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“She thinks I seduced her, that Iusedher,and until I can clear my name, she has no reason to believe any differently.”
“I need no evidence to convince me you are innocent, and you know why?”
“Because you’re my mother.”
“No, silly, because Iknowyou. Emma knows you, too, so she’ll come around. But not unless you lay the foundation of the road that will lead her back to you. You’ve simply got to make that first step and go to her.”
“How can I ask her to believe me when all the evidence is against me? And that’s to say nothing of the fact that I lied to her and basically said all the evidence was true.”
“You’ll think of something because love always finds a way.”
“I wish that were true. But not everyone is destined to have a love story like yours andPapá’s.”
“¡Dios mío!” She launched from her seat and paced the room, her arms as animated as her face. “I don’t know why you fight your own happiness,Mijo. Forget the evidence! Emma loves you, and you love her. Go to her and confess everything. The truth will exonerate you, but don’t leteventuallykeep you from embracing happiness right now.”
She retrieved a velvet ring box from her purse and handed it to him. Noah knew what he’d find inside even as he lifted the lid: his grandmother’s ring. The pear-shaped blue diamond sparkled back at him. A series of round white diamonds surrounded the larger stone and then twisted around the band. This wasn’t the ring Grandfather Whitlow had first given his bride. This had been a gift on their fiftieth wedding anniversary.
“She wanted it to go to you, her first grandson, so that when the time came, you could give it to the woman you loved.”
“DoesPapáknow?”
“Of course, he knows. I would not pass on his mother’s ring without speaking to him first. He gave me his blessing to pass it to you so that you can give it to Emma. I’ve already taken it to Mr. Wright and had it cleaned and sized.”
Noah stared at the ring, too easily able to picture it on Emma’s finger. “I don’t deserve her,” he said, even as he longed for her.
“Love isn’t about deserve,Mijo. It is about nothing more or less than itself.”
“But she—”
“Deserves to be happy. As do you.” She sat on the coffee table across from him and cupped his face in her hands. “Noah,Mijo, light of my life, you frustrate me to no end, second only to your father.”
He laughed. “I guess that leaves me in good company.”
Smiling, she kissed his forehead as if he were a child. “You deserve to be happy. You deserve a life where one tragic act does not constantly hound you, one that you are not responsible for, I might add.”
“Amanda died because of—”
“A tragic act you were not responsible for. In a lot of ways, one she was not responsible for either. Mental illnesses are terrible and as formidable as physical illnesses.”
“But—”
“But nothing. Did you make her any promises,Mijo?”
He shook his head.
“Did you lie to her or do anything purposely to make her think that your interest was anything but platonic?”
“Not on purpose, but she still thought it.”
“We are not responsible for other’s actions, only our own. I grieved for Amanda. She was precious and full of life and light. But I grieve for you, too,Mijo. Your innocence died with her, and we nearly lost you, too.”
He gripped her hand. “I’m sorry I put you andPapáthrough that.”
“We know, and we don’t blame you. We didn’t know how to help you then, but I know how to help you now. Go to Emma and make this right.”
Emma staredat her phone screen, but the letters of Noah’s text didn’t rearrange themselves into something else.
Noah:
