Page 67 of Cross + Catherine: The Companion

“So, she … changed, I guess?”

“Nope,” her mother repeated, laughed. “My cousins brought me in on their business. I was a dealer behind my parents’ backs for years. A decade, probably, before they found out. I was into my twenties when my mother finally got that this was what I was good at—college wasn’t for me, and I wasn’t going to be anybody’s dumb little house wife turning cheek to their business. No, I was meant to be … something else. Something more like my mother.”

“A queen,” Cece said.

Catherine stared at her daughter, silent.

Cece stared right back.

“Like me and you,” Cece added quieter.

“Is it like me and you?”

“I know what I want, Ma.”

And Cece could only hope that someday, she would be just like her mother—that she would stand tall and proud like her mother.

Beautiful. Magnificent. Amazing.

Strong. Powerful. Resilient.

Smart. Refined. Elegant.

“You will be,” Catherine said, as though she could read her daughter’s mind.

“What, Ma?”

“Amazing—like the ones who came before you, Cece.”

Cece had big shoes to fill.

It didn’t scare her one bit.