Heat Wave(102)

I am stunned. Slapped in the face, kicked in the stomach.

Charlie?

“What?” I’m gasping.

“Yes, there’s nothing unusual about that. I have to know what exactly is going on with our investment, we don’t trust Logan to report the truth. Your father and I check in with Charlie every now and then. We checked in with him this morning and he told us something that couldn’t possibly be true.”

I’m going to kill him.

Logan’s going to murder him.

“Don’t get all concerned about Charlie,” my mother goes on. “He assumed we knew. But I’m glad he told us at any rate, even if he’s mistaken. Is he mistaken, Veronica?”

My mouth flaps open, closed, like a fish out of water.

“Answer me!” she yells, the malevolence coming to life.

I nearly bite my tongue off, my mouth snaps shut so fast.

“Your silence is speaking volumes,” she sneers, her voice going low, to the vile levels. “You have no idea what you’ve done, no idea what you’re doing. You think you’re going to marry Logan? Is that it? You think you’re going to be the next Juliet? Is that what this is about?”

“No,” I tell her, trying to find my voice, my strength. “No. I love him and he loves me.”

My mother erupts into laughter, the kind that comes from hate.

“Love? Oh cut the crap, you don’t know what love is. What you’re doing is because you’re tired of being second best, of never measuring up. You’re trying to take what was rightfully Juliet’s, you won’t even let her rest in peace.”

I’m so temped to tell her the truth about her, about who she really was. It takes everything I have in me to protect Juliet.

“Mom, please, I knew you wouldn’t understand so I didn’t tell you but…it’s the truth. We’re in love and it has nothing to do with Juliet, only that we had to make sure that we were being respectful and –”

“Bullshit!” she yells. “Respectful? You’re only showing how pathetic you are. I expected more from you Veronica, I really did. I never expected you to be Juliet, no one could be, she was one of a kind. But I did think you’d at least grow up to a be a woman with class and honor and dignity and you have none of those values. None. You’re an opportunist. You take what’s not even yours.”

“You’re calling me an opportunist?” I sneer. I feel like I’m about to lose my fucking mind. “You of all people are the biggest opportunist of them all. You’re a fucking politician! You based your whole life on lies, starting with how you pretended to love us. You never loved me, admit it! You just pretended to because it’s what you were told.”

“You don’t know anything about love, Veronica. If you did, you wouldn’t be doing this to her, to us. To me. How do you think it will look for you to marry your sister’s widower? We’ll be the laughing-stock of Chicago. I’ll lose more than you will, is that what you want from me? Is it?”

I can only shake my head. I can’t believe it and yet I can.

“Their marriage was over when she died,” I tell her. Everything inside me is seconds from breaking. “And far before that.”

“Because he’s a liar and cheat. I can see now why the two of you would start up together, he had no respect for Juliet either.”

“Well then fuck you, mom,” I tell her. I am all rage and I am rising. “You know what? I don’t give a shit what you think. I don’t care if Chicago has a problem with it, or if you lose power, or whatever the fuck you think will happen, which probably won’t because no one cares about you as much as you think they do. This is my life and I am choosing him and he is choosing me and that’s all I can say about it. I’m going to marry him regardless, without your blessing or your permission, and there’s not a goddamn thing you can do or say to stop me. So tell me that I’m weak and he’s a liar and that we’re both horrible people, I really don’t care. He has my back and that’s’ more than I can say for my own damn family.”

I’m breathing hard from that, the blood is pounding in my head, pressing on my temples. The line goes black with silence.

“I will not be made a fool of Veronica,” she says. “I have worked too long and too hard in this industry to be the laughing stock. I will not lose people’s respect for me and my family just because you’ve lost respect for your family and yourself.”

“Then I’m sorry. It is what it is.”

She exhales loudly. “I’m sorry too. Because I liked that place and it’s going to be a shame that we’re forced to sell it.”