“You’ve been a fighter your whole life, haven’t you?” Blackwell said. “Yes, you have. And your courage and your resolve continue to deepen my admiration of you. You’ve risen from the ashes, Jennifer, and even now, you continue to rise from them, because you’re going to work with us to shut your mother down. So listen to me when I say this—every person in this room has your back right now. All of us. Every one.”
“Short of giving her the money, how can we stop her from going to the press?” I asked.
“We’ll trick her,” Tank said. “And then, if you’re willing, we’ll bring in Wenn legal and let them take care of the rest.”
“Trick her?” I said. “Tank, with all due respect, I don’t think you know what we’re dealing with when it comes to my mother. Yes, she’s a drunk, but she’s also smart as hell. If she believes for one moment that I’m about to trick her into something, she’ll call me out on it and God only knows what will happen next.”
“She said she expected to hear back from you in twenty-four hours?” he asked.
“Yes.”
“Then, here’s what I suggest—you call her back now. And when you do? Listen to me closely. We’re going to tape her. What I need from you is to get her to say what she said to you earlier.”
“It won’t work. She’s too smart. She’ll see straight through it.”
“Then find a way around it,” he said to me. “Because you’re also smart, Jennifer, and I need you to manipulate her. Become the snake that she is, but bite back and bite back hard. Get her to admit what she’s done to you on tape, and if you do so, I can promise you this—all of this will be behind us before you know it.”
WHEN I CALLED MY MOTHER, I did so on speakerphone so everyone in the room could hear the conversation and Tank could tape it.
“Ava?” I said when my mother answered.
Her voice was like ice when she said, “Jennifer? So soon? I’m surprised.”
“I have a baby shower to go to in two hours. I want this settled.”
“A baby shower? Well, how nice of you to invite me...”
“Why don’t we just cut through the bullshit and get to the point? I’ve given this some thought, and the twenty million you’re demanding from me is ridiculous. In fact, it’s extortion.”
“Please...”
“In fact, it is. Here’s the deal, Ava—I’ve decided to give you nothing. My suggestion to you is that you go ahead with your plans to expose what my father did to me. Tell the world that he molested me. Yes, plenty of people will talk, but what you don’t know is that, for the most part, people like me in this city, and I’ll mostly get sympathy for what he did to me. And guess what else is coming if you go forward with your pathetic threat of exposing what he did to me? I will immediately start a foundation for young girls who have gone through what I went through, and that will be a public relations win for me and for Wenn. That said—and the reason for my call—is that you should know that if you do go forward with this, you will be faced with a lawsuit that is so huge it will bankrupt you. Alex and I will sue the hell out of you if you tell the world that my father molested me—”
“Stop right there,” she said. “Enough! I don’t even know what you’re talking about. But I do know that you’re taping me now. I’m no fool, girl, but good try.”
An idea occurred to me when she said that, and I laughed. “Ava, don’t you get it? You’ve already been taped. Wenn Enterprises is an international company, for God’s sake. For legal and security reasons alone, Wenn tapes all of its phone calls. I engaged you in our last conversation for that very reason—to get you to lay out what you planned to do to me, and how much money you wanted from me to keep quiet about it. My decision to give you nothing has zip to do with you being taped right now, because you already were taped when you first called me. I got everything I needed from you in our last conversation. You were had then!”
“The hell I was...”
“Sorry, Ava, but you were. I’ve always been smarter than you, and look at us now—the streak continues. When you threatened to tell the press that my father molested me? Sure, it shook me at first—I’ll admit that, because I still can’t believe that my own mother would betray me like that. But once I pulled myself together, I just gave you the performance you wanted because I knew that everything you were saying was being recorded. And you fell for it, honey. I’ve so got you by the balls right now, it’s pathetic.”
“Prove that I was taped.”
“I’m proving nothing to you, because right now—I’m the one who’s holding the cards. I’ve so got you when it comes to this, I’ve already won. So please—go forward and tell the press that my father molested me. And when you do? Just know that Wenn legal will go after your ass for extortion, which will destroy you with legal fees. And when we win our case against you? And since you’re probably on parole for fraud right now? From what I’ve been told by our legal team, you’ll be locked up for another five years at the very least. What you’ve threatened me with is that serious. And as you already know, Ava, we have the means to come after you and throw you in jail if you pull any more shit on me.”
“You’re lying,” she said. “I’m not buying it.”
“Then, please, as I said, do as you want. I really don’t care. Because guess what? Even if you decide to go all anonymous on us and become a ‘source’ for the tabloids, we still have our original conversations on tape, including this one. I have you on tape demanding twenty million dollars to keep quiet about my father molesting me, which is the textbook definition of extortion. Going forward, whatever you do is up to you, but please know this first—I’ve played the tape to Alex and our legal team, and we all agree that you’re pretty much fucked.” I paused for effect. “If I wanted to, I have the goods to take you to court right now. So, please, just give me a reason to, because the only reason I’m not doing so is that I have no time for you or your pathetic threats. Choose.”
I looked up at Tank when I said that, and he gave me a firm thumbs up, as did Alex, whose face was so taut with intensity, his eyes were harder than I’d ever seen them. In anticipation, I waited for my mother’s response.
But when it didn’t come, I decided to go in a different direction.
“Why are you doing this to me?” I asked in an effort to seek an answer. “I’m your daughter, for God’s sake. Your only child. I’m about to give birth in less than a month, and here you are upsetting me, which can’t be good for the baby. This morning, you’ve put so much stress on me, it’s unfathomable. So, tell me, Ava—why would you do this to me now?”
“I’ll tell you why,” she said. “While you’ve been living it up for the past five years, your father and I have been struggling to get by. Not once have you reached out to either of us since you and Lisa took off for the city. When you hit it big with Alexander Wenn, of all people, you knew that we were poor and struggling to get by, but did you even once offer to help us out? As the years went by, did you ever once consider us? No, you didn’t. You ignored us. You forgot that we even existed.”
“For reasons you well know,” I said as my anger rose. “And it wasn’t just my father’s physical abuse that caused me to leave you two behind. It’s also because you were abusive to me. Verbally abusive. Physically abusive. I wanted out of all of it before you two suffocated me and took me down with you.”
“Well, look who succeeded,” she hissed. “Here’s what you need to know about your mother, baby girl. Because of my time in prison, I’m officially a pariah in this shit town of ours, and your father and I want out. We want a fresh start somewhere else. Somewhere far away from Maine. Somewhere new—where no one knows us. And since we have no money, I need somebody to pay for that move, and that person is you.”
“Fine,” I said. “How much do you need? And don’t even think about asking for twenty million, because that’s not going to happen.”
“A million?” she said. “Your father and I are getting older. We have no retirement money. And
the move and a new home will be expensive. Is a million so unreasonable when you’re as wealthy as you are? All I want is enough money to get out of this town now and carry your father and I into the next stage of our lives.”
“If you’re on parole, how can you even leave Maine?”
“I don’t know the particulars when it comes to that, but even if I can’t leave Maine, I sure as hell could move somewhere else in Maine where nobody knows us.”
“Give her the money,” Alex wrote on a note he handed to me. “Put this behind us now—but only if she agrees to sign a legal document saying that all of this ends here.”
“How badly do you want that money?” I asked her.
“You already know how badly I want it.”
“Then you’re going to have to do a bit of work to get it, Ava,” I said.
“What kind of work?”
“Wenn legal will be in touch with you later today. You’ll have documents to sign, and if you agree to sign them, Alex and I will give you that million dollars.”
“What kind of documents?”
“What kind do you think?”
“Documents meant to keep me silent, I suppose.”
“Good guess. So what do you want, Ava? Sign the documents and get your money? Or do you want us to go forward with the threat we have on tape and take you to court?”
There was a long silence before she said, “You already know the answer.”
“Good—then expect a call from our legal team by the end of the day. Once you’ve looked over the documents and signed them, you’ll get your money. But here’s the deal, Ava. If you ever contact me again, I can promise you this—I will use that tape and go after you in court for extortion. I want you out of my life forever. I don’t ever want to hear from you again. Consider this my parting gift to you.”
Before she could have the pleasure of having the last word, I switched off the phone, sat back in my chair, winced when my baby gave me one mother of a kick, and then I looked up at Alex, Tank, and Blackwell, all of whom were standing close by and looking down at me with concern.
“Well,” I said in embarrassment. “Unfortunately, you’ve all just officially met my mother. And I apologize for it, especially to you, Alex. All of this should have been discussed before we married. I should have told you.”
“There’s no reason to be sorry,” he said. “Jennifer, I understand why you didn’t tell me.”
“Still,” I said. “There should be no secrets between us. I just couldn’t bring myself to tell you that one. It’s something I’d buried ever since it happened.”
Blackwell stepped forward and took my hand.
“Jennifer, there are things in my life that I’ve told no one—nor do I plan to. Everyone has ghosts, and as long as they don’t harm other people, we are free to do with them as we want.”
I looked over at Alex and wondered what he thought of me now—how he viewed me now that he knew everything about me. I knew that what my father had done to me wasn’t my fault, but I still was stained by it, wasn’t I? And because of that, it would forever be my shame to carry. But before I could even process how Alex felt, he came to me, knelt beside me, and kissed me so firmly and with such heat, it was as if he wanted to sear away my shame, sadness, and pain as quickly as he could.
That’s how much he loved me.
I collapsed into his arms and started to cry great heaving cries, which were fueled at once by his love for me as much as they were by my mother’s unmitigated betrayal of me.
At that moment, I felt so exposed and vulnerable, I wasn’t sure how I was going to get through the baby shower, which was only moments away. But with my husband’s cheek pressed against mine—and with his hands holding tight to mine—I knew that if I could just channel his strength and love, I might be able to pull myself together to get through the rest of the day.
“Enough of this,” I said as I wiped the tears from my face and looked over at Blackwell, whom I’d never seen so upset. Usually, she could hold a room together by herself, but with my past now on the table for all to see—and with me so clearly distraught—she looked shaken and concerned for me in the wake of the bright light that had been cast upon me.
“We have an hour,” I said when I glanced at my watch. “Where is Lisa?”
“Probably in the conference room,” Blackwell said. “Making sure that everything is perfect for you.”
“Before the shower, I need to tell her about this,” I said. “She’s been my best friend since childhood. She should have known first. At the very least, I should have confided in her when we were in high school or college. But I never did, because I couldn't bear the thought of digging up what I thought was dead and buried. But that’s no longer the case, is it? I can’t go into the baby shower when all of you know the truth and she doesn’t. Lisa deserves better. Can somebody please call her for me? Ask her to come here so I can tell her in private.”
“I’ll call her,” Alex said. “We’ll step out of my office, and you can tell her when she arrives.”
He pulled his phone out of his jacket pocket, found Lisa’s number, and called her.
“Well, this is just perfect, isn’t it?” I said with despair in my voice. “On this day of all days, my mother decides to come back into my life like a wrecking ball.”
“Stand up,” Blackwell said. “You need a hug. So let me give you the love and the support that you need as your surrogate womb, a concept that I now understand and fully embrace.”
When I stood up, I smoothed my black dress and started to walk over to Blackwell when I heard Alex say, “Lisa, are you here in the building? Good. Jennifer would like to talk to you. Can you come up to our office? Yes, it’s important. See you in five.”
“I feel sick,” I said as I moved toward Blackwell, whose arms were wide open as I walked into them.
“Your friend is not going to judge you.”
“But we’ve been friends for twenty-five years, and I’ve kept all of this from her,” I said as my heart started to beat in my throat. “My betrayal of her is no different than my mother’s betrayal of me.”
As she held me close, I felt my belly press hard against hers, and I worried about my unborn baby. How much had this stress affected him or her? When Blackwell pulled me even closer, I got my answer when a sudden rush of liquid spilled from between my legs and splashed onto our shoes.
“What the hell?” I said.
Blackwell looked down at her feet and, without flinching, she said, “Your water just broke.”
“My what just what?”
“It just broke, and over my Chanel shoes—which is a good sign. In fact, it’s the best of signs. Chanel is Chanel after all.”
“I can’t believe this...”
“Your baby is coming,” she said. “Likely because of all you’ve gone through this morning. Your mother succeeded on one level—she upset you so much, you’re about to give birth. We need to get you to the hospital now.”
“Is this really happening?” I said. “Now?”
“Have a good look at my shoes,” she said. “Not that I give a damn about them. But right now that’s besides the point, because you’re about to go into labor.”
“Labor?” Alex said with alarm in his voice.
“You heard me correctly, Alex—labor,” Blackwell said. “Do you two have a bag ready?”
“We do at the apartment.”
“Send Cutter to get it.”
“Lisa’s coming up now,” he said.
“Call her back and direct her to the hospital. When we leave Alex’s office, I will ask Ann to send out emails to everyone on the shower invitation list that the baby has decided to come early and that we’ll have the party after the baby’s here.”
I felt a strong contraction surge through me, and I buckled as Blackwell, Alex, and Tank came to my side and held me until it passed.
“Christ,” I said in pain.
“I’m not going to lie to you,” Blackwell said. “It’s only go
ing to get worse from here on—and that’s your real mother talking to you. The mother who loves you as if she were your mother, not the monster who brought this on. All we can hope for is a fast delivery.”
“But this can’t be happening now,” I said. “I’m two weeks early! That can’t be good for the baby!”
“You and I both know that isn’t an issue. In fact, it’s common for first-time mothers to give birth early. Your child will be fine, but it’s coming now, and we need to get going.”
She turned to Alex. “Call the doctor. Tell her it’s time.”
I watched Alex fumble with his phone to search for my doctor’s number while he looked nervously at me.
“I’m scared,” I said to Blackwell.
“And I get it. I’m not going to sugarcoat any of this for you, Jennifer. There will be pain—a great deal of it. But I know you. I know your strength—in fact, I believe I just witnessed a good deal of it. You’ll get through this.”
She turned to Tank.
“Her coat?”
Tank rushed into my office, came back with it, and somehow, I managed to slip into it.
“Get a car for us,” she said to him. “Immediately.”
I saw him reach for his own phone.
“But what about the baby shower?” I said.
“The baby shower?” she said with her eyebrows arched high. “To hell with the baby shower, Jennifer. I mean, tell me—what are you going to do? Have contractions and canapés while you open your gifts?” She leaned toward my ear. “I know that you’re not in your right mind after what you’ve gone through today, but you need to understand that you’re about to give birth to your first child. That needs to sink in ASAP. Now, come on. We need to go now because none of us knows how soon that baby of yours will arrive!”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
THIRTY MINUTES LATER, when we arrived at the New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center on East Sixty-Eighth Street, my third contraction struck, which made me double over in pain in the backseat of the car.
“Jesus,” I said.
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