Page 33 of January (New Orleans #1)

“I ’ve got the paperwork ready for you, and our notary is ready as well, so we just need your signatures,” Mr. Beaufort said. “I do want to double-check that this is what you want to do.” He looked at Jolie. “You’d be giving these houses to your sister.”

“I’m selling them for one dollar each, actually. I want one of those pressed pennies from Café Du Monde.”

Kyle laughed and rolled her eyes at her sister.

“Well, okay. Let me get the notary in here, and we’ll get started.” Mr. Beaufort left the conference room.

“I’ll ask again, too,” Kyle said.

“I want that pressed penny, Ky. Two of them. One from the café and one from the Riverwalk.”

“I’m serious, Jolie,” Kyle replied.

“I know. So am I. But given Melinda’s concerns, I want to make sure that you’re good with this, too. It puts all the pressure on you, like she said. I hadn’t thought about it like that before she brought that up, but it’s true.”

“I’m used to it.” Kyle shrugged.

“But it won’t put a damper on this whole new life thing you’re working on?”

“No,” she replied. “I need to finally just deal with this, with her , and move on. If you don’t have any of this inheritance to give her, that actually helps my cause.”

“Okay. Here we go,” Mr. Beaufort said as he walked back into the room with a woman who held a book and a stamp.

An hour and a half later, Kyle was the proud one-hundred-percent owner of two houses and had more money in the bank than she’d ever thought she’d see in her entire life .

“I did something at the bank yesterday,” Kyle revealed.

They walked outside, and Kyle reached for her phone to order a car.

“What?”

“I set up a savings account for those possible future kids of yours. It’s in my name for now, but eventually, we’ll move it over to them. My plan is to rent out Grandma’s house. All the money the rental makes will go into that account. I started them out with some money, too, but Mom won’t be able to get to it. I’m telling you because I’m trusting you not to tell her about it at all, even though it’s my account. I need to know, Jolie, that you can have this information, and it’s not a risk that one day, when you have kids, and they’re ready to go off to college or join the military or work as a tour guide, they’ll be able to use all this money and it won’t be Mom taking advantage of it.”

Jolie thought for a moment as Kyle ordered their car, looking up to meet Jolie’s eyes.

“Let’s call her.”

“Mom?”

“Yes. Let’s meet with her,” Jolie said.

“Why?”

“To tell her about all this; not the savings account, but that she won’t be able to take advantage of me anymore. That the money isn’t in my hands, and neither are the homes. Let’s tell her together that she’s not getting anything and that she needs to get her life together herself. I’ll be right there with you. I’ll be firm, Ky.”

“Are you sure? That’s a lot. She’s angry right now, Jolie. She’s trying to find an attorney.”

“I know. I can handle it. It’s about time, anyway,” Jolie replied.

“Okay. If you’re sure.”

Jolie reached for her own phone and quickly pressed the screen, putting it to her ear.

“Mom?” She paused. “Can you meet Ky and me?”

Kyle hadn’t been prepared for her to call their mother right away, but she’d go with this if it meant they’d finally be able to tackle their mother together.

“Yes, we want to talk to you.” Jolie paused again, rolling her eyes at Kyle in exasperation. “No, you don’t need to bring a lawyer. Mom, we’re your kids. Will you just meet us?”

“Where?” Kyle whispered.

Jolie looked around and said, “There’s a diner. I’ll text you the info, okay? Meet us there in a half hour.”

Kyle saw the diner Jolie was referring to. A minute later, Jolie hung up and sent their mother the address.

“Why here?”

“Because it’ll be a public place; less likely for her to make a scene. And it’s not in the Quarter or the Square or anywhere you’re likely to go again. If this goes sideways, I don’t want you to have a bad memory of Jackson Square because of our mother.”

Kyle smiled at her younger sister before she canceled their shared-ride car and they walked toward the diner, where they were sat in a booth. Minutes later, they both had a cup of coffee in their hands, but neither of them had taken a drink yet. It was more to have something to do with their hands than because they needed the coffee. They also weren’t talking while they waited on their mother. At first, Jolie had wanted to come up with a game plan, but they’d both decided it might be best to just go with it, let Kyle take the lead, and try to make this as quick as possible.

“I didn’t know you were here,” their mother said once she arrived at their booth.

“I flew in yesterday,” Jolie said. “Sit.” She motioned to the other side of the booth, which they’d left empty for their mother.

“I assume I’m here so we can avoid the messy lawyer stuff?”

“Yes,” Jolie replied.

“Great. When can I expect–”

“Never,” Jolie interrupted.

Kyle turned her head toward her sister .

“Sorry?” their mother said in disbelief.

“Mom, Grandma left Kyle and me this money. It’s not yours.”

“I came here because I thought we could be civil and get this done,” their mother said.

“And we are. It’ll be done today,” Jolie replied. “You won’t be able to get anything from me anymore because I don’t have anything. I transferred everything Grandma left me to Kyle, and Kyle isn’t giving you any of it.”

“You gave Kyle all of the money?! What about the houses?”

“Those, too. She owns them outright now.”

“Then, I’ll have to hire an attorney.”

“You can try that, but Kyle has one already, and he’s one of the best in the city. He says you have no case, and I believe him. Grandma made sure to be very clear in her will. She didn’t just give everything to us; she specifically said that you get nothing.”

“She did not,” their mother huffed.

“Ky and I watched the video today, Mom. She did. You should watch it. She wasn’t trying to be mean to you, but you took her grandchildren away from her. She never got to meet us because of you, and she wanted us to have something from her because of that. You never told us about the cards, about the calls on our birthdays and Christmas, about how Dad tried to get you to go home, or at least, let us talk to our grandparents. You never did anything except make us feel like your two biggest mistakes.”

“I did not.”

“You told Kyle that you never wanted her,” Jolie stated. “How dare you say that to my sister? She raised me when you couldn’t or wouldn’t.”

“She didn’t raise you. I didn’t see Kyle paying rent on the trailer.”

“Kyle started making me dinner when she was five years old, Mom.”

“I had to work.”

“ You had to drink,” Jolie remarked. “ You had to be out with friends, and you had to not come home some nights. Ky woke me up and got me to school. Ky packed a lunch for me when she could. You’ve treated her like all this was her fault, and none of it was. You messed up when you were a kid, Mom. I don’t know why or what caused it, but you did that. Somehow, Kyle and I ended up all right, and she’s been trying to get me to finally stop giving in when you push me, and I’m ready for that now.”

“So, this is your fault, as usual,” their mother retorted.

Kyle tried not to be offended by that, not to let it sting her like everything else their mother had always said to her. This was only one of her many comments, and it wasn’t even the worst the woman had thrown at her.

“That’s enough,” Jolie stated firmly as she leaned over the table. “You will leave her alone starting now. You will leave both of us alone starting now. If you ever want any kind of relationship with us, you will get yourself some help. I don’t care if it’s rehab or a therapist or what, but you’ll figure it out.”

“How am I supposed to pay for that?”

Jolie looked to Kyle then.

“I will agree to pay a therapist,” Kyle said. “And if they recommend rehab, to pay for that. But, Mom, if you leave early, I won’t pay for it. You’d have to foot the bill.”

“I don’t need rehab,” the woman guffawed.

“You need something,” Jolie replied. “You have to deal with this, Mom. I won’t be there anymore to pick you up when you’re drunk and make sure you get to work so that you don’t lose your job. And Ky is moving here, so she won’t be there, either. This is it. This is your chance to try to finally be a decent mother and to stop treating your kids like shit because you screwed up decades ago.”

“Therapy is expensive.”

“Yeah. And if you go, I’m paying the therapist. You’re not getting any money. It goes straight to them. You never touch it. ”

“Why are you like this?” their mother asked, shaking her head.

“Because you’ve forced us here, Mom. You’ve threatened to take money from your children.”

“Because–”

“No. You don’t deserve it. You deserve this conversation, and that’s it,” Jolie interrupted her again. “Those are the terms, Mom. If you ever want any kind of relationship with me, us, our own future families, you will drop this inheritance thing. You will get some help. You will work through whatever it is that you need to work through. Until then, we’re done, Mom. I don’t want to see you. I can’t visit. It’s not healthy for me.”

“Same for me,” Kyle added.

“She wasn’t a perfect mother, either,” their mother said in response.

“Grandma?” Jolie asked.

“She wasn’t a saint.”

“How would we know, Mom? We never got to meet her,” Kyle replied.

“She would’ve made me move home.”

“Why would that have been so bad?”

“We were too different. She wanted me to be something I wasn’t, and I wanted her to just understand.”

“Sounds familiar,” Kyle said.

Their mother stared at her for a minute, and Kyle wasn’t sure how to read her expression, so she wrapped her hands around her now-cold coffee.

“I won’t get a lawyer, but I’m not happy.”

“No one asked if you were happy,” Jolie replied. “We’re not exactly happy, either. The difference is that we want to try to be, and you can either be in the way of that or get out of it, Mom.”

“What did you do to her?” their mother asked, looking at Kyle still. “She was never like this before.”

“She made me strong,” Jolie replied for Kyle. “She’s my big sister, and she made me strong. I’m just finally ready to show her that.”

Kyle’s eyes welled with tears that she didn’t want to shed right now, so she did her best to hold them in.

“I don’t know about rehab or therapy. I couldn’t get time off from work, anyway,” their mother excused.

“Then, we’ll talk when you figure out how to get whatever help you’re going to get,” Jolie said. “Until then, Mom, the money train has left the station, and the taking-care-of-you part of my life has to be over. You’re my mom. You’re supposed to be taking care of me until you’re super old and need us to help change your adult diapers or something. This isn’t supposed to be how it is.”

“I won’t wear adult diapers,” the woman replied.

“We all will eventually. No shame in that,” Jolie said.

Kyle chuckled a little under her breath until her mother’s gaze landed on her own again, but it didn’t seem angry or unreadable this time. It was almost sad. Had something Jolie said finally gotten through to her?

“I’ll book a flight home.”

“Good,” Jolie said.

“I’m not going to rehab.”

“Some kind of therapy?” Kyle asked.

“You’ll pay for it?”

“I want to be clear, Mom: I’m only paying for the billable therapy hours. I won’t pay for anything else. I will work it out with them that they are not to give you any money. If you try to run some kind of refund scam where you get me to pay for more sessions than you’re receiving and try to get them to give you the extra money, it won’t work. I’ll warn them. I’ll double-check everything.”

“Sounds like a full-time job,” Jolie noted. “Don’t do that to her, Mom. Take this seriously. Just do this, please. You’ve never done anything for us. Do this . I’ll go to the therapist’s office myself to make sure you’re there if I have to.”

“Oh, and Jolie gets to help pick out the therapist.”

“What?” their mother protested. “It’s supposed to be my therapy that I don’t even need. ”

“You’re not going to pick someone who makes it easy and gives you gold stars. You need to find someone who can help you deal with whatever you need to deal with, Mom.”

“If they want me to go in with you or Ky one day, we can talk about doing that as well so we can all start trying to heal together,” Jolie offered.

“Family therapy? I tried that once. It didn’t work.”

“No, you didn’t try. That was the problem. This time, you will, or that’ll be it, Mom. I can’t have you in my life if you’re going to keep making Kyle feel awful or if you’re going to call me one day, while I’ve got my kids in my car, and ask me to pick you up from a bar because you’re too drunk to drive home. I won’t continue this cycle.”

“I won’t, either,” Kyle added.

“You’re having kids now, too? With this Melinda?”

“Mom, we’re making progress here. Don’t say anything you’ll regret later.”

Her mom nodded and said, “I like her. She’s…”

“Spunky?” Kyle finished.

“She stood up for you.”

“She did.”

“I never did that,” her mother said.

“No, you didn’t,” Kyle replied, sighing and then swallowing.

“I didn’t know how to, Kyle.”

“I know,” she said.

“Mom, learn how. Get help,” Jolie added, placing her hand on top of their mother’s on the table. “Please. It’s been over thirty years. Just stop fighting and try.”

Their mother didn’t say anything at first. She just looked around the diner instead.

“Where’s the waiter? I’m hungry.”

Jolie pulled her hand away and turned to Kyle.

“Do you two want something to eat?” their mother asked. “Pancakes? My treat.”

“Sure, Mom,” Kyle replied, recognizing this as their mother taking that important first step .

“Mom, Ky is going to buy me a couple of pressed pennies today. Do you want to come with us before you fly home?” Jolie asked.

The woman shook her head and said, “No, I think I’ll let you girls have your fun.”

“It’s the best we’re going to get for now,” Kyle said softly to Jolie. “I’m proud of you,” she whispered, smiling at her younger sister, who smiled back at her.