Page 84 of The Saint

Rolly’s eyes fluttered closed. “I missed you, too.” After too brief a moment wrapped up in his arms, he slid his fingers between mine and dragged me over to his parents. He let go of me so Carmen and Lorenzo could hug me, but he was right there the moment they let go, hand wrapped around mine.

My chest swelled as patron after patron came over to him, complimenting his artwork and style. My feet ached in my shoes, but I suffered through, unwilling to trade my time with him for anything.

“Bashe?”

That voice knocked me out of whatever fantasy I’d been lost in, as my middle name was spoken aloud the way only one person in my life had ever said it. It would have knocked me on my ass had Rolly not been holding on to me. My head whipped around and my heart raced before I even laid eyes on my mother and the one person I’d hoped to never see again.

Noam Goldberg.

The man I’d found fucking her on the living room rug five years ago.

“It is you, isn’t it?” she asked, her long, narrow nose raised if only so she could look down upon me while she spoke. “I barely recognized you. I’ve never seen you so… dressed up.”

Her left arm was curled around Goldberg’s, and the sparkling chunk of a diamond glittering on her ring finger made my stomach twist. It churned, though, as she appraised me from head to toe, her gaze lingering too long where Rolly’s fingers were interlaced with mine.

As if sensing the tension that sparked between us, whoever Rolly was talking to wished him well and walked away. Rolly turned his attention toward me, pulling me closer, before realizing who was standing in front of me.

“Devorah.” Rolly’s chin raised, and if I weren’t struggling not to run from the room to get away from the discomfort of having my mother and her… whatever he was… in front of me, I would have kissed him. He angled his body, as if he could hide me away, protect me from whatever was about to go down.

As Noam looked on, unaffected, my mother’s lips twisted into an ugly smile.

“I always knew you two would end up together. Although I would expect a daughter to tell her mother these kinds of things, rather than learning about it like this.”

Swallowing down the anger stewing inside of me, I nodded at her diamond ring. “I could say the same thing.”

She lifted her hand, admiring her ring as the gallery lights made it sparkle like some sort of magic. “I would have called, but I don’t know your number.”

Rolly tugged at my hand, pulling me back. Like he knew I was about to say something. Like he wanted me to stay quiet.

I wanted to scream at her. To remind her she knew dozens of people who could have put us in touch if she had really wanted to. To point out that she’d never once, in the five years since we’d last seen each other, tried to reach out.

My phone had never rung with her number.

Emails from her never showed up in my inbox.

And my brothers had looked both sad and beside themselves with anger when I’d asked if she’d ever asked them about me.

“Really, Bashe,” my mother started, but Rolly interrupted her before she could finish.

“Jael,” he told her, voice low. His eyes narrowed, and I’d never seen him look so much like his uncle before. So deadly. So dangerous. “Her name is Jael David.”

Unaffected by his tone, by the reminder of who he was and the power he had behind him, my mother shrugged it off. With a heavy sigh, she ignored him and turned her gaze on me. “I’m sorry for whatever it is you think I’ve done. Really, you need to grow up and stop acting like a child. I’m your mother—”

“Devorah.” Carmen stepped around me, her eyes flashing to mine for a second before she focused on her. Carmen’s hand wrapped around my mother’s arm, and her voice was tight when she spoke. “It’s been so long. Come, tell me how you’ve been.”

Carmen dragged my mother away, Goldberg following right beside her. And just like any other day, she walked away without a glance my way.

When they disappeared into the crowd, Rolly pulled me around to face him, his arms tight across my back and his lips close to my ear.

“It’s okay, carina. I’ve got you. I’m right here.”

My hands clenched and I pulled them between us, hiding the way they shook from the crowd still gathered around, waiting for a word with the artist. Rolly’s body was the only thing keeping me afloat as a wave of emotion flooded me.

How dare she show up like that.

How dare she act as if she were innocent.

If it weren’t for her, I never would have lost those years with Rolly. With my brothers. With the people who mattered to me most.