“She was a terrible old bitch,” my mother said from my side. “For twenty years, I’ve sat at this desk under that look on her face. Under her shadow. Funny that I didn’t want to be her, since I became her.”
I took a sip of my drink, which was all the answer I had to give.
“You want to know why? A vague question with too many possible answers. If you want to know why I stole from my own company, it was because I believed I could put it all back. The reason I needed it was my own vanity—to keep this house and all the others we own. To keep up appearances as our profits waned. To pretend it was fine so as not to be strong-armed by the board into retreat. I didn’t want to face humiliation.” She laughed humorlessly. “I was too sure of myself to even consider this a real consequence. And look at me now.” She held up a hand in display.
Still, I had nothing to say, and she seemed to require no response as she continued, “I think you’ve sorted out why I didn’t want you to have the charity and even why I fired you—had I not, it was very likely I’d have taken you down with me. And despite popular belief, I do want you to succeed. I do want you to thrive. I just didn’t think you were capable on your own. Although I will say that your sleeping with a Bennet is the deepest wound you could have inflicted. I should be thanking you. You made it very easy to fire you. I didn’t have to act at all. And I meant it when I said they would ruin us. They always would have, if given the opportunity.”
We stared up at Grandmother. I tried to ignore the flicker of warmth from her admission—she wanted what was best for me and had tried to give it to me in her own twisted way.
She took a sip of her drink as if to fortify herself.
“And if you want to know why I gave you the shares, it’s because I can’t keep them. If Bower is to go on, it has to be with you. I’ve tainted it, and even had I not, it cannot be seized. It will not be dissolved. And somehow, you are the only one who can save it from that fate.”
“I’m surprised.”
Her face turned to me, but I kept my eyes on Grandmother. “By what part?”
“All of it. I was convinced you’d gladly disinherit me if I didn’t do what you asked.”
“This company has been passed down through generations. It was going to be yours regardless of what I threatened. I had to protect you, or the company would go to God knows who. It was the only way.”
The warmth I’d felt for my mother’s shocking display of maternal protection cooled. “So it was about the legacy.”
“Everything is about the legacy, Margaret,” she said as if I were tedious and exhausting.
“Yes, I suppose it is.” I took a long pull of my drink, and when it was gone, I extended a hand for the bottle.
“Oh, don’t sound so disappointed. The reason doesn’t make it any less true.” She handed it over. “You’ve got it all. Everything. The company lies in your capable hands. I no longer have a say. So congratulations. You got what you wanted.”
“It’s not what I wanted. It’s what you wanted.”
“And it seems neither of us had a choice in how it happened, no matter how we thought we did. The keys to my kingdom are yours. Do try not to waste the opportunity.”
“Silver linings and all that.” I poured two fingers and set the bottle on the ground between us.
Silence fell. We drank.
“What will you do?” I finally asked.
“Go to jail,” she said on a dry laugh. “Sell the house. Pay my debts so they don’t get any worse. Move to Paris. Join a garden club. And for the sake of Bower’s future, stay away.” She paused, then sighed. “For decades, we have shaped this company with biblical Bower law. My grandmother always fell second to the Bennets—sometimes by fortune, sometimes by perception. My mother didn’t fare much better. I built an empire under their doctrine and set fire to my spoils. The most I can hope for is that you'll do better than we did.”
It was almost a compliment, almost an admission, but she’d said it with a snide sort of arrogance, as if she knew I wouldn’t.
I was a Hail Mary. A long shot.
But she’d underestimated me my whole life. It would be silly to believe anything should change now, even though, for the briefest moment, I naively had.
I kicked back my drink and set the glass next to the bottle. When I stood, my gaze shifted from my grandmother to my ruined mother.
“I’ll do my best,” I said.
Pride and pain flashed behind her eyes. “I wouldn’t expect anything less.”
When she looked away, it was a dismissal. Whatever thread we’d been holding fell.
So I turned. I walked out of that room. Out of that house.
And I stepped into a brand new world, closing the door on my past.
A curious feeling settled over me, a quiet and calm sense of … I didn’t know what. It was all the things left over when the tsunami receded. Bits of proof nestled in wet sand, touched with sunlight for the first time. There was acceptance, smooth from years of wear. The broken shell of the life I’d known, jagged and sharp.
But there, amid it all, was a glimmer of gold, a burst of color. A treasure lay, visible only in glimpses, waiting for me to dig up each jewel, uncover every gem. Bower was mine. My father was free. My mother would be gone. And as I brushed the sand from each beautiful thing I discovered, I came to the greatest treasure of them all.
Marcus was a diamond, faceted and transparent, unbreakable and rare. He was blinding. Dazzling. Breathtakingly brilliant, his strength forged in the fire of the earth.
He was, without question, the most valuable of all the riches in the world.
As I appraised all that I’d discovered, I saw for the first time how they all fit together. I understood what I wanted to do, what I was meant to do.
And filled with purpose and hope and love, I set about doing just that.
30
A Family Affair
MARCUS
“It’s not that simple,” I huffed.
Luke gave me a look from where he sat in the study, draped in one of Mom’s armchairs like a king. “It seems pretty simple to me,” he said.
“That’s because you’re simple.”
“And you make everything more complicated than it has to be. The way I see it? You love her, and she loves you. So she was an asshole. It’s been three days, and I’d like to note that you weren’t much better—”
“Why, because I didn’t lie to her?”
“No, ding-dong. Because you didn’t stop her.”
“She stormed out.”
“And there wasn’t even one tiny little opportunity to stop her?”
I said nothing.
“Exactly. But listen—if you think you’re going to get through any relationship without both of you occasionally being an asshole, you’re delusional.”
“That’s true,” Kash said from behind me as he entered the room, flopping into the chair next to Luke. “Everybody’s an unintentional asshole from time to time. What matters is how you handle what comes after.”
“Not you too.” I laid my own look on the two of them. “It’s not like she did something trivial or small. She accused me of ratting her mother out to the FBI, for God’s sake. She didn’t even consider my side for a single, solitary second. She decided I did it. What I don’t understand is how the hell none of you understand.”