Queen Mom Rules novel · Chapter 2 of 24

Chapter 2: Pine Street

Her brother-in-law confirms in front of the room that Marlena holds the stores' note, and the lender at the valet stand says the necklace his firm holds has no engraving.

My mother laughed first.

"Pine Street? Marlena, you can't even afford the oil change on that Subaru."

"Albert, tell her to stop," she said, and nobody moved.

"Mom, the fund bought the note from the bank on March ninth," I said.

"Fantastic. And what bank would that be?"

I didn't answer, because I didn't have to.

Across the room, my brother-in-law had gone the color of the tablecloth.

He is a regional vice president at the bank that used to hold my father's mortgage.

He had sat across a conference table from me in March, in a room with no windows, and signed the transfer papers himself.

"Babe," Cassidy said. "Tell Mom she's being ridiculous."

He put his glass down on a stranger's tray.

"I can't discuss clients," he said.

"Babe."

"Cass, I really can't."

"Is it her or isn't it?"

He looked at me and then at his shoes.

"It's her," he said. "Marlena signed for Pine Street. She was the buyer."

The ballroom made a sound like a sheet being shaken out.

My father pressed one hand to his chest.

"Honey, you own my stores?"

"I own the paper on them. I haven't touched a thing. I bought it so nobody could call the loan."

"With what money?"

"With mine, Dad."

"But you take phone calls," he said.

He said it so simply that I almost felt sorry for him.

My mother stepped forward with her chin raised.

"This is a stunt. She's trying to embarrass us on our anniversary."

"You called me a phone girl in front of a hundred people, Mom."

"I said what I knew!"

"You said it because it was easier than asking."

Her mouth opened and closed.

Junie tugged my hand.

"Mom, are we going now?"

"We're going now."

"Can I say something first?"

I should have said no.

Instead I nodded, and my daughter walked three steps forward in her yellow dress and looked up at my mother.

"My mom is the boss of eleven hundred people," Junie said. "Her name is on a wall. You should say sorry."

Nobody laughed.

My mother's face did something complicated and ugly.

I took Junie's hand and walked out through the lobby.

No one stopped me, not even at the coat check.

The night air outside was cold.

The valet had gone to find my car, so I stood on the curb in front of the club and breathed.

"Ms. Kettering."

I knew the voice before I turned around.

Leon Brannigan stood under the awning with his hands in his pockets.

He was thirty-seven, six feet tall, with dark hair and grey eyes.

In three boardroom meetings he had never once raised his voice to me.

I had spent two years telling him no.

"Mr. Brannigan," I said. "If you're here to buy my company, tonight is the wrong night."

"I'm not."

"Then what?"

He looked at Junie, then back at me.

"I hold a four million dollar loan on your father," he said. "He pledged a ruby necklace as collateral. Your mother's necklace."

"I know."

"Your mother signed it out of my vault on Friday to wear tonight. It goes back Monday, and my appraiser opens it at nine."

"Then he should look at it carefully."

"Can I see yours?"

I hesitated, and then I took the box out of my purse and opened it under the streetlight.

He bent over it without touching it.

I turned the clasp over, and he read the engraving, O.K. 1951.

"When your mother signed for hers, I looked at the clasp," he said. "It has no letters on it at all."

Behind us, the club doors banged open.

My mother had followed us out, her heels clicking on the stone, one hand clamped over her necklace.

"Mr. Brannigan," she said, out of breath. "Whatever she told you, she's lying. She's been jealous of this family all her life."

"Mrs. Kettering."

"The necklace you hold is the real thing. My mother-in-law left it to me."

"I'm glad to hear it," Leon said. "You'll want to be there at nine on Monday."

My mother laughed, a high, bright, terrible laugh.

Then she looked at the box in my hand and at the necklace at her own throat.

Her fingers moved up to the clasp.

Under the lights, with shaking hands, she unhooked the ruby necklace.

She dropped it into her purse.

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