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She nodded and petted my hand where it was clutched in hers. “Maybe it’s time you tell him the truth.”
I shook my head immediately. “I can’t.”
“Why not?” She stared at me seriously, the lines around her mouth deepening. “Doesn’t he deserve to know the truth?”
“One of us already lost a mother,” I murmured, the hand she wasn’t holding folding into a fist. “I can’t let him lose his, too. He’d never forgive her if I told him what she did.”
She cocked her head. “From what you’ve told me, she doesn’t seem like much of a mother to begin with. What mom does that to her son? Take away his happiness.” She huffed.
“One who saw me gettin’ in the way of his greatness.” I shrugged. “She wanted him livin’ up to his potential. As far as Elizabeth Dailey is concerned, greatness and happiness are the same thing.”
“Oh, bullshit.” She rolled her eyes.
I laughed at the gesture. It’d been a long time since we were able to sit like this together, talking as old friends. I missed her.
She smiled at me. “I remember when you first came here, you were a terrified teenager. Nineteen, if I recall correctly.”
I nodded. I’d been nineteen and a half, and it’d been four months before Mum died. I was out of money and options, especially after I used the last bit of cash I had arranging her funeral. She knew it was coming, and she’d begged me to organize the coffin and burial place before she went, so I’d agreed. To do that, we’d needed to sell the house for a small price before we moved into Lakeview. Mum hadn’t lasted long after that, and she’d taken a piece of me with her.
“I remember seeing you and thinking look at that poor boy, broken and terrified, and I turned to Richard and told him that I was going to invite you and your mom over for dinner. Your mom was too sick, though.” She frowned.
I laughed loudly. “He was horrified by me, thought you’d gone bonkers. He always said you took in all the stray dogs, but I was more of a wolf. He thought I was a giant.”
She giggled.
“But he loved you, and he would’ve done anything for you,” I whispered.
Their love story had inspired me to get back out there to try and find a partner. It’d only lasted a year before I realized my options were limited, and work—and for a little while, Mum— took precedence over romance when you were broke as fuck. Then, Richard had died in a work accident when the twins were ten, and it’d nearly torn Denise apart. I’d been there for her, holding her as she sobbed, and I’d stayed with her whenever I could to get her through her grief. We’d been through a lot together.
She sobered and patted my hand. “I know it’s cliché, Tav, but life is too short for ifs and maybes. Judah’s mother did wrong, not you.”
“I chose money over him.”
She huffed. “Your mother was sick and needed treatment. His mother dangled a carrot over your head that you couldn’t refuse. She knew that, it’s why she did it.” She shook her head, some of her brown curls getting loose from where they were pinned. “He deserves to know.”
I dropped my chin against my chest. “It’s not that easy.”
“Why not?”
“I can’t do that to him, Den. I can’t destroy his world like that because it’s selfish. It doesn’t matter anymore.” My heart throbbed, resenting my words. How could I love him so much after all these years?
“If it didn’t matter, he wouldn’t be asking you why.” She gave me a pointed stare, and I felt proper reprimanded, as if she were my mum. She was good at that. “And he wouldn’t be taking that bracelet from you.”
I hated it when she was right, but that was the thing about Denise, she was right a lot. I hated that out of everyone in the world who could’ve been diagnosed with dementia, out of all the sleezy billionaires and religious fanatics who sent their kids off to torture camps, it was a lovely woman like Denise who’d gotten it.
She glanced up, and I turned my head to see Law and Ellis had stopped a little bit away from us. They were chatting quietly, and Ellis nodded eagerly at whatever Law said, and I smiled.
“Promise me something, Tav,” Denise whispered urgently.
I returned my attention to her and leaned in closer.
“Take care of my boys.”
I opened my mouth, but she slapped a hand over it to stop me from talking.
“Days like this are like waking up from a coma. Things have changed, I can sense it, but it’s blank to me. I don’t remember my bad days, but I can see them in Law’s eyes. I ask him what happened, but he lies to me.”
I winced, and she smiled sadly.
