The Day He Came Back

After my father passed, we decided to make London our full-time home. We sold my loft and purchased a house outside the city in Surrey.

Wanting to keep the Palm Beach estate in the family, we held onto it and used it as a vacation home. Weldon also divided his time between Florida and California. So between all of us, the house still got a lot of use. We kept Genevieve and Fred employed as a thank you for their years of devotion to my father, and now my daughters would get to enjoy the place where I grew up. Even though some of my memories weren’t good ones, I planned to make many new and better memories here.

Each of our girls looked so different. Marina was the spitting image of me. With the darkest hair and porcelain skin, Natalia looked just like her mother. And oddly, our youngest, Arianna, with her dark blond hair and fine features looked exactly like Weldon (and my mother, Ruth). He loved to give us shit about that, joking about that one time Raven had jumped him in the kitchen pantry.

Speaking of Weldon, my brother was now walking toward us from the driveway. He’d just arrived from the airport, and there by his side was his new lady friend. I could see from here that she was tall.

I got up off the grass as my daughters ran to him. With his long, wild hair and crazy personality, Weldon was a huge hit with the girls; they adored their uncle more than their favorite cartoon characters. He had certainly come a long way.

He lifted our youngest. “You’re looking more and more like me every day.”

I smiled at the woman he’d brought with him. All I knew was her name was Myra. She had long, black hair with purple and blue stripes at the front. Her arms were covered in tattoos and a ring sparkled in her nose.

“Myra, this is my big brother, Gavin, and his wife, Raven.”

“Great to meet you both. Weldon’s told me so much about you. Your story is amazing.”

“I’m particularly fond of the second part,” Raven said.

Myra asked for the bathroom, so Raven took her inside on her way to put Arianna down for a nap.

Weldon leaned in. “What do you think? Mother would have loved Myra, eh?”

We both got a good chuckle at that. My mother would have shit a brick at the sight of Myra. And that gave me great satisfaction. I was proud of my brother for cleaning up his act and remaining sober all these years, and I was happy he’d found a woman he seemed to be connecting with. After passing the California bar, he’d finally returned to practicing law, too.

Raven and Myra were laughing when they returned from inside the house; they seemed to be getting along well.

Marina pulled on Weldon’s jeans. “I want ice cream!”

“Damn, you don’t forget anything, do you?” he said. “On the phone the other day, I told her when I got here I’d take her. I can’t believe she remembered.”

“Oh she doesn’t miss a beat,” I said.

“Is it okay if Myra and I take them to the center of town?” he asked.

Perfect. I was actually hoping to find some alone time with my wife today.

“Go right ahead.”

After we packed Marina and Natalia into Weldon’s rental car, I turned to Raven as we walked back into the house. “You hear that?”’

“What?”

“Absolutely nothing. The sweet sound of quiet.”

“It’s so rare these days, isn’t it?”

“Come upstairs with me.” I took her hand. “There’s something I want to show you.”

“I bet.” She winked. “We’re alone, after all.”

“Believe it or not, this time, it’s not what you think.”

“Well, I’m intrigued.”

Once inside the master bedroom, I opened the drawer to reveal a flat velvet box. I’d taken a trip to the family safe earlier today. Inside the box was one of my mother’s most prized possessions.

“Oh my God. Your mother’s diamond necklace. Where did you find that?”

“I’ve always had it. It was in the safe at the bank, along with most of her other jewelry.”

She looked at it hesitantly, as if it were alive and going to bite her. “I remember thinking how obnoxious it was that she wore this all the time, even just hanging around the house.”

“She definitely liked to flaunt her wealth,” I said as I took the necklace out of the box. “Let’s see how it looks on you.”

Raven held out her hand in protest. “Oh no. I can’t wear it.”

“Why not?”

“Because she hated me. And I don’t want to be reminded of that.”

“I think that’s exactly why you should put it on, for the sheer fact that she’d hate it.”

Raven looked at the sparkling diamonds in my hand. “The day she came to threaten me, she was wearing it. I remember it gleaming as she yelled. She’d also brought my necklace with her—the nameplate one. A maid had found it under the bed in your room. That was how your mother realized you’d snuck me into the house that weekend.”