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“I-I thought we could talk.”
Seriously? Luna had been here before with her mother, but back then she’d been young enough to get her hopes up. Not this time. “About what?”
“How’s everything going with you? How’s Ross doing?”
“I already said, fine. Now can you tell me why you’re calling?” Amy had missed all of her angsty teenage years. It served her right to get a double dose now.
“I’ve…uh, had a few health problems. I have cancer.”
Luna experienced no emotion except for bitterness creeping in. Amy didn’t even care when her own father was gravely ill, when she and Ross were left alone to figure things out. “What am I supposed to do with this information?” Luna replied, her tone flat.
“Well, your sisters thought—”
“I have sisters?” Her mother had never mentioned anything before, but it’d been at least fifteen years since the last time Amy had reached out and Luna—excited at the prospect of impressing her mother—she’d spent most of the conversation bragging about how well she was doing in school. But it hadn’t mattered. Whether she was good or bad, her mother didn’t care. And being good was so much work.
“Yes. Sunny and Skylar. Anyway, they thought…”
So, Amy was only contacting her because her kids thought she should? Did this mean if her mother never got cancer, never got the encouragement, she’d continue living her great new life without giving Luna, her first daughter, a second thought? Did she consider Luna a mistake she’d rather forget?
“What do you think?” her mother finished.
Luna had a lot of thoughts and none of them pertained to whatever her mother said because she hadn’t heard any of it.
“Do you regret leaving?”
“Luna, it’s ancient history. Maybe we can move forward.”
“I’m not sure it can ever be ancient history for me. You left me. Forgot about me. Just moved on like I didn’t exist at all.”
There was a pause before her mother replied. “Luna, we’ve discussed this. I asked if you wanted to come with me and you told me you loved Grandpa more than you loved me. Do you know how much that stung?”
There was the sharp feeling of hurt with the realization that all it took was one moment of Luna saying the wrong thing, for some of that brutal honesty to escape from her brain, and people would leave her. There was no grace. The emotion was quickly followed by anger though, which took over completely. “Are you fucking kidding me right now? I was four years old! I don’t want to talk about this. I’m sorry cancer got infected with you.” Luna disconnected the call. Every cell in her body trembled. She willed herself not to cry, to not release one single goddamn tear because Amy wasn’t worth it. She was done crying over her mother. If she held back more of herself, maybe she’d never have to cry over anyone else ever again.
“Luna,” Aanya said, staring at her with wide eyes, not pretending she hadn’t overheard the one-sided conversation. Luna had told her own mother,I’m sorry cancer got infected with you.There was no use pretending it was anything else. Aanya would realize Luna was a bad person, that she was capable of shooting arrows full of poison. Maybe her mother had sensed the same thing with four-year-old Luna.
“Luna,” Aanya said again. “Do you—”
The phone started ringing again, capturing both their gazes.
“I have work to do.” Luna fled to the office, soundly shutting the door, wishing there was a way to barricade herself inside forever.
*
A soft knockat the door jolted her from her thoughts while she chewed on a nail.
“I’m busy,” she yelled, shuffling papers on the desk in order to appear occupied.
The door clicked, and Ross slipped through with Hermes the dog, shutting the door behind them.Goddammit.Aanya probably went straight into Ross’s workshop to tell him about out-of-control, heartless, cruel Luna. Luckily, there hadn’t been any customers in the store to scare away, but this wasn’t Aanya’s business, and she had no right to tell Ross anything.
He took a seat, slouched forward, leaning his elbows on his knees while rubbing his hands with a rag. Hermes plopped on the office dog bed, settling into a nap position. Ross glanced at her as though waiting for her to say something. When she didn’t, he cleared his throat. “Just got a call from someone named Sky who wants to know why you made her mom cry.”
Luna crossed her arms. “Oh, didn’t you know? That’s one of your other cousins, probably a better one. Sorry you got stuck with me. I don’t want to talk about it. And I don’t want to talk to any of them.” They were lucky they knew where she was at all because, at the moment, she had an urge to jump in her car and drive to Alaska where no one would be able to find her.
Ross held his hands in surrender. He should know better than to force her to do anything. “Okay. I just want to know how you’re doing.”
“Fine,” she replied, gritting her teeth. When was everyone going to stop asking how she was doing?
“You wanna come over for dinner tonight?”
