Chapter 3 - MY FATHER FINALLY SAID NO
I stepped away from the others before answering.
“What about the ring?”
Dad hesitated.
That was his specialty.
My father, Robert Cole, was a decent man with one catastrophic flaw.
He could identify the right thing to do and still spend twenty years waiting for a more convenient moment to do it.
“Your mother shouldn’t have taken it tonight,” he said.
“Taken it from where?”
Another pause.
“Dad.”
“My safe.”
I looked toward Mom.
She was watching me from beside the SUV.
“Why was Grandma’s ring in your safe?”
“Because after your grandmother died, your mother and I disagreed about what should happen with it.”
My pulse accelerated.
“Mom told me Grandma gave it to her to give me when I found the right woman.”
“That’s not exactly what happened.”
Of course it wasn’t.
“What happened?”
Dad lowered his voice.
“Not on the phone.”
I laughed without humor. “You’re worried about privacy now?”
“Ethan.”
“Dad, my ex is standing twenty feet away at my first date because Brooke stole my key and Mom staged some kind of proposal rehearsal in my apartment.”
“I know.”
That stopped me.
“You know?”
“I was there.”
“Then why didn’t you stop it?”
Silence.
Again.
I closed my eyes.
When I opened them, Lily had gotten out of the car. She remained near the door, giving me distance without abandoning me.
That was the difference.
My family crowded when they wanted control.
Lily gave space.
“Dad,” I said, “I’m tired of finding out you disagreed privately while helping them publicly.”
His breathing changed.
“I know.”
For once, he didn’t defend himself.
Then he said, “I’m leaving your apartment now. I took the ring.”
Across the parking lot, Mom’s phone suddenly buzzed.
She pulled it out.
Whatever message she saw made her face go pale.
Dad continued.
“I’m going home. Tomorrow morning, you and I need to talk alone.”
“About what?”
“About more than Rachel.”
I looked at Brooke.
Then at my mother.
Rachel was whispering something to her, angry now.
Dad said one last thing.
“Don’t give your sister access to your apartment again.”
“I wasn’t planning to.”
“No, Ethan. I mean she has had access longer than you think.”
The call ended.
A strange coldness moved through me.
I walked back toward the car.
Mom blocked my path.
“What did your father say?”
“That he took Grandma’s ring.”
Her expression sharpened. “He had no right.”
“Apparently neither did you.”
“Do not speak to me that way.”
I almost smiled.
Thirty years old and some part of me still heard that sentence as a command.
Then Lily stepped beside me.
She didn’t touch me.
Didn’t interfere.
Just stood there.
And suddenly the command sounded smaller.
“Go home, Mom.”
She stared at me.
Then at Lily.
“This woman is going to divide you from everyone who loves you.”
Lily said nothing.
I answered.
“No. She’s just the first person who made me notice you were already doing that.”
Mom flinched.
The four of us stood beneath drive-in lights while gravel crunched under strangers’ shoes and the movie played behind us.
Then Mom walked away.
Rachel followed.
Brooke lingered.
“You’re going to regret this.”
Maybe I would.
May you like
But as I watched them leave, I knew one thing.
For the first time, regret would at least belong to me.
