mother brought the salads over along with silverware and the dressings, then sat to eat. “So, have you talked to Austin?”
“No.” She pushed the plate away.
“Well, don’t you think it’s time you did? You’ve had your fight, but it’s over. Now it’s time to move on. He’s worried about you, and he’s hurt.”
No mention of Molly’s feelings. No question about whether or not she might be hurt.
She asked, “Did Melinda tell you what the fight was about?”
Gloria speared a small, bite-sized piece of ham. “It doesn’t matter. It’s all in the past. The important thing is that you work on fixing your marriage and look to the future.”
Her blood pressure was rising with every passing minute. “I’m not going back to Austin. I’m filing for divorce.”
Gloria’s eyes flashed up. She set down her fork and knife. “Impossible. You can’t. He’s the breadwinner, and he has been for the past fifteen years. You haven’t done anything in your life except support him.”
“Yes, by all means.” Her jaw angled out. “Let’s ignore the fact that being a successful law partner’s wife can be a full-time job in itself, or that I fundraised almost three hundred thousand dollars last year for a charity just by working as a part-time volunteer.”
“None of that paid you a living wage.” Gloria pointed at her. “You’ll take him back if you know what’s good for you. You’ll never be able to get a job that will give you the lifestyle you’ve grown accustomed to.”
Her temper started to bubble over. “I can’t stand the thought of being in the same zip code with Austin, let alone trying to live in the same house or, my God, sleeping in the same bed again. The marriage has been over for a long, long time. I’m meeting with an attorney tomorrow. The money will work out somehow.”
Gloria’s gaze fired with an angry light. “I did not raise you to quit on your marriage just when things get tough.”
“When things get tough?” she repeated incredulously. “Mom, he cheated on me. In my own bed. He cheated on me repeatedly—and then he was verbally abusive about it. The only thing I regret is staying with him as long as I did when, deep down, I knew better.”
“So he cheated on you,” Gloria said bitterly. “Men cheat. It’s what they do. You can’t expect to find another man who will treat you any differently, and you’re too old to start over. You have no real job experience, and your degree is eighteen years old. If you leave him, you’re throwing your life away with both hands.”
Halfway through Gloria’s speech, Molly realized that once again her mother wasn’t talking about her. Gloria was talking about herself.
“Mom, what are you saying? Did Dad cheat on you?”
Gloria looked down at her napkin as she folded it precisely. “Your father and I had our share of problems, but that’s none of your business. He loved you, and he wanted the best for you, as do I. You’re making a huge mistake, Molly Ann. Go back to Austin while you can.”
Talking to her mother was as draining as she’d known it would be. “We’re not going to see eye to eye on this. You’ll just have to trust that I know how to look out for myself.”
But Gloria remained unconvinced, and eventually Molly gave up and made her escape. In the car, she checked her phone. There were more messages, several from Austin. She deleted them and started her car.
As she approached the city, the Atlanta skyline came into view. The tops of two of the buildings were tipped with gold, and as she drew nearer, lights illuminated the floors of several of the towers, sparkling like diamonds.
In the rosy gentle light of the deepening spring evening, the skyline looked like a fabled city in a fairy tale, a place that someone might fight with everything they had to reach, where one might hope to find brains, a heart, some courage, or to discover the way to go home.
As for the wizard… There was only one person that could be. Josiah. But he was too magnetic and powerful in a way she had never known before, both personally and magically. His dark, polished essence frightened as much as it enticed her.
She could feel the urge to go to him, and it disturbed her. He tugged at the weakest, most vulnerable part in her right when she needed to find her strength, not collapse into old, negative patterns of behavior.