Page 59 of Made in Love and Blood

Sissy hummed under her breath, reaching over to tap Frankie’s fork gently and remind her to eat. She did, taking another bite and making herself chew as the woman said, “Okay, that’s enough sadness for a happy day. I don’t want to see a frown or tear unless they’re happy ones from here on out. Agreed?”

Frankie smiled around her bite, eventually swallowing it to say, “I’ll try.”

“That’s what counts. Trust me.” Once the food had mostly disappeared from the plate, Sissy reached for the hinged gift box with a pink bow on top. Suede, and matching in color to the topper, she held it out to Frankie in her palm after she had wiped her mouth and fingers. “Are you ready for your present?”

“You didn’t have to get me anything, Sissy.”

“I’m not getting you something, I’ve giving it to you.”

Frankie’s brow furrowed as Sissy handed the box over. Her fingers hesitated on opening the lid as she asked, “What does that mean?”

“Well, this belonged to my grandmother, and then my mother. Who gave it to my sister on her eighteenth birthday, and then later, my sister gave it to me so that I would always have something of hers.”

“You never talk about them. Your family, I mean. I don’t even know their names.”

Sissy kept those secrets of her life locked up tight. Frankie always thought it strange, but after years of it being a topic no one would discuss, she stopped asking.

“There’s nothing to talk about. They’re long gone, and I had to let them go before God ever found them. You’re my family now.”

“There’s more to it, isn’t there? You don’t want me to know whatever it is.”

Sissy, dark-eyed and pretty, even in her early forties, playfully rolled her eyes. “Today isn’t the day for this conversation.”

“What day is?”

Sissy patted her arm. “Not today. Please. Now, I have no one to pass this onto the way it was given to me. Except you. The closest thing to my own daughter that I’ll ever have. Who better to have it, right? And...I think it will go great with your prom dress.”

Frankie opened the lid at the same time Sissy mentioned prom.

“Oh, shit,” she whispered.

The ring, sitting on a beveled gold band, had a pink, oval cut diamond, a half a dozen carats in size, that sparkled under the chandelier and pot lighting in her bedroom. It rested atop white velvet, waiting to be plucked up and truly admired.

Sissy gave her a pointed look. “Excuse me? That was not the reaction—”

“Oh, my God, no. The ring is beautiful.” She jumped from the chair to launch a hug at Sissy that squeezed the air out of her in a wheeze. “Thank you so much, this is amazing.”

“O-okay, let me g-go,” Sissy stuttered.

She did.

“Sorry.”

Sissy gave her a look. “What was all that swearing for?”

“I forgot about prom.”

Sissy’s eyes widened, and her stare dropped to the floor, and likely the woman waiting down there. “Let me say now, so you are well forewarned, someone else did not.”

•••

Frankie tiptoed into her stepmother’s master suite the same way she used to do as a young girl. Except this time, she wasn’t trying to sneak into Carina’s vanity to stare at all the pretty bottles of perfume or admire the rows and rows of display drawers for her jewelry. Carina caught her once, and she didn’t yell or throw a fit at all. She just sat a young Frankie down and explained that she could look all she wanted, but touching was only by permission.

She still remembered the conversation. One of a few that she cared to.

“Consent is important,” Carina had stated calmly, making sure every word was heard and understood. “Even if you’re only asking to touch someone else’s things. Do you remember when we talked about that last time?”

Soon enough, she found Carina.