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I snapped back to reality. “Wait, what?”
“I told you I took your watch back from that bastard.”
I sat tall. “Yes, I remember and I’m ever so grateful, but about the other stuff you just said—”
“What? About the money from selling the apartment? It doesn’t equate to much, thanks to the large mortgage I had, but at least you’ll have a couple hundred grand to buy your own place or pay for your adventures rather than rely on Mr. Prest.”
Wow.
“I-I don’t know what to say.”
“You don’t need to say anything. That money is yours. It’s been waiting for you while gathering a piddly amount of interest over the years. It’s yours and ready to spend on whatever you want.” Her voice softened. “I’m happy you’ve found love, Minnie Mouse, but I also don’t want you to trade one captivity for another.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean being with him because you love him is one thing. Being with him because you have no means to get away is another.” She sighed as if this topic taxed her. “I want you to be happy, but I also want you to be free. I gave away my freedom, hoping to give you yours. I failed, but Mr. Prest didn’t. I will forever be grateful to him, but if there’s ever a day when you need to leave, then you now have the ability to do so. You deserve love and freedom, Tasmin. Don’t ever confuse the two or believe they go hand in hand.”
I blinked in the darkness, staring at the majesty of the Phantom and the shapes of Elder and Selix as they shared a drink. I couldn’t imagine ever not being happy with him, but if it meant so much to my mother, how could I not accept? “I don’t know how to thank you.”
“You can thank me by sending some photos of where you are and what you’re doing.”
I laughed, chest tight with amazement at how generous she was. “That I can do.”
I didn’t know why but guilt sat heavier with every breath. Guilt that I was here in paradise on a yacht worth more than ten of our apartments in London and she lived in an eight by eight cell.
Swallowing, I admitted, “We’re sailing to America.”
I’d save the Bahamas for another day—a day when I could deliver such incredible news without coming across as bragging or spoilt. I feared the awe inside me for this wondrous place would come across as rude if I gushed.
“Are you going via the Caribbean? If you left from England, that would be an easy detour.”
I rubbed my arms as a cloud ghosted over the moon, drenching us in darkness.
Damn.
I paused before saying quietly, “We’re moored off the island of Eleuthera right now. I didn’t know how to tell you.”
She laughed. “You didn’t know how to tell me you’re in one of the most beautiful places on earth with a man who I hope is taking care of you? Tasmin, that’s exactly what I want to hear. It makes my existence so much easier in here knowing you’re out there living the life I’d always hoped for you.”
“I can…tell you more if you’d like.”
“I’d love that.”
I reclined against the lounger, shy all of a sudden. What did daughters tell their mothers? Were all avenues of life permitted or was it more selective and private? “Where would you like me to start?”
She sighed, giggling gently. “How about from the moment you left me when you came back from the dead and I found out I still have a daughter?”
“Okay, well…” I stretched out, testing the waters on this new dynamic. “First, there was a beautiful dress that Elder bought for me and then a ball at the most spectacular manor.”
“Sounds incredible.”
“And then there was the bracelet Elder gave me and…”
And for thirty magical minutes, I spoke to my mother like I’d never spoken to her before.
I told her about Hawksridge Hall, my penny bracelet, the way my heart soared and pattered whenever I was around Elder. I told her about Monte Carlo and finding out what she’d done for me. I told her about Morocco and how Elder stood beside me in a storm and waited for me to decide not to die.
I told her all the good stuff and withheld the bad.
I didn’t tell her about the Chinmoku, or Q shooting Elder, or the battle in France.
I didn’t tell her about my tongue and how long it took me to speak.
We’d both had enough death in our lives to permit it power over our conversation.
By the time an officer kicked her off the phone, we’d lived in a world of laughter and friendship, learning once and for all how to be family.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
______________________________
Elder
THREE WEEKS FLEW past.
Three incredible, normal, so relaxing they were almost boring weeks, where Pim and I holidayed in the Bahamas.
