Chapter 2

02

Over the weekend Nina steadied a little. Her fever broke.

My mother called five times in a row, insisting I bring Nina back to her place for a meal.

I knew what today was. A family dinner, which meant Aunt Diane and Brittany Acevedo would be there too.

I didn't want to go. I didn't want to sit through their sneering. But my mother sobbed into the phone that I was an ungrateful daughter, so I steeled myself and went.

The moment I walked in, the table was already spread with food. Aunt Diane sat at the head, and Brittany was beside her, peeling shrimp for her.

"Well, well, look who's back. Zoe."

Aunt Diane didn't even lift her eyes. "Heard you lost your job again? Not that it's my place to say, but you were the one who just had to marry that penniless Morgan. And look at you now. Can't even hold down a paycheck."

I pulled Nina down into a corner with me and kept my head lowered. "The company wasn't doing well. They cut people."

"Then why did they cut you and not somebody else?"

Brittany scoffed beside her and gave her wrist a little shake, showing off the gold bracelet gleaming there. "Sis, a woman doing well never beats a woman marrying well. Look at my husband. He just got me a BMW last month. If you'd listened to my mom back then and found someone rich, would you be sitting here unable to pay your own kid's medical bills?"

I bit my lip and said nothing.

Five years of this. Five years of the comparisons and the humiliation.

To them I was the cautionary tale, the stepping stone that made their own happy lives look brighter.

My mother sat beside me, her face cycling through pale and pinched, until she finally couldn't hold it in. "That's enough of the cheap talk. Zoe, honey, I called you back today because I have something serious to discuss with you."

I raised my head and looked at her, worn out. "What is it?"

She took a deep breath, like she'd made up her mind about something big. "I had someone arrange a match for you."

The second the words were out, the table went silent. Aunt Diane and Brittany both stopped what they were doing and stared at me like I was the punch line of a joke.

"Mom, look at the state I'm in. What's the point of setting me up with anyone?" I gave a bitter little laugh.

"Just hear me out first!" My mother got flustered and grabbed my hand. "This one's a really good catch! He's an ocean freighter captain, name's Stewart Delgado. Thirty-six this year, never been married! And here's the big thing, he makes two million nine hundred ninety-nine thousand a year! That's nearly three million, Zoe!"

I froze. Three million? A man with that going for him would look twice at a single mother dragging around a sick daughter?

"Mom, don't joke about this. Someone with prospects like that, why would he want me?"

Aunt Diane let out a cold snort and curled her lip. "That's what I figured. Nothing good just falls out of the sky. Come on, out with all of it. What's wrong with this man?"

My mother hesitated, her eyes darting away. "There's, there's nothing wrong with him. It's just... his line of work is unusual. He's out at sea most of the year. Once he ships out, it's three years, and out on the open ocean there's no signal at all. Basically no way to reach him the whole time."

The room went quiet for two seconds, then broke into laughter.

"I knew it!"

Aunt Diane slapped her thigh, cackling. "Three years without a trace, can't even get a phone call through, how is that any different from being a widow with a live husband? No wonder he's thirty-six and still not married. What decent girl would marry into that kind of misery!"

Brittany chimed right in. "Exactly. Isn't that just paying for a maid to sit at home and wait on him? Sis, you'd better think this through. Three years out of sight, and he could have three wives and four mistresses out there without you ever knowing. Even with the money, wouldn't it burn your hands to take it?"

My mother lost her temper and slammed the table. "So what if it's like being a widow! The man gives nearly three million a year! Zoe can barely put food on the table right now, and she's worried about that? Zoe, let me tell you, he doesn't mind that you're divorced with a kid, he's willing to give you a stable life, and that's a blessing dropping right into your lap! Don't be too stupid to know a good thing when you see it!"

"Mom!" I couldn't take any more of it and shot to my feet. "I'm a person, not some object you can sell off to the highest bidder!"

"You think you're still in any position to be picky!"

Aunt Diane looked at me coldly, her eyes full of contempt. "Zoe, face reality. A divorced woman dragging around a sickly kid, who's going to take that on? The man's offering you money, you should be down on your knees grateful. A divorced woman is discounted secondhand goods. You've got no right to sit here and pick and choose!"

Secondhand goods. The three words came down like a hammer, straight onto my heart.

I looked at Aunt Diane's spiteful face, at the gloating in Brittany's eyes, at the pleading, frantic look in my mother's, and the anger and grief inside me twisted together into one.

I took Nina's hand and, without a word, walked toward the door.

"Where do you think you're going! If you don't say yes today, don't you dare call me your mother again!" my mother roared behind me.