March 2021 #2
They grasped hands, both of them wearing the same lint-free white cotton gloves. Clearly, this woman had something to do with the auction as well. “How are you, my dear?”
“I’m good, Mrs. Chan, and I hope your family is as well. Please allow me to introduce my father.”
The matriarch of the Chan family was thrilled to meet me.
“Hannah has such a keen eye for quality,” she informed me as Hannah walked away with David following.
I didn’t miss the many beautiful girls he passed, without a glance, to keep pace with her.
“Last year a jeweler in Antwerp sold me a pair of sapphire-and-pearl drop earrings. When I saw your daughter at a benefit in November, she suggested that I have them appraised, as they should have been far heavier, tugging on my lobe just a bit, even being pearls. She was right, of course.”
I nodded.
She turned her head to look at David and Hannah.
His arms were crossed as he talked to her, his scowl making him look like he had a unibrow.
Hannah was doing her best to ignore him as he followed her from pedestal to pedestal, finally lifting her head to meet his gaze when he took gentle hold of her shoulder and turned her around to face him.
“It’s been a wonderful lesson for him to discover that not every girl he meets will fall at his feet. It’s difficult to instill humility when one grows up as he has.”
He was handsome and rich; I wouldn’t want to be in his mother’s shoes.
“The saving grace is that his father and I made certain there were rules and consequences. Without limits, children don’t know that they’re loved.”
“I agree,” I told her as she squeezed my hand.
“It’s a terrible tragedy to allow one’s children out into the world thinking they’re not loved and adored, that as a parent, you’re not so very proud of them.”
“My husband would agree with you. He always says that failing as a parent is one of the worst things you can do, because you leave your child vulnerable to others.”
She nodded.
“He’s a federal marshal, so he sees what the long-term effects can be. If a kid doesn’t get what they need at home, love, security, shelter, then they’ll look for it in other places, and those people they come across will take advantage of the hole you left in them.”
“Absolutely,” she agreed firmly, and then her eyes crinkled and I knew she was smiling at me behind her mask. “It’s so lovely to come across someone who shares your same beliefs.”
Yes, it was. “Which doesn’t mean my kid didn’t come out extremely judgmental.”
She chuckled. “Oh, heavens yes, mine as well.”
Walking Hannah over to one of the glass cases that she had already checked earlier, David crouched down, and after a moment, Hannah followed his lead. A man walked up on the other side, slid open the back, and David pointed until the man had his hand on the piece David wanted.
“The malas are handmade,” Mrs. Chan explained to me. “Some are more expensive than others. He knows which one she wants, and he’s offered it to her on many occasions.”
Of course he had.
“She refuses, and he won’t sell it to anyone else.”
I turned to look at her. “She’s crazy about that kid,” I said, pointing out Jake, who, even in a suit and tie, was not the same crisp and polished his two buddies were and was not, on the outside, in David Chan’s league.
The thing was, though, there was his heart to consider.
“So David might need to set his sights on a different young woman.”
Mrs. Chan nodded. “He’s young, but so is Hannah. Nothing’s written in stone.”
She was not wrong. Young love was sometimes quite mercurial, though I had a feeling about Hannah and Jake.
“I’ve found in my own life that shared passions can become a bridge when other things wane. Sometimes when we hold on through a storm, in the morning things become clear again.”
It was true. Jake’s parents were living proof.
His mother told me they had been parents together, and little by little, day by day, the bond had eroded between them.
They had nothing in common but a shared history, and in the end, it wasn’t enough.
Dane and Aja, on the other hand, had so many things, in addition to their beautiful kids, that they were both passionate about.
“I just want you to know, your daughter is a rare…oh.”
Turning, I saw Kola leaning over a glass case, and there was—I wasn’t sure—a person, laughing, pulling things out for him.
They were just as tall as my son was but more slender, with short black hair that was styled so it fell into their eyes.
There was a single red stone stud in their right ear that I could see, and the fitted suit, shirt, tie, and waistcoat were all black.
“It’s been quite some time since my youngest child laughed, Mr. Harcourt, I must go and meet your charming son.”
The best part, for me, was when Harper joined them, he brought both Kola and his new friend a bottle of water, and then all three of them were talking when Mrs. Chan reached them, shaking hands with both Kola and Harper. It was nice to see all my boys make such a good impression.
Twenty minutes later, Hannah was done, she had emailed the auctioneer all her notes, and we piled back into my minivan. Jake and Hannah were cuddled in the back, Harper was in the passenger seat, and Kola was behind me texting.
“Who was your friend?” I asked him.
“Their name is Jian,” he told me, which explained everything I needed to know. It wasn’t my place to pry.
Near home, we stopped at one of our favorite Italian places, near our house, one street south of Lake.
They were doing to-go orders inside, so you walked in, picked up your food and walked out.
The only seating was outside on their large patio, and because Hannah was proactive, she had made a reservation.
Our waitress was new, but since we knew the menu by heart, it was fine.
She really appreciated us, gushed that we were saving her life, and I ordered myself a dirty martini, since I had four other people with me who could drive.
They all took turns smelling the drink, were concerned when I explained that there was brine in it, and I was going to go on about the onions instead of olives when three men walked out onto the patio.
I noticed them because, of the twenty tables, only fifteen were seated, and the one they went to was closest to ours.
As I glanced over, one of the men pulled a gun and shot into the air four times, another went to the double doors that led into the main part of the restaurant, slammed them shut and locked them, and the third guy ordered everyone down onto the floor.
He wanted us sitting in a big circle with all our cell phones out in front of us.
I told the kids to put their masks back on before they did that.
He came back moments later to collect the phones in a garbage bag.
As soon as he turned his back on us, Hannah, who was sitting beside me, took the rose pin off the lapel of the suit jacket she was wearing and popped it into her ear. It was a bit concerning that my daughter had so many opportunities to use her custom-made earpiece with built-in GPS and cellular.
“Call Dad,” she muttered under her breath, sounding miserable, looking down, seemingly having a hard time keeping it together.
“It’ll be all right, honey,” a man sitting across from Hannah assured her, his gaze flicking to me. “Promise your daughter that everything will be all right.”
“She knows that,” I soothed him as I heard her, arms around her knees now, face buried, giving answers to her father.
“She doesn’t fuckin’ know that,” the guy who took our cell phones yelled, kicking me in the thigh.
“Don’t do that,” Kola ordered sharply, and the man squatted down beside me and pointed his gun at him.
“No,” I rasped, moving fast, wedging myself between the firearm and my kid, the muzzle against my chest. “Please don’t hurt my son.”
“This is your son?” he asked me.
I nodded quickly.
He pointed the gun at Hannah then, who still had her head down. “And is this sweet little piece of ass your daughter?”
She snorted suddenly, which startled him.
“Hey!” he yelled at her, and very slowly she lifted her head, then her eyes, and met his gaze with her own solid, unflinching one.
Standing slowly, clearly unsure, he took a step back, holding the gun on her. “What the fuck is so funny?”
Her long exhale made him scowl. “It’s not funny, or, yeah, it is funny for you and your buddies over there––” She motioned at the other guy, who was in possession of what looked like a small locked briefcase the size of a lunchbox, which, I could only assume was what they had come for, “––but for us, not so much.”
“What?” he snapped, and I noticed the guy from the door turn to look our way.
“This was our big foray back out into the world, and you ruined it,” she whimpered in frustration. “I’m so pissed at all of you.”
“Oh yeah?” He crouched down beside her, leering. “You’re mad at us?”
Hannah sat up straighter and scooched just a bit closer to Jake, and I realized that he’d probably tensed when the guy got close to her.
“Yeah, but you didn’t just ruin this day for me,” she told him, brows furrowing.
“It’s going to be forever until he lets us all out of the house again, and ohmygod, why aren’t you wearing a mask?
” She raised her voice at him. “Do you think the pandemic just went poof into the ether?”
He stood up again and took several steps back.
“Who’s not gonna let you out of the house?” the guy who was supposed to be guarding the doors asked Hannah, turning to look at her.
“My father,” Kola answered, groaning, leaning forward so he could see his sister. “God, I didn’t even think about that.”
“Yeah,” she said irritably, indicating all three men. “He’s worried enough about Covid, and now we finally come to one of our favorite places and these guys are here.”