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Instead, I let her go and walk over to the fridge to pull out a bottle of apple cider, then two glasses from the cupboard.
“Our mother never thought of us as anything but means or obstacles to her end. The end being rich old men who were blinded by her charm.”
“That’s terrible.”
“That’s why we all have drinking problems,” I say dryly.
“Do you really?” She laughs.
“Eh, let’s say we’re emotional drinkers rather than eaters. I’ve seen my brothers try to find comfort at the bottom of a bottle when they’ve had trouble, especially with the women in their lives. But that’s never really been something I’ve had to worry about.” I down my cider, the tart sweetness washing away the bitterness. “But enough about her. Tell me more about your mother.”
“She was… different,” Luna says, slicing the knife through the sandwich, wrapping it in a napkin, and handing one half to me. “She was a younger mother, so it felt like she was a friend, a sister. But she was strict about some things. Not school or anything like that, but about being a good person. Or what she thought was a good person. Little things. Thoughtful things. Noticing little needs that people have. Not saying bad things about people who weren’t around to defend themselves.”
“So, she wouldn’t think too highly of the things I’ve said about my mother.”
There really wasn’t much I could say about my mother that would sound good to ears who didn’t understand.
She takes a bite of her sandwich and gives me a head shake. “Well, I doubt she’d think too highly of the mother who made her children feel that way, either. She died when I was sixteen. And I didn’t know how I was going to survive. But I did.” Her voice cracks.
I quietly eat my sandwich, giving her space to share the thoughts swirling around in her head.
“I miss her. I wonder what she would make of all this. The Ernest stuff.”
“She wouldn’t be happy for you?”
The smile is sad. “She never wanted any of it—Ernest’s money. He tried, all the time. But she always said no. She always said she was happy with the money she made with her own two hands.Until the day she died, I don’t know if she ever took a dime from him.”
I think of my friend, this whole time having a whole part of his life, such an important part, that I had no idea about. I wonder how things would’ve been different if he had felt he could talk to me about it. And how life would be different for all of us now. “I still can’t believe that he never told me about you. I could never have imagined.”
She takes a sip of the cider and shrugs. “He wasn’t hiding that much. I wasn’t a big part of his life, Kingsley. For the first part of my life, I probably saw him two or three times a year. He called and wrote. Always sent me gifts. And we got along just fine. But it’s not like I was an everyday part of his life. I always knew that if I was going to be more present in his life, it was going to come with so much more scrutiny. And I have never wanted that. I don’t trust well, and I don’t like feeling watched. The more in the shadows the better. But I saw him more as I got older, and after my mother passed, because I wasn’t as worried about how she felt about it. But even then, keeping you a secret from me was probably harder than the other way around.” She smiles at me, eyes bright, open. “He must’ve loved you so much.”
“He did. I know he did. But… Luna, he left you half of everything he had. Half of his stake in his company. I don’t think you can even understand what that means. I watched the man fight for everything he has for the last twenty-five years. He would not leave a fraction of it to someone he didn’t think deserved it.”
She swallows, picking at a crumb. “I’d give it all back just to have a chance to get to know the man who he was.”
“I know, sweetheart.” I pick up the sandwich and take a bite. “So just keeping asking anything you want to know. And I’ll do my best to help you get to know him as much as possible.”
She scoots closer to me and lays her head on my shoulder. “Maybe later. I want to know about you now. What are you most excited about when it comes to Baxter?”
I laugh. “That’s going to take a lot more than a few monosyllables to answer.”
It’s the truth. I had a lot of things I was excited about. The work that I and my employees do at Baxter excites me every day. People who joke about how boring and dry the work must be have no idea what goes on, what passes my desk in the course of a day.
“You have discovered my tricks.”
“Never. I’ll fall for each and every one. Well, I guess, even though it’s not a project, per se, I’m actually really looking forward to our hundred-year celebration of Baxter Enterprises. The girls are doing such a good job putting the jubilee together.”
“The girls?” she asks through a mouthful of sandwich.
I nod, watching her eyes for signs of jealousy at the mention of other women, just in case I need to stamp them out. “Well, namely, My-Linh, Kiara, and Clarissa—my brother’s partners. They’re heading up the jubilee committee, and it’s going to be an amazing event. A real retrospective of all the things Baxter and my family have achieved in the last hundred years.”
“It sounds amazing.”
I nod. It does. Parts of the celebration are months, almost a year in the works. We really are coming down to the wire. “Do you have any ideas for the event?” I ask, genuinely curious. I’ve quickly learned that Luna has neither a lack of creativity nor a lack of ideas.
“I do!” she shouts, punching her arms in the air triumphantly.
“Hit me.”
