Page 78 of The Bad Boyfriend Curse
“I hated that I had to stay with him after you were born,” Mom continues, “but I had no choice. I would never have been able to support you alone. I needed my parents’ help.” She gazes out the window for a moment, then looks at me. “You were such a good girl. You never got into trouble. Your grades were impeccable.” Her voice goes quiet. “Nanabapa could never criticize you.”
I exhale. “Until I was arrested.”
Mom nods, laughing a bit. “It’s like you saved all your teenage angst until you turned seventeen. It was the first time I saw myself in you. I was just as stubborn at your age. I know I said you could stay in Toronto after the wedding, but I couldn’t let you live with him anymore after your arrest. I was afraid he’d treat you like he treated me.”
I feel sick. I don’t think I spoke to my grandfather alone even once after my arrest. Nani or Mom was always with me. Protecting me.
Nani swallows. “I should have done the same for you back then, Neelam. It’s my biggest regret in life. But I wouldnothave let him treat Meera like that. She would have been safe with me.”
Mom shrugs. And I get it. Nani didn’t protect Mom when she was a teenager. Why would she trust that Nani would protect me now?
My grandfather emotionallyabusedmy mother. And she didn’t want me living with him after I got in trouble for the first time because she was afraid he would do the same thing to me.
I shake my head. I’ve beensofurious at her for not letting me go back to Toronto. Why didn’t she tell me her reason? “You should have told me.”
Mom nods. “Yes, I should have. I was scared I’d ruin the relationship you have with your grandmother. But you’re right. I have no excuse.” She pauses. “And I admit, I was ashamed of my past. But when Jason proposed, I told him I wouldn’t marry him until you were done with high school. Then he decided to run for mayor, and I wanted to support him. I thought you’d be fine. You were so independent and twice the person I ever was. But I should have waited. I shouldn’t have married him. I’m so sorry, Meera.”
From the very beginning, Mom has been thinking of me. There’s a prickle of guilt in my chest. All the things we didn’t know because of all the things we didn’t say has led us here. I wonder where we’d be if Mom and I actually talked to each other.
I look at her, hesitant. “Mom, are youleavingJason?”
She nods, wiping her eyes again. “Yes. I have every intention of putting you first, Meera. Jason’s running formayor.I don’t think I fully understood the spotlight it would put on you—on both of us. After that article…” She pauses in thought for a moment before she exhales and straightens her spine. “I tried living this lifestyle, but it’s not for us. I’m moving back to Toronto with you.”
I swallow the lump in my throat. Jason was willing to walk away from all his wealth for Mom, and Mom is willing to walk away from it, and the man she loves, for me. Her Cinderella story is already ending, and it’s been less than two months.
My own eyes fill with tears. I close them tightly, shaking my head. I feel terrible but don’t want to cry at the club. “I hate this stupid curse,” I say quietly. “I’m sorry, Mom. I ruined your life when I was born, and ruined it again when I was arrested.”
Mom whips her head to stare at me. “You haveneverruined my life!” Her voice is loud, and people turn to look at us. “Why would you think that, Meera?”
I recoil. “Because… because you two always said that the curse means we will pick the wrong boy and it will ruin our lives. And when you picked the sperm donor, you got pregnant with me and had to drop out of high school and live with your parents even though your father was abusive.” I take a gasp of air. I know I’m starting to sound like a crying kid. “And now you’re leaving your husband becauseIpicked the wrong boy, so I ruined your life twice.”
Mom stares at me for several long seconds, then reaches over, grabs me by the shoulders, and wraps me in a tight hug. Her voice is shaky, but her words ring clear in my ears. “I’m sorry, Meera. I’m so sorry… I’ve been a terrible mother. You’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me. I… I don’t deserve a kid as good as you. I’m sorry I let you think otherwise.”
I’m crying now too. I hug her back. I bury my face in her shoulder, feeling the comfort that only comes when my mom hugs me.
Soon, we hear the scrape of Nani’s chair on the floor before we feel Nani’s arms wrap around us both. I can’t imagine what we look like—Jason LeClair’s wife, mother-in-law, and stepdaughter sobbing over their afternoon tea.
Eventually our shell-shocked waiter comes to the table with extra napkins to ask if we need assistance. Mom lets go of me, and Nani goes back to her seat. Somehow Mom’s able to reassure the waiter that we’re fine, just having an emotional tea.
When the waiter leaves, Mom sighs, wiping her eyes. “I’veneverthought you ruined my life, Meera. Okay? Ever. I’ve had some hard times, but you have always been worth it. I just… I think I expected too much of you. I had you so young. I had no idea what I was doing.” She sighs. “I still don’t.”
I blink. “I think this is proof that wearecursed,” I say. “Maybe it’s not ruining our lives, but we can’t be in happy relationships.”
Nani shakes her head, setting her teacup down with a little more force than I expected. “We’re not cursed!” she says loudly. People turn to us again. I wonder if we’re going to be removed from the country club. “There is no curse.”
I raise my brows. “Nani, thereisa curse. Going back four generations, remember? We’re all destined to make the wrong choices in love.” Like Nani marrying my grandfather. Mom getting pregnant by the sperm donor. Me and Gabe. Heck, me and Noah, too. We’re destined to be unhappy.
Nani shakes her head again. “No, Meera. You’re the one who said it! That believing in the curse means believing we don’t deserve love, that we don’t deserve to be happy. And I refuse to believe that the women in this family don’t deserve to be happy.”
I frown. “Did I say that?”
“Yes!” Nani says, excited. “My grandmother was cursed by a witch doctor after she pointed a gun at the man she was going to marry. Did you ever wonder why she didn’t just call off the wedding? Because she was just a girl. She didn’t have the power to do that. The gun was her only option, and she wasstillforced to marry the man. I did the math. She would have been fifteen.”
My eyes widen. I didn’t know she was forced to marry him. And I thought my mother was tough on me.
“Even my own mother,” Nani continues. “My father died of alcohol poisoning, and yet everyone blamed her and the curse instead of my father for drinking himself to death. And me…” She smiles sadly. “I didn’t want to marry your grandfather. I was in love with someone else. But everyone said I only loved Rodrick because of the curse; though maybe it also had something to do with the fact that Rodrick wasn’t Indian or Muslim and my family didn’t like that. And then when I married your grandfather and his temper came out, I was told that was also because of the curse.”
“Wait,” I say. “Is Rodrick the clown?”
