wedding.” Her eyes found mine. “We made a deal, Ruby Grace. With Anthony and his father.”
My blood ran cold. “A deal?”
Anthony’s words swam in my head.
They need us to play our part, just like we need Ruby Grace to play hers.
Mom winced, her face screwing up before a few more tears were let loose. She swiped them away. “Honey, your father was in trouble.”
“Trouble?” I asked. “What kind of trouble?”
“Well,” she said on a sigh. “You know him and his card games. At the casino, he’s fine. Once he runs out of the money he came to play with, that’s it. And I keep a tight leash on what he’s allowed to piss away.” She let out a breath, brows quivering again. “But, I didn’t know. I didn’t know he’d been playing at the underground casino, the one the Scooters run out of their basement. I knew he went sometimes, just to show face, network, but I never thought…”
“Mom,” I interrupted. “What kind of trouble?”
She sniffed, running the back of her hand under her nose. “He was taking loans from them at the casino for cards, sure he would win and pay them back. But he kept coming up in the red. Over and over again.” She shook her head. “He didn’t even tell me until the Scooters threatened to expose everything if we didn’t pay up.”
I covered my mouth.
No.
“We were going to lose everything, Ruby Grace,” Mom said, reaching forward to grab my free hand in hers. “The house. The cars. Everything. He was in an amount of debt we couldn’t even dream of repaying.”
“But, he’s the mayor,” I said, lip trembling. “He’s always made good money. We’re fine.”
Mom shook her head. “He never made money like this.”
I dropped my hand from my mouth, shaking my head. “I don’t understand.”
“We were in deep, trying to figure out what our options were, when Anthony came to your father to ask for your hand,” she explained. “And… well… we saw an out. We saw a way to make our problem disappear, and Anthony saw a way to get what he needed, too.”
My blood ran cold.
It couldn’t be.
It couldn’t possibly be my mother standing across from me, speaking about me as if I was some old antique china cabinet or a prized hog to be bartered with.
But it was.
And suddenly, the betrayal I thought I’d felt from Anthony was nothing.
“How could you?” I whispered, shaking my head as tears flooded my eyes.
“I’m so sorry, baby,” she said, reaching for me.
I yanked away.
“It was our only choice. We would have lost everything.”
“Yeah? Well, now you lose me,” I spat, turning on my heels. “I’m calling off the wedding.”
“Ruby Grace! Please!”
She grabbed me from behind, spinning me around to see the devastation in her eyes — the desperation in her eyes.
“This is your family,” she said through her tears. “This is your father, and your mother, and your sister. This is your family’s legacy, the Barnett name, our entire reputation. This is more than just a wedding. This is the only way to save our family from complete and utter wreckage.” She stood taller. “And I understand it isn’t fair. I do. And I am so, so sorry that you are in the middle of this.” Mama swallowed, like she didn’t like the taste of the next words she was about to speak. “But, you are a part of this family. And that means that when a fire happens, you do whatever you have to do to put it out.”
My next breath felt like the fire she spoke of. It was hot in my lungs, searing every fiber of muscle and organ around it. I whimpered at the feel, at my mother’s hands on my arms, at the plea she was giving.
“You cannot walk out on this family,” she said, tears building in her eyes once more. “We are a unit. We stay together — always — and we will get through this together. But we need you, Ruby Grace. Your father needs you. Your sister needs you. I need you.”
I couldn’t speak, couldn’t think, couldn’t breathe. Every muscle in my body was locked in place, heart racing, pulse heavy in my ears.
“You can call off the wedding,” she finally said. “But if you do, you’re calling off this family, too.”
My mother’s eyes searched mine in a way they never had before, in a way I never knew they could. I’d never seen my strong, commanding mother look so broken, so desperate, so on