a's

e gates. The garden was suddenly quiet... just the sound of the catering staff collecting glasses and folding linens

y scalp, and the weight of them had been pressing down on me all day. I wanted nothing more than

made it to the end of the hallway, wh

lking. But something

sitting beh

with her hands folded in front of her. She looked directly at the

e the door behind you. We are lon

old books and cigar smoke left behind by the men who had occupied it earlier. I st

around the desk slowly and sto

ht at the party, you crossed a line that I cannot overlook. You spoke back to me in front of our guests. You implied that my son has no taste." She tilted her head slightly.

y, I would just look at the floor and say sorry, but today somethin

ou have been doing things like this since the day I moved into this house, and I have never once said anything back to you." I paused. I made myself hold her gaze. "Today I said one thing. One sentence. And now I am standing in this library being told I have crossed a line. I have lived in this house for three years. And in those years, you have told me I am fat, or I am

o a life that a girl from your background could never have reached on her own. And you stand here and tell me that I have been disrespecting you?" She let out a short, clipped sound... not quite a laugh. "Y

to respond but n

s undone and his jacket was gone. He stopped when he saw

said. "I could hear v

..." I

ore he had heard a word of it... was like a slap. "After what I told you at the fountain? I thought I told you clearly to watch your m

from behind me. "She is speaking. Apparently s

een mean to me for the last three years. I know you know that. I know you have heard it. And I am asking y

he looked at his mother,

all ticked very lo

n't fit in here. You never have. And instead of trying t

believable!

our voi

to your mother call me a toy and all yo

king a scene and thi

, then she opened the top drawer and removed something I couldn't yet see. She uncapped a pen and

oked

ise figures. I counted the zeros once. Then agai

llion d

pt it. "Take the check, Nadia. You're beneath my son. Take it and get out of my son's life right now. Before Richard comes home, I want you packed and gone before the sun comes up. Five million dollars is more

od there looking at the ch

ed at

at what she is doing. She is trying to buy me out of your life. Te

was tired of saying it. "Mayb

till took several seconds f

?" I

, Nadia. Look at what we are. We argue constantly. My mother is always stressed because of the tension in th

I said. "Every marriage has prob

han a proble

s voice was a diffe

real reason. Not the version your moth

as q

me, Do

up. His ja

eone else. Someone who actually belongs in this world. Someone who makes me fee

out clean and simple in the

said. It wasn

ing. He just loo