But then Mason put his hand on my back and leaned in, whispering softly.
“You’re doing amazing,” he told me.
“I’m not doing anything,” I giggled.
“Exactly,” he smirked. “That’s the point. You’re being yourself. Your beautiful, charismatic, interesting self. Just keep doing that and we’ll be okay.”
His words gave me the confidence I needed that night, the first time Mason had been out in public since the phone mishap.
The elevator door beeps and opens onto Gertrude’s apartment, moving boxes stacked everywhere as I walk down the corridor toward the kitchen that overlooks the park, even if the park is several stories below.
I find Gertrude at the kitchen island, chopping tomatoes for an omelet, which just so happens to be one of my favorite dishes.
It’s been two weeks since the craziness at the docks.
Hardhat is in jail awaiting trial – everybody agrees he’s going to get life after the sadistic criminal life he’s led – and Mason’s business is glowing after it was made public the cellphone mishap was the work of a rival company. Now, everything is sparkling brightly, the trajectory of our lives a comet that keeps shooting up, up, up.
Gertrude is unchanged, though, still the same fierce woman I met when I first walked into the Eternal Bond offices, hoping she’d give me a shot.
“Morning,” she says. “And may I say how lovely you look in the paper?”
“Urgh,” I say with a laugh. “I only brought it because I knew you’d want to see it …”
I trail off when I see that she’s framed the front page and hung it from her wall.
“Oh, I get it,” I laugh. “You haven’t got time to unpack your clothes but you’ve got time to do that. At least your priorities are in order.”
She laughs as she chops expertly, shooting me one of her wide grins.
“Really, Melody, I’m so happy for you. You’re doing an incredible job with Eternal Bond. You’ve found the man of your dreams. Everything is looking up.”
“I’m still surprised you don’t hate me,” I murmur. “I lied to you, Gertrude. I put you in danger. I could’ve—”
I bite down when tears threaten to well in my eyes.
I could’ve gotten you killed.
Gertrude sets the knife down and walks around the counter, placing her hands on my shoulders and looking at me sternly.
“Melody, I’ve got something I need to tell you,” she says, her lips serious but her eyes playful.
“Oh?” I say.
“Yes,” she says somberly. “You see, I was behind the kidnapping. I asked that man to kidnap me so that your lover boy would feel so guilty that he’d buy me this lovely apartment. I’ve been planning it all along.”
I giggle and give her a playful shove.
“You haven’t changed a bit, have you?”
“No,” she declares proudly. “And nor will I. Yes, you lied to me, but how could you not? You’ve lived a life where it was necessary. But that’s in the past and now it’s time to look to the future, your future.”
I look at her closely, at the way her age lines crinkle lovingly, making her look full of character and spirit.
“Gertrude,” I say. “Why do I have the feeling that you know something I don’t?”
She tsk’s and returns to her chopping, shaking her head in a none-too-convincing way.
“Now, dearie, let’s say I do know something. And let’s say it’s something momentous and quite wonderful. What good would come of me spoiling the surprise?”
“Fair enough,” I say in a bantering tone, laying down the newspaper and leaning forward to get a closer inspection of her definitely-hiding-something face. “But let’s also say that you do know something, and instead of keeping completely quiet, you let me know that you know something but don’t tell me. Isn’t that just plain cruelty?”
“Okay, I’ll tell you.”
“Really?”
She rolls her eyes.
“No chance, dearie.”
I give her a mock scowl and then sit down, pouring myself a glass of OJ.
“Oh, Melody, there is one thing. It’s quite silly, really, considering my age, your age—our ages. It’s just … well, no, it’s really quite silly.”
“What?” I say, stunned at the way her cheeks are turning red, something I’ve never seen her do, even when the biggest bridezillas in the industry have gone full mayhem on her. “Gertrude? You know you can talk to me about anything, right?”
“It’s just I’ve been thinking, well, that I could legally adopt you. You’re already a fierce and beautiful woman. You’re already raised, is what I mean to say. But it would mean something, wouldn’t it?”
I can’t speak.
A sob of pure joy escapes me and tears start flowing down my cheeks in irrepressible waves.
“Really?” I gasp. “You’d really do that?”
“Of course,” she beams, walking back around and folding me into her arms. “I already consider you a daughter. This just makes it official.”
I feel like I’m floating in a cocoon of happiness as I sit in the back of the car Mason sent for me, gliding through the city on my way to the Eternal Bond offices.
I’m not even sure why Mason wants to meet me there. Over the past two weeks, we’ve been working out of temporary offices since there’s been a water leak and we’ve been getting some repairs done.
I still find it hard to believe that in a matter of weeks I’ve found the man of my dreams and now that Gertrude knows the truth about me, she wants to be closer to me, to be my freaking mother, not push me back to the gutter like I always feared.
I smile like a loon as I step from the car and walk across the sun-dappled parking lot into the offices.
“Mason?” I call.
“Back here,” he says, from deeper into the offices than I knew they went.
I walk into the back room – the framed wedding photographs watching me – and then through the rear door that has always just led to an alleyway area behind.
But when I cross the threshold, I instantly know that the offices haven’t been
