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"Don’t think so.”
“Why not?”
“She’s amazing.” I recalled our morning at the Ohio River Club, and how soft and comfortable Rebecca looked waking up in my arms. Then my thoughts floated to our trip to the cemetery. There was more than a physical connection between us, and that was something I knew I needed to hold on to. “Being with her feels better than being with anyone else I’ve ever met.”
Mom raised one eyebrow. “Really?”
“Yes. Much better. I...I care about her.”
“That’s about the last thing I expected to hear from you.”
“Me too, but it’s the truth. I care about her, and this...I didn’t want this to happen.”
“Has to be a security hack, right? I know your house is like a fortress.”
“Robert’s handling it.”
Mom nodded a few times and picked her glass up again. “Do you see this...going somewhere?”
“With Rebecca?” I shrugged, the weight of this whole situation finally pushing against me, almost as if it was hell-bent on crushing my chest. It was midafternoon and only a few hours since I’d received news of the breach, but it felt like days later, as if time had become a slog. “Yes. I did. Do.”
“She’s worth the risk?” Mom drank another fourth of her juice.
“She is. I haven’t thought that about someone in a long time, but I like her a lot. She’s refreshing, and she doesn’t...she doesn’t care about all this.” I waved at the space around us. Like the rest of the residential properties I amassed in the previous decade, this one had clean lines and fresh furnishings that would make a decorator salivate. But there was still a stiff coldness, making it feel like a place people visited, and not where they lived. “This doesn’t matter to her.”
“Oh honey, I highly doubt it. This matters to everyone.”
I stared back at her. My mother was a good woman, and I didn’t doubt she loved me, but we often differed on things that made it seem like the gulf between us was extreme and impossible to cross. “Did you talk to her when she was with us last weekend?”
“Only once. I wanted to make sure she understood who you are. She’s a member of the media, after all. Can’t ever trust them.”
“Well, turns out, she couldn’t trust me. I betrayed her.”
Something in my mom’s expression softened, and she gave me a wide, genuine smile of satisfaction. “Wow. I never thought I’d see this.”
“What’s that?”
“You’ve finally let someone in, someone who isn’t me.”
I nodded.
Her grin seemed to grow larger. “Thank God. I’ve wanted this for you for a long time.”
“You have?”
“Don’t get me wrong, I love this life, and all you’ve achieved. You’ve done enough for five lifetimes. But you are right, there’s more to living than what you can purchase, what you do, or the places you can go to. It all means nothing if you can’t find someone to share it with.”
“Rebeccaisthat person.” The conviction in my reply surprised me, but I didn’t take it back. I meant all of it. “But what if I can’t get her to forgive me?”
My mom moved closer and put her hand on my knee. “Look, this is going to blow over at some point. Scandals like these always do. And...we’ll figure something out. You’ll find a way to win her back.”
I could only hope she was right.
