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“I will be going but things will go my way, you’ll see.”
“What do you mean by that?” I asked.
“I want you home and working in the business by the end of the week. Enough of this fooling around. You’ll be thirty in a few years and we need someone to carry things on. Your father isn’t getting any younger.”
“I’ve got plans of my own,” I said.
“Yes. That stupid music contract. I know all about that and, believe me, with one phone call from me, that will all be history.”
She folded her arms and smirked at me with a smugness that suggested she’d won. There would be no winning for her, though. I’d not be going back to work in the business. I’d not take orders from her either. She thought she could rule people with her money but that was no longer the case.
“Too late,” I said. I hadn’t wanted to discuss it like this, in front of Dee, but there was no way out of it. “I’ve cancelled it myself.”
Mother clapped her hands together. “Thank goodness. See, all that stupid music business was just a kid’s dream. You have to be realistic.”
I turned to Dee. Since it was coming out anyway, I needed to explain.
“I’ve cancelled the contract, Dee. They wouldn’t go ahead unless we released ‘Fifteen Minutes of Sunshine’ and I couldn’t do that. It’s your song.”
She shook her head. “It’s not mine. It’s Jake’s.”
“It’s Jake’s,” I agreed. “I need to do things my own way. I’ve screwed a lot up.”
Dee gave me an encouraging nod. That nod meant more to me than anything in the world. It was enough to give me courage for everything I needed to do to start making things right.
“Stop being ridiculous, the pair of you.”
Dee trembled with the force of hatred beamed at her. As much as Dee acted tough, it was horrible to be treated like that. I pulled Dee closer; she didn’t resist.
“This doesn’t involve you,” I told Mother. “It’s my business.”
“If you don’t have that contract, you have nothing. I’ll organise for you to put that dirty dive bar on the market and —”
“And nothing. I’m not selling the club. The club is mine. The band is mine. I’m not coming home. Get that into your head.” I shook my head, trying to get things clear to myself before speaking more. I needed to make this final. “I’ll never come back. You have nothing I need. You think you’re protecting me but that’s not how it should be.”
Her eyes turned to steel. “Anything I did, I did to help you. You’d be rotting in some jail if it hadn’t been for me.”
“I’ve been rotting in the jail of my own guilt, don’t you understand that?”
She pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed, as though I was a child with no comprehension of the situation.
“You can leave now, or do you want me to call the police? You’re trespassing,” Dee said. “If you have any argument with Alex, you can do it elsewhere. I have no business with you.”
Wow, Dee could out-haughty my mother when she tried. That was impressive.
Mother harrumphed but picked up her bag. “This isn’t the end of it.”
“Yes, it is,” said Dee. “Your money means nothing here.”
Mother stepped toward me, tapping my cheek. I flinched away from her.
“Come
with me now or you’ll lose every bit of financial support we’ve given you. You’ll be on your own and we’ll never bail you out again.”
I knew my mother, and I knew that look in her eyes. She wasn’t joking. If I let her walk out that door, I’d never get a red cent from my parents again in my life. Not even a card for Christmas. It’d been the threat she’d used all my life: I’d be nothing without their money.
But now, when it came to the crunch, it was like a massive, crushing weight had been removed from my shoulders. I’d much rather face the future with my own power, even if that meant that I failed.
