32. Scarlett
Chapter 32
Scarlett
I watch Cian and Henry through the window of Amanda Brown’s office until they disappear around the corner. I turn back then and take a deep breath. “Okay,” I say to the room. “Now what?”
I’d gotten the call from Amanda's secretary, telling me that Mariah and Leah had been brought into the office after a fight in class.
It looks to me like everything has been handled.
Amanda sighs. “I think the girls have reached an understanding.” She looks at both of them and they nod. “I feel like they’re best served by going back to class and finishing their day.” She looks at me. “Unless you feel that all of this…personal stuff is going to be a distraction for Mariah.”
I shrug and look at my daughter. “Well? What do you think?”
She shakes her head. “I’m fine. There will be a lot more talk about me if I leave now. I can handle staying.” She looks at me. “Will you text me if anything bad happens with the king?”
I feel a pang in my chest. God, Cian’s grandfather had a heart attack. I hate that. I hate that his family is going through this. I hate that Cian and Fiona and Saoirse are so far away from him. “Do you think that’s a good idea?” I ask Mariah.
“I just want to know. I want everything to be okay.”
“There is nothing we can do. Focus on school and we’ll check on everything when you get home.”
“I’ll say a prayer for him,” Leah says.
I hate that my initial reaction is to say no thanks. But she’s a sixteen-year-old girl who truly believes that her church is guiding her correctly. This is coming from a good place. “Thanks,” I tell her. “We appreciate that.”
“Okay, girls,” Amanda says. “Back to class.”
I step out into the hallway with them and they take a left while I take a right. I round the corner and nearly run over Hannah Lawton.
Well, of course. I had wondered why she hadn’t been called to the office for this altercation.
“What happened?” she asks in her usual snippy tone, pulling the strap of her purse up onto her shoulder.
“More or less just a misunderstanding. They’re both fine. On their way back to class.”
“You know, you should be more concerned?—”
I put my hand up. “I’m going to stop you right there. I’m not interested in what you think about my life, my daughter, how I’m parenting her, or even what toppings I put on my pizza, Hannah. I really don’t care what you think about anything, to be honest.”
I start to step around her when she says, “I don’t want Mariah anywhere near Leah.”
I turn back. “Then tell Leah to leave Mariah alone. She’s the one starting most of this.”
Hannah scoffs. “There’s no way. If Mariah is telling you that, she’s lying. But what else would I expect, growing up in that house with you and Ruby?”
I do not want to do this. I am feeling a number of emotions, including worry about Cian’s grandfather, worry about Cian and the rest of his family, and I’m already missing him. I’m also feeling restless. Having him leave so suddenly when things are very up in the air between us, feels strange. Wrong. There’s no other choice, of course. He had to go to Cara. But I am feeling discombobulated. The last thing I want to deal with is Hannah.
“Hannah, I really don’t care what you think of me, but you will not speak about my daughter or my sister in a disparaging way. I’ll admit that you know some things about me that are not good, things I’m not proud of. They’re from my past, and I’ve changed, but if you don’t see that, I can’t control that. However, you do not know my daughter or my sister well enough to say a word about them.”
She props a hand on her hip. “I don’t need to know them. I hear all about them. I hear about Mariah from Leah and her friends. And everyone’s been hearing about Ruby over the last few days.”
Do not ask. Do not ask. Do not ask.
“Hearing what about Ruby?”
“The lies she’s been spreading about the city council and the church. “
I shake my head. “Ruby doesn’t care about the city council or the church. Whatever you’re hearing isn’t true.”
Hannah gives me a smug, bitchy smile. One I’ve given too many people, too many times.
“Really?” Hannah asks. “Ruby hasn’t told you about the gossip she’s been spreading?”
I really don’t know what this is about. Ruby can handle herself. She has friends in town. I’m sure someone overheard her talking about something and took it out of context. I do not have to get involved.
“Hannah,” I say, meeting her gaze. “I just want to tell you, and I mean this with all my heart, I hope you have the day you deserve.”
Then I turn and walk away.
When I hit the sidewalk outside, it only takes me two seconds to decide where I’m going. I’m not going to get anything done at the garage. I don’t have any cars to work on anyway and I’m far too distracted to work on any foundation business. I head home, knowing that I’m going to pull up Wait ’Til I Tell Ye and see what I can find out about the king.
I let myself in through the back door and find Ruby at the kitchen table. She’s painting her toenails while listening to the podcast.
She looks up. “Oh my God. Is Cian okay?”
I toss my purse on the table. “He’s on his way to Cara.”
Ruby drops the foot she had propped on the chair seat to the floor. “Babe. I’m so sorry.”
I shake my head. “Don’t be. He had to go. Of course.”
“Yeah. And you couldn’t go with him. That would’ve been crazy.”
Yeah, of course it would’ve been. “In the midst of a potential family drama isn’t really the right time to meet everyone, you know?”
“For sure. But you saw him?”
“Yeah. He came by to say goodbye. And then I saw him again at the school.” I frown as I realize what that really means. He was on his way out of town after he said goodbye to me. I pull the chair out and sit down. “He actually turned around and came back because Mariah had a problem at school.”
Ruby recaps her nail polish. “What do you mean?”
“Mariah and Leah got into it and Mariah must’ve texted him or called. He turned around and came back.” I look at my sister as all of this occurs to me. “He came clean. He admitted to Amanda Brown and Leah Lawton who he really is. That Mariah was right all along.”
Ruby’s eyes go wide. “No shit?”
“Then Henry basically threatened Leah not to say anything. “
Ruby huffs out a breath. “Of course he did. “
“And strangely, when I left, I almost felt like Mariah and Leah had sort of a truce friendship thing going.”
“Friendship? That’s probably pushing it.”
“Yeah. But sometimes when you have a secret with someone, it’s a bonding experience.”
“Do you want her bonding with that girl?”
I lift a shoulder. “Not really. But maybe I want Leah bonding with Mariah .” Mariah could be a good influence on Leah, actually. “Hey, speaking of drama, I ran into Hannah on my way out of the school. She says that you’re spreading some kind of gossipy rumor around about the city council?”
Ruby gets up from the table and goes to the fridge, pulling out the iced tea pitcher. “It’s not a rumor. It’s the God’s honest truth.”
“What’s going on?”
She takes down two glasses and fills them. “I was talking about your program, the moms’ thing that you and Cian are doing, at work. One of the girls told me that they have this thing over in Melton. The city helps with housing assistance for single moms. They help pay rent and house payments and stuff.”
I take the glass of tea from her. “Really?” I’m definitely interested in that.
She reclaims her seat. “Yeah. It’s part of a grant from the state. The city covers a third of the program and the state covers the rest. Single moms can apply for up to three years at a time.”
“Wow. That’s unexpected. Melton is so small. I’d thought briefly about building one of our communities here, but Emerald is almost too small, don’t you think?”
“There are single moms in small towns,” Ruby says with a shrug. “You could just buy a house or two.”
“True.”
“In fact, guess what else I found out?”
“What?” I grin at how excited Ruby looks.
“Melton has this cool community program where some of the older women make frozen dinners to supply to these single moms. Guess where they got the idea?”
I feel a little prickle on the back of my neck. “Where?”
“Diane. She goes to church over there. She told them about what she does with you and the exchange of services. Her little group of friends at church decided they should get together and do that for the single moms in town.”
I stare at Ruby. Diane got a whole community program going because of what she and I were doing? “That’s…”
“Amazing,” Ruby fills in. She takes a drink of her tea. “So anyway, Melton has this whole cool thing going. They help with housing payments, they have a meal program, so the single moms are being supported by the town and the church. So I’m bitching about how nothing is happening here like that in Emerald and why doesn’t our city council or the freaking church here do something like that and somebody tells me that Kathie Myers applied for the same grant for Emerald last year.”
“Kathy Myers? She was on the city council, right?”
“Yes, left the council early. For “personal reasons”,” Ruby says, putting air quotes around “personal reasons”.
I lean in. “Okay, come on. Tell me everything. Obviously there’s more to the story.”
“There is. Emerald got the grant. But the mayor turned it down. The mayor who goes to church at our daddy's church. Our daddy who doesn’t want single moms getting support. Our daddy who believes in punishing single moms.”
I stare at her as all that sinks in. “You’re telling me that Emerald could’ve had the money to help single moms right here, but our dad, the man of God, talked the mayor into declining it.”
“Yep,” Ruby says. She scowls, “So, damn right I’ve been telling people about it at the bar, down at the café, when I get my nails done, anywhere I go. I even had fliers printed up.” She takes another drink of her tea. “So, Hannah is right that I am spreading news about the city and the church. But it’s not gossipy lies. “
I am suddenly filled with rage.
It flows through me like a shot of tequila, starting in my chest but quickly spreading through my body, igniting all of my nerve endings.
All this time, I have been living here in this town, keeping quiet, trying to stay out of the way, trying to live a simple life so that people will see that I’ve changed, that I’ve become “a good person”, so that I will get forgiven for past sins. All this time I’ve felt like the best thing for everyone would be to just stay out of the way and not rock the boat. Not call attention to myself or the rift between me and the church. Avoid my father and just live my life separately, live well, let people draw their own conclusions about the two of us.
“They are never going to let me be happy here, are they?” I ask Ruby.
She sets her glass down. “Who are we talking about?”
“Hannah. Dad. The church. All of those people that I was with before.
“Well,” she says carefully. “No. They’re not gonna go out of their way to make you happy. But, Scarlett,” she says, leaning in to rest her arms on the table. “No one lets you be happy. Only you can do that. You can also keep yourself from being happy.”
She’s completely right.
And what makes me happy is helping other people. Knowing that there can be a ripple effect like there was with Diane. Knowing that talking about people and what they need and brainstorming how to meet those needs, can turn into amazing things. Sometimes small, amazing things like a meal program. And sometimes huge, amazing things like an entire charitable foundation.
But neither of those things came about because I stayed quiet. Neither of those things happened because I was staying out of the way.
They’re never going to let me be happy here.
So, I’m going to make myself happy.
Right. Fucking. Here.
“I think I need some coffee,” I say, getting to my feet.
Ruby looks startled by the change of topic. “Okay.”
“Walk with me down to the coffee shop.”
She nods. “Okay.”
That’s Ruby. She’ll always be by my side, no questions asked.
She starts to walk past me, I assume to get her shoes, and I reach out and grab her arm. I pull her in and wrap my arms around her, giving her a huge hug.
She only hesitates for a moment before she hugs me back. “What is this for?”
“For making so many things possible for so long,” I tell her. “All that time I spent in church, listening to Dad and trying to do what he wanted me to do, and you’ve been out here living a good life all along. Taking care of others, loving unconditionally, forgiving me over and over.”
She squeezes me tight and then pulls away. “You’re my sister. There was never another option.”
“Not for you there wasn’t,” I say. “Because you are one of the very best people I know.”
She laughs and squeezes me again, then goes to get her shoes. She really doesn’t know how incredible she is.
We’re headed down the sidewalk toward downtown when she asks, “Why are we really going to the coffee shop?”
“Do you know what happens at the coffee shop on Thursday afternoons?” I ask her.
“Delicious biscotti and decadent lattes?”
“That, and men’s Bible study.” I let that sink in. “Because you can’t have Bible study at the church. You have to have it out in public where everyone can see you doing it.”
“And let me guess,” she says. “Our dad and the mayor both attend the Bible study.”
“They sure do.” In fact, our father leads it. Because of course he does.