“I see,” my mom said in a voice that did not sound entirely like her own. “So you’re her boss, then? You’re everybody’s boss?”
“In a manner of speaking. It’s really not a big deal, though,” he added hastily. “I have and always will, consider Aria an equal. Your daughter is brilliant, Molly. Especially for her age.”
“I know she is,” I heard my mom say mechanically. I was still glaring at the table in front of me. “But when you say ‘for her age’ I do wonder, are you much older, then?”
“I will turn thirty-three in February.”
“Wow, I am surprised you aren’t married then. A handsome young man like yourself. Surely somebody rather suitable must have grabbed your interest before our little Aria did?”
“I was married once, but she wasn’t the right woman for me,” he said, beginning to sound increasingly more uncomfortable. “And I am glad it didn’t work out or I would have never met Aria. She lacked your daughter’s intelligence. Most women do, Molly.”
“How about children? Did you father any with this unintelligent woman you speak of?”
“None that I know of,” he said in an attempt at humor, but it had obviously been the wrong move because I chose that moment to look up at mom’s face and it was glowing red hot.
“I’m sorry, Zayden – Mr. Zayden Sinclair, I mean – would you mind excusing us for just a little bit? I need to have a word with Aria. Family matters to discuss, you know? Why don’t you help yourself to more of that pie and ice cream in the meanwhile?”
Say no, Zayden, say no, say no, say no. I looked at him and nodded, hoping he would understand but he remained completely clueless. “Sure, go ahead. I don’t mind at all.”
Shit. As my mom lead me towards her bedroom, my heart started thumping even louder than before. What was she going to do? I wish I hadn’t lied to her! The thing was, there was no way she could exactly back off the deal now, so she had to learn to be okay with whatever was happening. If only I hadn’t lied to her to begin with, perhaps this whole thing wouldn’t have turned into the scary ordeal that it had become.
When we entered the room and my mom closed the door behind her, I crossed my fingers, even though I wasn’t sure what that would accomplish.
“Your boss?” my mom asked, not in an angry but disappointed tone. “Your boss, Aria? Of all the people in the whole world, you decided that you were going to sleep with the owner and CEO of South National Bank!”
“What does the bank have anything to do with it?” I asked, confused by where her focus was geared.
“Shhhh,” she hissed immediately. “Let’s keep our voices down, shall we?”
“Okay,” I whispered. “But mom, seriously, this is not what it must look like.”
“I love you Aria and I really appreciate all the things you have done in order to help me out. It’s just…I feel like I let you stoop too low for my sake and right now I can’t help feel like I’ve done an altogether terrible job of being a mother by letting you do this for me. Your boss has been paying my medical bills! I can’t imagine the kind of requests he must have in return. He is so much older than you too and you’re so young and naïve.”
“I’m not stupid,” I snapped, starting to get annoyed. “Yes, I am younger than him but I am not an idiot, mom. And I will admit that yes, this whole thing kind of started in a manner that might seem less than classy. He made me sign a contract that said he would make monthly payments to your bills for as long as I dated him. That was it though, just dating! There was nothing crude on there. I can show you the contract!”
She sighed. “I believe you, sweetheart. But obviously it seems that this has gone beyond the contract now, has it?”
“I love him, mom,” I said earnestly, hoping she would understand. “It started out as all games and tricks, but we just grew to really care for one another. Everything you have seen tonight between me and Zayden, it was all real. He is my boyfriend. Yes he is older and he is also my boss, but I have honestly never felt this way about anybody in my life before and that’s not something you ought to be ashamed of!”
I was quite surprised with the eloquence I had just employed in a situation where I was almost too afraid to function. My mom’s reaction, however, wasn’t quite what I expected. She looked neither mad nor happy nor please. She looked horrified.
“What’s wrong, mom?”
“Oh Aria, I am sorry,” she said covering her face in both her hands.
“What are you sorry about? You have nothing to apologize for!” The atmosphere in the room had suddenly gotten bizarre as though I had walked in the middle of a very dramatic scene in a soap opera. “What’s going on, mom? Why are you so upset?” She was crying, trying hard to hush her sniffs - so that Zayden wouldn’t hear, I presumed - leaving me completely perplexed. I walked over to her uncertainly and placed a hand on her right shoulder. “Mom, talk to me, is everything okay? Is it the house? You know you can always come live with me.”
“No, Aria,” she said, finally looking up. Her face was red and blotchy, her eyes swollen to almost twice their size. “Are you sure you love this guy?” she asked in even softer tones than before.
“Yes,” I said without even considering it for a second.
“Then I really do owe you an apology. You know when your dad filed for bankruptcy?”
“How could I ever forget?” I shrugged.
“Well before he filed that, he was obviously in a lot of debt. He owed huge sums of money to a lot of different people, but most of all, he owed five hundred thousand dollars to a particular bank.”
My heart started shaking again as I was beginning to understand where my mom was going with this. It couldn’t be. It couldn’t possibly be that my father—