a plan to talk to Anthony, to Dad, and figure out how to break the news to our close friends and family — and to the town.
If there was one thing Mama excelled at, it was damage control.
“I need your help,” I finally said.
She lifted her head a little, her worried eyes finding mine.
“I overheard Anthony on the phone yesterday,” I explained, and tears flooded my eyes, the shivers too much as I tried to steady my shaking hands by stuffing them between my thighs and the barstool. “He said some really awful things.”
“Men say awful things all the time,” she replied quickly. “They’re stupid. And half the time, drunk.”
“He was sober.”
“Whatever he said, I’m sure he didn’t mean it.”
“I’m calling off the wedding.”
Her eyes closed, and she shook her head, inhaling a deep breath before she opened her eyes again. This time, she held her shoulders back, her chin high, eyes locking with mine. “No, you most certainly are not, young lady.”
“I am. And I need your help, because we both know this is going to take a lot of damage control.”
“You’re not calling off the wedding!” she hissed, whispering as if someone might overhear. “You can’t,” she said, voice calmer.
“He said he fully intends on cheating on me,” I said, as gently as I could with those being the words coming from my mouth. “He said I’m perfect to fit the role he needs his dutiful wife to play. He said I was bred for this.”
“And you were.”
My mouth fell open. “I’m not a horse, Mother.”
“No, but you are the daughter of the Mayor of Stratford, and you are a Barnett. Do you understand the implications of what you’re saying? If you called off this wedding, the entire town would have something to say about it. You’d make our family a laughingstock. You’d bring us shame.”
“And if I don’t call off this wedding, I will be miserable for the rest of my life.”
Mom threw her hands up, rolling her eyes. “Oh, for heaven’s sake. So what, he wants to have some girls on the side. You think he’s the only husband to ever have that thought? Your father has had many a secretary in his day, and you know what? It never mattered to me. Because it was me who had the house, and the kids, and the life I always wanted. Those girls, those hussies?” She shook her head. “They were just sex, sweetheart. It means nothing.”
My mouth fell open wider. “Dad cheated on you?”
She waved me off. “Don’t be so dramatic. It’s not a big deal. And neither is any of that stuff Anthony said. He cares about you, Ruby Grace. He wants to provide for you, give you a home and a place to raise your children. He’ll make sure you never want for anything.”
“He doesn’t love me, Mama,” I whispered.
“What does love have to do with marriage?”
My heart broke again, this time by the realization that the love I thought my parents had was a sham. My father had cheated. My mother had stayed anyway. They weren’t in love, they were in a business agreement.
But I would not do the same.
“Everything,” I said. “It has everything to do with marriage. I refuse to marry a man who doesn’t love me, who sees me as a prize or another tick on his list of things to get done in order to make it to a run for president someday. I’m a human being. I’m a woman. I deserve a man who will love and honor and cherish me, just as I do him.”
“Anthony will do all those things.”
“While he cheats on me? While he tells his father that I have no ambitions and I’m pretty, so that’s a bonus?” I scoffed. “Mother, do you hear yourself?”
“You are not calling off this wedding,” she said, ignoring me and shaking her head. She stood again, crossing to the sponge and picking up where she left off cleaning.
“I am.”
“You are not.”
“Mama, I—”
“You can’t!” she screamed, turning in place. The sponge fell to the floor and her hands flew to her face, sobs racking through her in the next instant.
It was just like I’d thought
I broke her heart.
“Oh, Mama,” I said, rounding the island and sweeping her into my arms. I held her tight, holding back my own tears. “I’m so sorry.”
“No, no,” she said, sniffing and swiping at the tears on her face as she pulled back from my embrace. “You don’t understand. You can’t call off the