Page 98 of Destiny

“Yeah, I do,” Ruby says.

“Are you sure? Think hard, Mom.”

“Ava, I—”

“Wendy told me they were hers. That she gave them to Grandma Didi and made her promise to make you give them to me one day.”

“She’s lying, of course,” Ryan says. “Truth, to Wendy Madigan, is all relative.”

“Her initials are inside one of the bracelets.” Ava removes them from her wrist. “It’s hard to see without magnification, but WM is engraved in one of these.”

Ruby takes the bracelets Ava hands her, runs her fingers over the gold bands. “I… I think she had them. I’m sure she had them. Times were tight for us when I was little, and I remember her saying she’d never sell them.”

“Are you sure?” Ava asks.

“It was a long time ago, Ava. For years I thought my mother was dead.” She hands the bracelets back to Ava. “I don’t know. They could be different bracelets than the ones she had. It’s not like I memorized them. But she did have bracelets, and if Wendy switched them out—”

“Then she got to Didi while she was still alive,” Ryan says. “We all thought she was dead, so it never would have occurred to us… Jesus fuck.”

“She was in the delivery room when I was born,” Ava continues.

Every eyebrow in the room goes sky high, including my own.

“That’s what she says, anyway. She disguised herself in scrubs, a surgical mask, and colored contact lenses. She would have looked like an intern.”

“She’s lying,” Ryan says. “It’s what she does.”

“I don’t think she’s lying,” Ava says. “You all thought she was dead, so you wouldn’t have noticed an intern observing. They’re everywhere at teaching hospitals.”

“She was in her early sixties at that time,” Ryan says.

“But would you have noticed her age if her face were half covered by a mask?” Ava asks.

“Ava,” Ruby says, “she’s lying to you.”

“She’s not, Mom. It’s okay that you think she is, but she’s not. Trust me. Sheistrying to manipulate me, but I won’t fall for it. I’m stronger than she is, and that’s something she hasn’t considered.”

“So you think she somehow exchanged Didi’s bracelets for those.” Ruby gestures to Ava’s wrists. “My mother wouldn’t fall for that.”

“Wouldn’t she?” Ava shakes her head. “Wendy’s very charismatic. I know everything she’s done, everything she’s put this family through. And still…her charisma affected me until I realized what she was doing and shielded myself from it.” Ava absently sets her hand on her hip—the same hip that was recently tattooed.

That’s her shield. For Ava, symbolism is important. That’s why she loves the tarot.

And that’s what this tattoo is. A symbol of her shield against Wendy Madigan. Against anything that tries to disrupt her balance.

“But sweetheart…” Ruby continues.

“Trust me,” Ava says. “Wendy could have easily slipped a decoy to Didi. Or borrowed the bracelets and given them back with her initials inscribed.”

Ryan shakes his head. “You do get my mother, Ava. I should have given you more credit.”

“That’s my point, I guess,” Ava says. “I believe that if anyone can get through to Wendy, it will be me. I can get the information we need. The information about William Elijah Steel, if he even ever existed. The information about why she kept sperm samples.”

“But the Steel Trust…” I interject.

“We’ll get to the bottom of that too,” Jonah says. “In the meantime, don’t worry about that lien that’s come due.”

I frown. “I can’t help but worry about it. I don’t need a blemish on the title to our property. I’m sure everyone else in town will feel the same.”

---