
"I'm going to see what she wants," I announced.
"You do that," Eileen said.
I found my mother and Nate in the sitting room we never used, the one reserved for formal occasions. Nate was in the armchair nearest the window. My mother was on the sofa across from him, her coat folded on the cushion beside her, her hands in her lap. She was sitting very straight, the way she always did, but there was something different about her this morning. An air of weariness clung to her.
When I came in, Nate stood, a chivalrous gesture I knew my mother would appreciate. I certainly did. My mother's eyes followed me as I crossed the room.
"Why are you here, Mother?"
She worried her bottom lip with her teeth, an uncharacteristic show of uncertainty.
"I'm not coming home with you, if that's what you're thinking."
"It's not."
"Then why?"
Her eyes flicked to Nate as he resumed his seat.
"Kane has been putting pressure on your mother." He turned his attention to her. "Caroline, I think you should tell Juliet what you just shared with me."
His tone brooked no argument, but my mother tried anyway.
"No, I…"
"Now, Caroline."
She drew in a shuddering breath. "Garrett has been blackmailing me."
"For how long?"
"Two years."
I nodded. That made sense. She'd been pushing me toward him for a long time.
"At first, he just wanted my support," Caroline continued, "For me to put a word in for him when he was trying to close a deal, that sort of thing."
"And then?" Nate prompted when she stalled.
"And then he wanted me to persuade you to accept him. He wanted to marry you."
I gritted my teeth, angry that my own mother had been willing to push me toward the type of man who would stoop to blackmail to get what he wanted.
"What does he have on you?"
"I, uh… I've been seeing someone."
"An affair?" Nate scoffed. "You were willing to trade your daughter to keep an affair secret."
My mother shook her head. "It's not the affair that's the problem."
"It's who it's with?" I guessed.
