Page 14 of Diamonds in the Dark
I hop out of bed, put on my brave face, and walk into the bathroom. I want to look at myself in the mirror, but I am afraid of what I am going to see. I let fresh tears run down my cheeks and finally turn around and face my reflection. I am shocked by how much worse all my bruises look today. They are a hundred times worse than they were last night. I also see a scratch down the side of my face that I had not noticed the night before. Oh well, these will all heal and go away, I tell myself and get in the shower.
After my shower, I feel tremendously better. I put on sweatpants and an old t-shirt. I'm not going out for a few days with all these marks on me, so no need to dress up. I go downstairs in search of Becca. I find her in my kitchen cleaning up the breakfast mess, which is huge. While she is an amazing cook, she also creates an amazing mess to go with her cooking. It looks like a bag of flour exploded all over the place. I jump in to help; she starts to object, and I cut her off. “I want normal back please.” She smiles, side hugs me and we clean up while laughing and joking about why she must make such a mess when cooking.
When we finish, Becca and I sit down on the couch, each with a large glass of sweet, iced tea that she also made at some point this morning.
“Gwen, do you want me to stay again tonight?”
“No, I think I got it. Dad will be here late watching movies with me. But thank you for asking and for everything you have done for me last night and today.”
“No problem, you would do it for me in a heartbeat,” she replies.
“How are you and the baby feeling?” I have been meaning to ask.
“Oh, we are great! I haven’t even had morning sickness today!” She announces.
Dad picks that moment to knock on the door, I go let him in.
“Hello ladies! How has your day been?”
We both answer in unison, “Great!”
“That’s good to hear. Gwen, we are ordering pizza tonight from that place around the corner. I stopped by on my way back here and told them what we wanted and told them to have it here at six. So, in three hours dinner will be served and I bought us a bottle of wine. Now, if you don't mind, I need to see what streaming services you have so I can see what comedies we have to choose from.
I can’t help but smile at him and his take charge attitude. It’s just who he is, and I love him for it. “Dad, that sounds perfect!”
Becca stands up and says it's time she hit the road. She has a few things to do at home and has to get dinner ready for Tommy. I hug her tight and thank her again for just being her. I walk her to the door, and she whispers in my ear. “If after he leaves tonight you need me, call and I will come right over, pinky promise?” I wrap my pinky around hers and promise, we hug again before she walks out the door and shuts it behind her.
I turn and stroll back to the living room where Dad is sitting on the couch, searching through movies on the television. He pats the seat beside him for me to come join him. He wraps his arms around me, and we sit like that for a while before he interrupts it with, “I wish your mom was here…she would know exactly what to do and say to help you, cupcake.”
I look at him with tears in my eyes. “Dad, you have done an amazing job yourself. I couldn’t ask for anything more. I love you.”
Tears well up in his eyes. “Baby, I miss your mom so much, sometimes I feel like I can’t go on. I think we need to talk about a few things. After last night, I did a lot of thinking throughout the night. I couldn't sleep. What Edward did to you is just unbelievable. He best be thanking his lucky stars, it was Tommy that showed up here last night and not me. I think I would have killed him. Anyway, all my thinking brought me to this. I am ready to let you in on a few things and that's why I needed to leave this morning. I needed to take care of some business.”
“Okay” … I whisper, feeling a little confused, not knowing what he is talking about.
“Gwen, let me be quite blunt, if I may. I want you to quit your job at Mason and Clark.”
“Dad! I can’t do that until I find another job. I will lose everything I have worked for, and George is letting me work from home, so I am not in the building at all right now.”
“Baby, please listen to me, how long do you think George is going to be able to keep it like this? Not to mention, George is getting up in age and will more than likely retire and you will be moved to another partner, if not let go altogether because of Edward. I am just thinking about your future and keeping you safe. Something you don't know is that your mom came from a damn wealthy family. When we got married, we invested all her trust funds and watched what we spent out of it… and I mean we watched every penny. When you were born, she immediately took half of our investments and put them aside for you. That is where I have been today, fixing your account up. You are sitting on five hundred thousand dollars right now. It is all yours, every cent, if you will just walk away from your job where that damn sicko works, and his family owns.”
I am taken back. I don't even know what to say. I never knew we had money like that. Mom and Dad never acted like they had anything more than what my dad made at his job.
“Dad, I don’t know what to say. Are you serious? Does this leave you any money?”
He laughs. “Yes, love, it leaves me plenty. About eight hundred thousand with my retirement and I only live off of the interest, so basically that money will be yours one day as well.”
“How did Mom's family come into all this money and why didn’t I know anything about it?” I ask.
“Well, from what I understand, your grandfather invested smartly, and he and your grandmother never spent a dime more than necessary. When they passed, your mom was just as surprised as you are at what they left her. She had always thought they were dirt poor. We didn’t want to raise you to be snotty, so we just lived a normal working-class life. We figured one day the money would do you good and maybe could even be passed on to our future grandkids if invested right. This is one of those times I think it needs to be put to use. Take some time off from working. Try your hand at that writing you love to do, look for a new job, take some college classes, or whatever you want to do. Just promise you will leave Mason and Clark in the past and I will hand you all the account information you need.”
I cannot believe we are having this conversation.
“Dad, I will quit. I have been playing with the idea for a while. I didn't want to work with Edward even if we had gotten married. And as much as I like my boss, I don’t want anything to do with that place now. Even if Edward were fired or left the company, I would still be working for his family and I want a clean fresh start away from anything Edward. In fact, I was planning to start looking for jobs this weekend. I just dread breaking the news to George. He is going to be heartbroken.”
“Well, baby this gives you some room to breathe. Just be responsible with it. That is all I ask. Your mother wanted you to have a good life with it, but she told me to use my own discretion as to when it was time to give it to you, if something happened to her before me. I think now is the perfect time.”
I reach over and hug him. “Thank you so much, Dad.” I feel like thank you is all I have been able to say all day. I have so much to be thankful for. I feel like I keep finding little diamonds in the dark that is surrounding me right now.
