"She pushed. Kept pushing. Said you deserved to know your dad, that I was being selfish." Mom's voice breaks. "We had a terrible fight. She said things. I said things. And then I left and never looked back."
I'm reeling, trying to process everything. "So you and Olive stopped being friends because of me?"
"Because of him. Because she couldn't accept that I knew what was best for my own daughter."
"Who is he?" The question comes out before I can stop it. "My father. Who is he?"
Mom goes cold. Her expression shutters completely. "No one. He's no one. And that's the end of it."
I can see I won't get more. Not tonight. Maybe not ever.
"But what about Olive?" I press. "You said the Crawfords destroyed her. If you were there, if you saw it happen, what changed?"
Mom is quiet for a long moment. When she speaks again, her voice is softer.
"It didn't happen all at once. That's what people don't understand. It was gradual. After I left, I'd still hear things through mutual friends. How Olive stopped working. How she stopped traveling back to Boston. How her whole world shrankuntil it was just Nicholas and that estate and the role she played as his wife."
"Maybe she was happy."
"Maybe." Mom doesn't sound convinced. "But the Olive I knew had dreams. She wanted to go back to school, get her master's degree, do something meaningful with her life. The Olive who married Nicholas gave all of that up. She became Mrs. Crawford, and that was enough for her. Or at least, that's what she told herself."
I think about the woman I met at the cocktail party. The cool assessment in her eyes. The way she moved through that crowd like she was performing a role she'd rehearsed a thousand times.
"And you think Phoenix will do the same thing to me."
"I think the pattern is already repeating." Mom meets my eyes, and I see fear there. Real fear. "He paid off your debts, just like his father did. He moved you into his house. He's isolating you from your family, from your friends, from everyone who might tell you the truth."
"I'm not isolated. I'm here, aren't I?"
"You're here because you had a fight. Because you needed to escape." She leans forward, her voice intense. "Don't you see, Jade? The fact that you needed to fly across the country to breathe, that's not normal. That's not what a healthy relationship looks like."
I want to argue. I want to tell her she's wrong, that Phoenix loves me, that what we have is different. But the words stick in my throat because some part of me knows she has a point.
"Phoenix isn't Nicholas," I say quietly.
"Are you sure? Because from where I'm standing, history is repeating itself."
"I'm not Olive."
"No, you're worse!" The words explode out of her. "At least Olive didn't know what she was getting into. You know, and you're choosing it anyway!"
The accusation hangs in the air between us, brutal and raw.
Mom takes a breath, steadying herself. When she speaks again, her voice is hard. Final.
"I can't watch you destroy yourself. I won't."
"What does that mean?"
"It means you have to choose." She meets my eyes, and I see nothing but steel. "Him or me. The Crawfords or your family."
I stare at her. "You can't be serious."
"I've never been more serious in my life. If you go back to him, don't bother coming home."
"Mom—"
"I mean it, Jade."
