I stand up and walk over to the window on shaky legs. She really loves me? She said it before, but I wasn’t sure if she really meant it. “Mindy, don’t be so hard on yourself. I know you didn’t mean to do this with malicious intent. I see the good in you. You’re so special, so funny, and you’ve made me think. You’ve made me laugh. If you’re guilty of anything, it’s caring too damn much. You are a good person. I’ve seen your heart. You only wanted to please your mother.”
She’s quiet for a long time, and I’m beginning to think that she’s listening, that I’ll be able to bring her to me, that we can handle this together. But when she speaks next, her words hurt even more. “Please leave, Oliver. I don’t need you to try to save my feelings. I’m so very sorry, but I want to be alone right now. I’ll tell the truth, that it was my idea and I didn’t intend for it to go this far. And I’ll tell Gavin you did your part.”
Gavin and the money? I can’t believe that she still thinks this is about money. “Listen to me—”
“Just go!” she shouts, turning to me, furious and in pain. “Just forget this all happened.”
Her words tear at my heart. She’s being unreasonable, but I can see that she’s so emotional right now that I can’t get through to her. “Mindy, come on. Our plane leaves in the morning, I have one more night to stay in this town, you know.”
“I think you should go now.”
“Excuse me?” I ask, surprised. “Mindy, what are you saying?”
She shakes her head, pointing at the door. “I think it would be best if you don’t stay here tonight. I just can’t see you right now, and it’s going to make things even harder.”
I stiffen. As much as I hate it, I have to leave her alone or this could get worse. “If that’s what you want.”
“It is. Please leave, Oliver.”
I don’t want to. I want to defy her. But I know it’s pointless. She’s too overwhelmed with emotion.
“Very well,” I say quietly. I walk to the door and stop, turning to look back at her standing at the balcony door, staring out into the backyard again. “I know you don’t believe me. Maybe I deserve that, but I don’t think so. I enjoyed the time we spent together. Despite what you may think, it wasn’t about the money. I hope you work things out with your family.”
She doesn’t say anything as I walk out. I close the door and realize that I’ve got two suitcases worth of things in there. “Fuck it,” I mutter. Besides my tablet, there’s nothing that was all that personal. Instead, I start down the hallway. Maybe Sam can give me a ride to the airport or I’ll just call a cab.
I’m at the head of the stairs when I see Roxy coming up, heartbreak etched into her young and previously innocent face. “Oliver? What’re you doing?”
“Leaving,” I say softly. I can’t be angry at Roxy, no matter if she was part of the pressure that Mindy was feeling. I like the girl too much, and I know she would have made a great sister-in-law. “Mindy’s asked me to go.”
Her face goes white with shock. “What? Why? Oliver, if you think the rest of the family . . .”
I look at her face, seeing the tears in her eyes. My heart twists for Mindy at what she has to do and how her family is going to react. “I’ve enjoyed getting to know you over this past week, Roxy. And don’t ever give up on your singing. You’ve got a gift.”
“Oliver, please stop,” Roxy says as I start down the stairs. I don’t, and when I’m about halfway down, she calls out to me, wailing. “Dammit, please tell me what’s going on!”
I stop and look up at Roxy, promising myself that when I think about this week, it’s not going to be this Roxy I remember, but the Roxy who was a vision behind the microphone, the Roxy who made me laugh. “That’s not my place to say, Roxy. Give my regards to everyone . . . and take care of Mindy for me, okay?”
I turn and walk out, leaving the mansion for good. I can call for a cab while walking down the road.
Mindy
“It was all fake.”
The words hang in the air. They’re the first thing I say to my immediate family after what has to be several long minutes of silence. It’s just Grandma, Mom, Roxy, and me. John wanted to join us, but Mom asked that he stay at the wedding hall to take care of things there.
After throwing Oliver out of my room, I ignored Roxy’s pleas for me to come out for hours, sobbing into my pillow. I couldn’t imagine facing anyone, and I felt like doing nothing more than hiding under my bed. Eventually, though, I calmed down, and I found myself putting on a t-shirt and pants. I felt like it was my duty to talk to them, to face them. So I dragged myself out here.
“All of it?” Roxy asks, and I can see the tears in her eyes. She genuinely liked Oliver and me together. I’ve always known that Roxy was a lot deeper than the image she puts out. There’s no way someone who wasn’t could sing the way she does.
“The whole thing.”
I lower my eyes, tears threatening to spill over my lashes and down my face. I don't want to see their faces. I don’t want to see the many questions in their eyes.
It hurts down deep inside, where you’re supposed to carry your guts and instead, I just carried my fear. I can't believe I thought I could joke my way through something like this. That I thought being silly could solve something so serious. How wrong I was, and now what started as a silly little white lie over a year ago has come to this.
“Why?” Roxy says softly. “I sang for you guys, Mindy.”
I swallow the lump in my throat and let the burning pain in my chest try and fuel me. I can’t lie to them any longer, so I might as well be totally honest. “I just wanted to avoid any relationship questions. You can be a little hard to deal with sometimes, Mom. But that’s no excuse. It was stupid. And after a point, I didn’t want everyone to think I was a liar, and I just dug myself deeper. So . . . enter Oliver. I didn’t even know him before this.”
“Oh, honey,” Mom says, and I look up for a second to see tears in her eyes. “I know it must feel like I put pressure on you with my expectations, but I wouldn’t have loved you any less had you shown up without a fiancé.”
“You do put pressure on us, Mom,” Roxy says quietly. “All of us. With me, you don’t like my singing.”
Mom stops, wiping at her cheeks. “I just . . . I want what’s best for my girls.”
“How is being miserable and jumped on best for us?” I ask her. “Mom, you bugged me even in college about whether I was going to find a guy. You made it seem like I was going to school for a wedding ring and not a degree!”
“I just . . . being young, it’s the time for love,” Mom says, defending herself. “I wasn’t trying to say you had to marry some guy right out of school.”
“You made it feel that way sometimes.” I look over at Roxy, who looks miserable as she twists her hair around her finger. “I can’t even imagine what you’ve been through!”
“Me?” Roxy asks, getting up. “Really, Mindy? You ask about me? I really liked Oliver and was invested in you both! I thought your love was real. It sure did seem like it. But anyway, I'm your sister. We used to share everything!”
“Yeah, well, I’m sorry!” I yell before taking a deep breath. I look at them. “I’m really ashamed about all of it. You know me—carefree. I didn’t think it was a big deal when I started. I just didn’t want to disappoint anyone. I wanted to make you proud.”
Roxy comes over and puts her hands on my shoulders. “Please, you know you’re the favorite. Everyone’s proud of how you did things on your own. I love you, and you know I’m going to be on your side no matter what.”
I swallow back tears and look around to everyone. “I’m sorry to all three of you. I took it too far.”
“I knew I should have said something earlier,” Grandma says, and everyone turns to look at her. Reading the question in my eyes, she waves it off. “Oh, I don’t mean about Oliver. That’s one fine hunk of a man. He had me pretty well fooled. I mean about you, Mary Jo.”
“Me?” Mom asks, and Grandma nods.