“That will never happen. The four of us made it through after your father passed away, and I promise you that no matter what happens now, I’m going to fight whatever battles I need to fight to make sure we keep sticking together. Through thick and thin.” Her mother’s voice cracked on thin. “I can see now that I was wrong, so terribly wrong, for the things I said to you. I should have been there for you above and beyond anything else. I shouldn’t have made you think for even a single second that the show, or business, was more important to me than you. I’ll never be able to forgive myself.”
But Rosa now knew exactly what happened when a mother or a father couldn’t forgive themselves. She’d just witnessed it with Drake and his father. Knew how bad it was when families broke apart and stayed apart.
“I’m not going to lie to you and say it doesn’t still hurt,” she told her mother. “Because it does. But you weren’t the only one whose head was turned by the spotlights and the money and the fame.”
“That doesn’t excuse what I’ve done.”
“If we were laying out excuses, Mom, I’d have more than my fair share. But we can’t go back and change who we were or what we did. We can only change who we want to be now and in the future.” Still holding her mother’s hands, Rosa moved from the floor to sit beside her on the couch and took a deep breath before saying, “I don’t want to do the show anymore.”
Her mother was silent for a long moment. Finally, she nodded and said, in a very soft voice, “I can’t say I’m happy to hear that when I know the show will be canceled without you. But I do understand why you wouldn’t want to do it anymore after everything that’s happened.”
“It’s not just the show. And it’s not just because of the pictures either. It’s that I’ve finally realized I don’t want to be in the business at all. I’ve actually been thinking about spending more time”—she felt nervous telling anyone her budding plans, even her mom—“on my embroidered canvases.” She remembered how bowled over the women in the yarn store had been and made herself amend it to, “My art.”
“I’ve always told you how talented you are, honey. But you were so shy about ever sharing your talent with anyone else.”
“I still am,” she admitted, “but this week showed me that I’m strong enough to survive anything that comes. Even people hating what I create, whether it’s a TV show or a canvas covered in silk thread.”
“Not just survive, honey. You’ll thrive the way you always have in the face of a challenge.”
“You’re the one who taught me how to do that. How to be strong. How to be confident.” Rosa’s throat tightened again. “How to love.”
Her mother’s mouth finally shifted into a small smile. “The man you walked in with—is that Drake?”
Rosa smiled too and felt joy all the way down to her toes just from thinking about him. “I love him.” Oscar nudged her hand so that the fur on his head was easy to stroke. “I love you too, Oscar.”
“I’m so happy for you, honey. If Drake is anything like his father, you’ve found a good one.”
Rosa’s eyebrows went up. She hadn’t seen her mother express interest in a man in a very long time.
“I never thought I’d find a man like him,” Rosa said. “As good on the inside as Dad was. The day I left Miami, he found me in the middle of a rainstorm and brought me in out of the cold.”
“You just met him this week? I assumed you’d met him before at some event.”
“There’s so much I want to tell you, Mom. And I promise I will. I want you two to spend time getting to know each other. But right now I need you to know that I’ve decided I want to do what you said in that email. I want to turn something terrible into something amazing.”
“If anyone can, it’s you.”
“I wish I could have figured some of these things out without naked pictures of me floating all over the Internet.” Rosa let the now-familiar anger rise within her, before deliberately releasing it. “I refuse to say that there are any silver linings here, but if people all over the world are waiting for what I’m going to say, I’m going to make sure they hear it. Loud and clear. I want to help make a difference, any way I can.”
And as she explained her plans for the two-hour special, and they brainstormed ways to make it even more powerful, the invincible mother-and-daughter team that they had once been finally began to grow strong again.
Chapter Thirty-One
Drake had wanted to stay in the living room with Rosa to make sure her mother didn’t step out of line, but William had insisted, “They need time to work things out alone.”
During the past hour, Rosa and her mother had been loud enough for Drake and his father to hear them through the walls of the study more than once. Though he hadn’t been able to make out their exact words, Drake could tell how upset Rosa was.
He’d gotten up and headed for the door, intent on charging back into the living room. But his father had blocked the door, saying, “I know you want to help, but this isn’t the way to do it.”
“She’s been hurt enough already.” And Drake would do anything it took, would go to the ends of the earth, to keep Rosa safe. Even from her own mother, if need be. “I won’t let it happen again.”
“Neither will Rosa.”
Though he’d had to force himself to stop and take a deep breath, Drake knew his father was right. He didn’t need to rush into the living room to save her.