Page 4 of Denying Davis
She gulped. “No. No, honey. You don’t need all the details. Besides, this offer isn’t something to dismiss. Think of all the things we can do with that money.”
“It sounds shady.”
She nodded. “But I don’t want to face Junior again. I just—I want this to go away. As fast as possible.”
I narrowed my eyes. “You’re going to sign it, aren’t you?” The words came out as a whisper, and a sinking feeling filled my stomach. “You’re going to actually do this.”
“Yes.”
I put my hand in hers. For the last few days, I’d been able to separate my growing feelings for Trey away from my mom’s pain. But as we sat together on the bed, I began to realize just how wrong this all was. Whatever he’d done—Trey’s father had turned into an awful man, and now he wanted to buy my mom’s silence.
“Don’t do this, Mom. Don’t let them pay us off and make it disappear. You should tell the police what happened. What he did to you was wrong.Criminal.”
She didn’t have to tell me the specifics for me to know that. Tofeelit.
“Even if the police did take the case, it isn’t worth what they would make us go through.” A deep sigh escaped her lips. “The Armstrongs have many lawyers at their disposal. Those guys out there are just two of them.”
“But—”
“No, Samantha. Stop. I’ve thought about this a thousand times, and I don’t have a choice.” She shrugged. “This is the best option that we have.”
“But have you really thought about what they are asking? It’s not just you.” I pulled myself from her grip and put my head in my hands. The reality of the demands began to wash over me. “I just…I…I can’t cut off my relationship with Trey. Not when things have just changed. Not when—”
She wrapped an arm around me. “I know. It won’t be easy. But you can. You will. Besides, you and Trey—you’re from two different worlds. You had to know that, honey.” She pulled me in to halfway hug. “The two of you were never going to understand each other, no matter how much you might think that you have in common.”
I gaped at her.
“This is a way out, Sam, and we need to take it. It keeps us safe. And it gives us some financial freedom.”
Her tone told me she’d already woven tales of our possibilities for our future. A better life, one paved with each dollar from this settlement. But, I didn’t want to leave…
“This affects my life too. I hate that you were hurt, Mom. But I need to know. If I’m going to sign a document that forbids me contacting the boy I really like, I want to know what his father did. I’m sixteen. I might be a teenager, but I’m not a baby. And I’myourdaughter, Mom.”
She sucked in a deep breath. Neither of us spoke for a long moment.
“Davis was drunk,” she finally said. “I know that. He’s—he’s been drinking a lot lately, and when he came into the house that night, he was worse off than usual. He got upset with me about something I’d done wrong when it came to polishing some of the art on display in the library. He…he attacked me. That’s the best way to put it.” She lowered her voice. “But I fought back. He didn’t get what he wanted.”
I gulped. Maybe I didn’t want her to tell me all the horrible details. I could guess most of them. I’d seen plenty of news reports about what powerful men often did to vulnerable women.
“And now he wants to pay you off,” I managed. “To pay us off.”
Her eyes searched my face. “There are worse outcomes, honey.”
Worse than my mother getting attacked at her job? Worse than being paid to keep silent?
I stared at my mother for what felt like a long time. She wanted to sign this, and she’d do it. I knew it. She wanted to put what had happened behind her and start anew. And she wanted to end our strange history with one of the most powerful families in Palm Beach.
“Okay,” I finally said, even though my heart pounded in my chest as if the next words I’d speak felt like they would crush my soul. “If you want to do this, then do it.”
She gave me a weak smile. “It’s going to be okay, Samantha. I promise. You’ll see.”
Now
Six months after I graduated Harvard Business School, on a balmy Saturday night in South Florida, I downed my second glass of red wine as Palm Beach winter society danced and mingled around me. I listened to the cacophony of their voices and tried to stifle the anticipation that had built inside me ever since I walked the commencement line in Cambridge. My future was happening, and it was happening right then.
Get it together, man, get it together. Now.
I drank another gulp of wine and surveyed the crowd. Typical. Well dressed. All wanting to gain my favor.
