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She looks at me, and it takes her a minute to understand.
“At his twenty-fifth birthday celebration.”
Her eyes grow more alert, and she turns toward me, fingers coming to my face.
“It’s when the Montgomery men receive the first installment of our inheritance.”
She doesn’t speak, just waits.
“I’m going to tell you a secret, Mercedes. Something I’ve never told anyone.” I brush a strand of hair that’s fallen across her forehead, and for a long time, I just look at her. It’s so long she must think I’ve changed my mind and gives me an out.
“You don’t have to tell me.” She sounds disappointed but unsurprised.
“I want to.”
She waits.
“We had a celebration on his birthday. I already knew the truth by then, but I didn’t know what my grandfather had planned. He was a cruel man. I think that was the day I realized how cruel even after everything I had seen.”
Mercedes curls into my side. I draw the blanket up to cover her when she shivers, and although I don’t look at her, I can see her in my periphery. She’s watching me intently.
“After the meal came time for cake, and before that, Theron would sign the papers. I had done it the previous year, almost to the day. Theron was the only one at that table who was truly excited that evening. Almost buoyant. Maybe my mother and I both suspected my grandfather’s plan. His strange glee at dinner gave him away.
“Once dinner was cleared, my grandfather laid out the papers and uncapped the pen. He signed his name to the forms and then stood back and watched my brother. Watched him as he read the pages and understood what was happening.”
“What was it?” she asks after too long a pause.
I look down at her eager, open face. “He isn’t a Montgomery. Not by blood.”
“What?”
“My parents’ match was not a love match, but so few are. She had an affair. And Theron was the product of that affair. My grandfather learned the truth when Theron was fifteen. Thankfully he was away at school when all hell broke loose within the walls of the Montgomery estate.”
“What did he do?”
How much do I want to tell her? I’ve come this far. We’ve come this far.
“He punished my mother.” A long silence draws out, and I have to force the next words. My confession. “And I stood witness.”
“What do you mean?” she asks with a tremor in her voice. I’m sure she is remembering the punishment room.
“He made her strip. Made my mother strip naked in front of me. And he whipped her raw.” Mercedes’s hand flies to her mouth. “The scars go from the tops of her shoulders to the backs of her ankles.”
“Oh, my God.”
“I stood and watched. I listened to her scream and sob and beg him to stop.”
“Jesus.”
“And I did nothing.”
“Judge, you were sixteen years old. A boy.”
I shake my head. “He made her believe if she paid the price, he would accept Theron. Someone had to be punished, after all. She sacrificed herself for her son.”
“Oh…”
“She was noble once. He broke her of that, though.”
