Page 67 of Sweet Rule
I look at him and see that his eyes are on me. “Asked her what?” He knows I’m fragile right now. The speed that I went from being fine to this is like flipping a light switch. As soon as I remembered the roses… the woman. How it hurt losing her, I'm that little girl again, the one that desperately wanted to get back to safety.
The one that was lied to over and over again and made to feel like she was the one that was wrong. Like it was all made up and she was the one that didn’t understand reality. I blink back my tears and swallow hard.
“I asked her about the woman and the farm. I didn’t know it was a farm then, just that it was a nice place, but she said it wasn’t real. That I made it up.” She punished me when I kept asking. When I cried for the older woman, when I said I wanted to live with her and stop being on the road with my mother. She’d make me go to bed without food. She’d hit me so hard that she knocked me to the ground and even then she’d have to kick me before I stopped crying. And that was only because of the air she’d knocked out of me. She made me think I was crazy. She beat me until I stopped asking.
It only took so many nights of lying bruised, cold and hungry for me to believe her. It wasn’t real. No one wanted me but her. Tears burn my eyes and I feel light-headed from remembering. I’d pushed it away, locked it up so tight that it’s almost too much to bear now that I’m remembering.
Roses.It was always roses that made me feel safe. I stole them from her bouquets. Made rose oil so that the smell lingered. I kept them with me even when she sneered at me and ripped them away to throw in the trash.
She claimed she hated the cheap grocery store bouquets the roses were from, but now I know that was another lie. She didn’t hate the bouquets. She hated the roses. She hated me.
She didn’t want me to remember.
Law swears and his hands are on my shoulders. “Princess. Look at me.”
I sway where I’m standing but do as he says and look at him. He cups my face and wipes away my tears.
“You’re okay. It’s okay.” His voice is soothing and I realize I’m crying. Sobbing. It’s not just a few tears but I can barely breathe and he gathers me close to him. “She remembered. Now the fuck what, Charlaine?” He spits out. His voice is low and soothing still even while he snaps at the other woman.
Charlaine clears her throat. I’ve got my face buried against Law’s chest and I’m trying to stop crying but it’s no use. He rubs my back and holds me close before he picks me up and carries me to the couch I was just sitting on.
“I’m sorry,” I whisper when I lift my head and see Charlaine looking at me with a stricken look on her face.
“Nothing to be sorry for,” she says quickly and comes forward a step with her hands clasped tight to her chest. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know- I thought,” she swallows and starts again, “I’m sorry that happened to you.”
I give her a weak smile and swipe at my tears while Law hands me a tissue to use. “It’s not your fault. I thought it was… I don’t know, a dream or something. I made myself forget it.”
“That farm was yours. That woman was your grandmother.”
My voice breaks. “I couldn’t understand her. I wish I could.”
“She’s Greek. I’m not clear if she knew English or not. I couldn't really find anything out about her. She was kind of off the grid.”
Greek. That explains why I didn’t understand what she was saying. “I- she sang really pretty. I wish I knew the words to her song.”
“You could always learn. It’s never too late.” Charlaine comes closer and sits at the chair in front of us.
I smile because she’s right. It’s not too late. “Guess, I could.”
“That farm was called the Promised Land. Your mother lived there while she was pregnant with you. She left, I think, but came back for a while in the late nineties. You would have been pretty young.”
That makes sense with what I remember. “The Promised Land, huh?”
“Yes, The Promised Land Rose Farm was in business from 1892 to 2000. It was foreclosed on and sat for years until Law Acquisitions bought it in 2015.” She looks at Law. “You parceled off the land and now it’s a mix of apartments and a strip mall, I think.”
Law’s hands still where he’s rubbing my back. “What the fuck does this farm have to do with me and Zeus?”
“From what I can tell, he was trying to buy it back but there was a lot of legal tape. The city wanted it gone because of how long it had been left alone and it was easier to sell it to you than him.”
“But he had plenty of money. Why couldn’t he just buy it back?”
“Probably because there was over three million in back taxes on it.”
My mouth drops open. “What the fuck?” I look at Law with wide eyes. “Why did you buy it with that much owed on it?”
“Oil,” Charlaine supplies before Law can answer. “Developers thought there was oil there so Law’s firm moved, bought it and parceled it out in a bidding war. But turns out, The Promised Land was dry as a bone. By the time anyone figured it out it was out of Law’s hands and he made a pretty good pay day. They sold it at a loss.”
“Are you fucking telling me all of this shit is because of that fucking farm that I didn’t even know existed until now? Because of some fucked up family legacy that he thinks he missed out on?”
