Chapter 11 - An Invitation Home|
Her mother's message arrived at seven on a Friday evening.
Naomi had flour on her hands because June had decided they were going to make biscuits badly enough to enjoy themselves.
For almost an hour, the kitchen had felt like somewhere they lived.
Then Naomi heard Helen's voice.
“Your father wants us to have dinner at the lake house.”
There was a pause.
Paper rustled close to the microphone.
“Bring the original documents and we can resolve everything privately.”
Naomi washed her hands before playing it again.
Helen had always called the place the cottage, although it had six bedrooms and a heated driveway.
That difference alone meant nothing.
The paper rustling mattered more.
So did the careful way her mother pronounced resolve.
Naomi called back.
Edmund answered Helen's phone.
“Good.”
He sounded relieved in the way he did when a delayed delivery finally arrived.
“Can I speak to Mom?”
“She's upset.”
“Then put her on.”
“Naomi, this has gone far enough.”
June turned off the oven.
Naomi put the call on speaker and signaled for her aunt to contact Mara on the other phone.
“What has?” she asked.
“This public performance.”
Her father began listing everything he had paid for since she was born.
Private school came before the wedding.
Food and housing appeared later, as though he was prepared to invoice her for childhood.
She let him finish.
“I want to speak to my mother.”
“You can see her when you get here.”
Naomi looked at June.
Her aunt's face had become very still.
“Is she free to leave?”
Edmund exhaled sharply.
“Don't make this ugly.”
The words were familiar enough to bring back whole rooms.
Naomi had heard them when she objected to the engagement announcement being sent before she agreed.
She had heard them when June challenged him at Thanksgiving.
Every time, ugly had meant somebody refusing to cooperate.
“Let her come to the phone.”
There was a muffled sound, then Helen's voice.
“Naomi?”
“Are you hurt?”
“No.”
“Do you want to leave?”
Her mother began crying.
“Yes.”
Edmund took the phone back.
“She's tired.”
Naomi gripped the edge of the counter.
“Let her leave.”
“Sign the withdrawal and the new authorization, and all of this can stop.”
He spoke more softly.
“I am trying to keep your mother out of what you started.”
For a moment, fear made the distance between the apartment and the lake house feel like something Naomi could overcome by driving fast enough.
She imagined going there, saying the right words, making herself useful in the old familiar way.
Then June placed a hand against her back.
Mara's voice came through the second phone.
“You do not have to go there to get help to her.”
Naomi closed her eyes.
When she opened them, she could hear her father still describing the terms of her mother's freedom.
“I'm getting someone to help Mom,” she said.
“You will ruin this family.”
Naomi ended the call.
Mara contacted the investigators handling the threats while June called emergency services.
Naomi supplied the address, described exactly what Helen had said, and explained the security gate at the property.
She did not exaggerate what she knew.
She did not soften it either.
The dispatcher asked whether there might be weapons inside.
“My father employs armed security,” she answered.
Her voice shook so badly she had to repeat the address.
Then she sat down because her knees had begun to give way.
On the table lay the unsigned documents Mara had sent for her review that afternoon.
Her father had counted on the old arrangement surviving every new circumstance.
May you like
If someone she loved was frightened enough, Naomi would come and pay whatever price he named.
For the first time, she had asked other people to witness the demand.
