Severed Mother-Daughter Ties novel · Chapter 12 of 24
Chapter 12: The Chapel
I shut the heavy door and walked up the aisle.
My mother did not turn around until I stood beside the pew.
Her face had changed.
The softness was gone from it, and the wet brightness, and what was left was a woman of fifty-four who had finished performing.
"Sit," she said.
"I'll stand."
"As you like." She folded her hands in her lap. "You have your father's frown. I knew you in the waiting room, before you finished turning around."
"You asked me if we had met."
"I wanted to hear what you would say." She tilted her head. "You said no. That told me everything I needed."
"And then you gave me a rabbit and a bedroom and a toast."
"I gave you a week to decide what you wanted."
The candle on the altar flickered.
"I thought you'd had your say in the cafe," I said. "I turned down the check."
"You turned down half a million. That's fine. I'm prepared to go to a million, in cash, today."
"For what?"
"For Cleveland, if you want it. Or Paris, or wherever you'd like to live." Her voice was perfectly even. "A house, a practice, a name nobody has looked into. You'll have everything you built for yourself, and more."
"And in return?"
"You never say that name again in my husband's hearing. Or Wylie's. Or Lacey's."
I had come into that room braced for tears, or an apology, or a denial.
I had not braced for a price list.
"You sold me for five hundred dollars," I said.
"Do you remember the figure?" She sounded interested.
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