“Can we stop this useless chatter? Your father’s and brother’s lives are at stake and you two are prattling on about muscles.” My mother narrowed her eyes in disdain. What else was new? I’d had a lifetime of her disapproval and contempt.
After taking a seat, I nodded. “Fine. What’s going on?”
A long sigh wheezed past her artificially plumped lips, causing them to flutter. They reminded me of those balloons the dude at the carnival twisted into wiener dogs. “They were driving home from a meeting this morning and we’re not exactly sure what happened, but the car flipped and they’re both in critical condition.”
“Why aren’t you at the hospital?” A reasonable question, I thought, since their lives were at stake.
“And what could I possibly do there but sit?” Her hand flapped through the space in front of her. “I can do that just as well here.”
Her selfishness had only gotten worse in the years since I’d been gone. I rose and went to leave.
“Where do you think you’re going?” she asked.
“To the hospital, of course. I’d like to see them.”
A bitter laugh rang through the room. “Why now, when you haven’t cared about them in all these past years?”
“It’s not that I haven’t cared, because I have. I wasn’t here to avoid the disastrous conflict that’s ever-present in this family.”
Her index finger aimed at the chair I’d vacated. “Sit down.”
“Why? So you can continue to belittle me? No, thanks.”
“If your father and brother die, you are next in line to inherit the family conglomerate. That is why.”
Now it was my turn to sigh. I hoped my lips didn’t look like wiener dog balloons when I did. “Don’t want it. Thought I made myself clear.”
“You don’t have a choice.”
“Yes, I do. It can go to Ravina or Landry.”
“No, it cannot. The by-laws forbid it as long as an older member of the family is alive, which is you.”
“Then change the by-laws.”
“You really are a pain.”
I stared down my mother. If I was a pain, then what the hell was she? “My word is final. I. Don’t. Want. It. If it reverts to me, I’ll give it to my siblings. Either that, or be an absentee owner. I have my profession and it’s what I love.”
“For a member of this family, you have no sense of duty,” she said.
I wanted to say that she’d never had a sense of duty as a mother, only I held back. “Not when it involves the family business. I’m going to the hospital. I’ll give you an update if anything changes with my father or brother, since you don’t seem to care enough to be there.”
I would not allow her to manipulate me. Ever. If she wanted me to run the family business, she had a big surprise coming.
I drove to the hospital where I knew my father and brother would be. The family had donated millions and there was a wing named after them. I was sure that was where they’d been taken. When I gave my name, I was escorted to their private ICU units. They had personal around-the-clock care.
The doctor was kind enough to give me information, but not a complete report—the HIPAA guidelines forbade it—but I gleaned enough to know how grave it was. It was difficult to walk away from a car that had flipped several times. It was estimated they’d been traveling over sixty miles per hour. My first inclination was to say the car had been tampered with, but my brother had always been a fast driver, even reckless at times. Perhaps he was finally paying the price.
I hoped not. The argument I’d face wasn’t something I looked forward to, not to mention I didn’t want them to die.
Dad’s age was a hindrance. He was in his early eighties. Mom was twenty years younger, so she was much healthier and more robust. My older brother, Stanton, had to survive if my life was to remain normal.
“What are their chances?” I asked the doctor.
“We don’t like to speculate.”
“Say you did.”
“I’d say fifty-fifty.”
Man, he wasn’t budging. Dad’s face was so swollen he was unrecognizable. Stanton seemed to have fewer injuries. Time would tell and I hoped it would be gracious.
I sat on one of the chairs and reflected on my family. They were about as fucked up as they came. Money wasn’t everything. In my opinion, it only led to greed, a fight for power, and then dysfunction. I’d been much happier without money than I was with.
Life is all about choices and I’d gladly choose the path I’d taken over and over again. Fancy cars—no, thanks. Huge mansion—nope. Designer clothes—didn’t give a damn. All of those could not buy the single most cherished thing in life and that was happiness. When you had that, you had everything.
Chapter Eight
English
Stacey showed up, her face reminding me of a red balloon. Her eyes were puffy along with her lips. She fell into my arms, weeping and muttering things I couldn’t understand. I dragged her to the couch and soothed her as best I could.
“Slow down, I can’t understand you.” I offered her a handful of tissues.
She blew her nose, hiccupped, and lay back on the cushions. “I just don’t know what happened. He came home and started packing his things. When I asked, he told me he wasn’t happy anymore and needed to move on.”
Gosh, that didn’t sound like the Reed I knew. “Go on.”
“That’s about it. I asked him what brought this on and he did the old ‘it’s me, not you’ thing.”
“Well, damn. I’m so sorry.”
“English, what am I going to do? I can’t afford that house on my own.”
I grabbed her trembling hands. “He’s responsible for half of it since his name’s on the mortgage.”
“It’s not. The mortgage is in my name.”
“Wait. What?”
“He advised for it to be in only one of our names.”
I ticked off the months since they’d bought the house and it was only six. He must’ve been planning this back then. That clicked in her brain too.
“Oh, no. You think?”
I nodded. “Why else would he have done this if you were getting married?”
She buried her face in her hands as a new round of sobs wracked her body.
“Oh, sweet Stacey, I’m so sorry.” I wrapped my arms around her. Then I thanked God I had zero men in my life. I’d thought Reed was one of the good ones, but I’d been mistaken.
When she calmed down again, I asked, “Why don’t you look for a roommate to help defray the cost?”
She sniffed and nodded. “I’ll have to.”
“Hey, did you keep the diamond?”
“Yeah, he told me I should.”
That was big of him. What an ass. “Sell it. That will give you some cash for a while.”
She sat up straighter. “I could do that. It only brings bad memories anyway.”
“My parents know a jeweler who might be able to help.”
“You think?”
“It won’t hurt to ask.”
“Thanks, English. You’re such a great problem-solver.”