A Broken Fate (The Beautiful Fate Series book 2) (29 page)

“If you don’t like it then we will find something else to do with them.”

“It… them… what is it already?!”

Ari turned the knob and pushed open the door. I cocked my head to the side again and my jaw hung down. Ari had taken the scissors from my mother’s collection and had them arranged in a glass shadow box. The box hung magnificently on the study wall near the door.

“What do you think?”

“It’s beautiful. Perfect.”

I walked closer to the wall and stared at the scissors carefully hanging in mix-and-match rows.

Ari tapped on the glass at the pair in the middle of the middle row.

“Oh…” I furrowed my brow. “Those are mine – the pair Maya gave me.”

“I hope it is okay that I added those. I figured they needed a home, too.”

“The gift is perfect, Ari. I love it. I love you. Thank you.”

“You’re most welcome, Ava.”

I frowned.

“What’s the matter?”

“Nothing,” I shrugged a bit. “Your gifts from me are next door, but they aren
’t nearly as good as the gifts you have given me.”

“You give me everything I need by just breathing
, Ava.”

He kissed the corner of my mouth, took my hand and we walked back out of the study and towards the back door.

“You know your mom is going to kill us for showing up at her house on Christmas dressed like this,” I said looking down at my bare feet and Ari’s hardly worn gym shoes.

“Ava, I am sure she won
’t have one negative thing to say for a very, very long time.”

Ari pulled my favorite gray hooded sweatshirt from a peg by the door, the one that had once belonged to him, and wrapped me up in it. He tugged at my ponytail again with a smile, planted a kiss on my forehead and very slowly picked me up in his arms. He cradled me in his arms as he had on the evening of our wedding and I watched as his Nikes make Swoosh imprints in the sand.

We showed up at the back door four hours late but we were still greeted with smiles and gentle hugs. Ari walked me straight to the living room and made a little nest for us on the couch.

Max was sitting on the floor playing with a dozen or so new toys. I had gotten him a little antique piano. It was a kid
’s toy from the 1950’s and probably shouldn’t have been played with anymore but I wanted him to have it. He sat on his knees and pushed on the tiny black and white keys. He had a grin stretched across his face from ear to ear. He carried it over to me and I played
twinkle, twinkle
for him and he laughed and had me do it again and again. I laughed, too, but I think it was mostly the painkillers talking.

Apparently, my actions and reactions weren
’t just funny to Ari, because after my second dose of medication for the day the whole house made a game out of making me say funny things. Ari was shaking so hard with laughter over a French conversation August was trying to engage me in that I had to have him scoot over to keep from shaking me, too.

I didn
’t eat much or say much at the dinner table and neither did Aggie. She kept quiet all day and I felt awkward. I felt bad that Ari had fought with her over me and I hoped they got over their differences soon. Aggie had been cold to me lately and a little quick lipped but I didn’t think she meant to be. I hoped not anyway. I knew that she liked me, more than liked me – she loved me and I loved her, too. It was just that I had taken her baby away from her. I don’t think she had been prepared for the hard time she would have picking up the pieces and moving on with this stage in her life.

Andy lightened the mood by giving a nice Christmas toast and pouring glasses of wine a bit too full. Max told Ari all about Santa coming and I really regretted not having been there in the morning to see the excitement on Max
’s face. I could tell Ari was disappointed that he missed the occasion, too.

“I
’m sorry I wasn’t here, Max,” Ari said to him as he placed his hand on my back and rubbed his thumb down my neckline. “But my Ava wasn’t feeling well and she is my whole universe.”

His statement was a bit deep for a three-year-old, but it made me swoon nonetheless. Julia and Lauren drew out a long “awww.” And I, of course, blushed. I didn
’t have to look up to see Aggie’s reaction because the whole table could hear her audible
tsk
. Ari tried to ignore her and keep his conversation up with Max. But I could see his jaw clench tight.

We were nearly done with dinner when the front door bell rang. Andy looked across the table to see who was missing, but every seat was full. And it wasn
’t as though any of us had ever used the doorbell before. Andy excused himself and disappeared down the hall towards the door. He was only gone for a few seconds when he called for Ari.

Ari stood up, kissed me on the top of the head, and followed his dad
’s voice towards the front door. I could hear some talking but I couldn’t make out what was being said. Ari came back a few minutes later holding two small packages and a thick manila envelope.

“What was that all about?” I asked as he took his seat next to me.

“Well, these are for you,” he said and handed me the packages.

“Oh,” I said a little taken back. “Who was that at the door?”

“I don’t know who that person was exactly, but he was sent here by Margaux.”

My eyes got large and I took a painful, deep breath and started to open the first package. Margaux had gotten me a gift from
Toy Me
. I had seen them before in London. It was a pair of silver scissors that had been molded into a bracelet. I took the bracelet, set it in front of Ari for inspection, and then opened the second gift.

“What the hell…” Ari said as I pulled out a faded blue Cub
’s tee-shirt with a Cubby Bear on it -- the same style shirt that had been ruined with my own bloodshed when I was kidnapped four months ago.

I handed the shirt to him quickly.

“I don’t know if she is taunting me or being nice,” I said, trying to suppress a cold chill that was working its way down my back.

Ari took the gifts and slid them under his chair. He took the envelope and hesitated for a moment.

“Maybe I should just throw it away.”

“You can
’t, Ari; you work for her. You have to at least know what it says when she asks you.”

“Yeah, man,” Rory said. “If you don
’t open it, I will.”

Ari tossed the full envelope down the table towards Rory and it came down on his plate with a thud.

“Do I get to keep whatever is inside if I open this for you?” Rory asked as he toyed with the metal clasp.

“No, you don
’t, so just open it and shut up.”

Rory pulled the clasp straight and then ripped the folded part away from the rest of the envelope. He pulled out a wad of cash that was the size of a brick and the whole table gasped.

I rolled my eyes and shook my head; Margaux was officially a nut job.

“Let me see that,” I said
in disbelief and Rory tossed it at me. I dodged out of the way, as Ari caught the wad of cash, saving me from hurting my ribs again.

“Oops, sorry, Ava; I forgot,” Rory said with a rare frown on his face.

Ari handed me the cash and I thumbed through it.

“This is the same money I gave her a few months ago for my car.”

“You’re joking,” Ari said incredulously.

I pointed to the hair tie I had used to wad it all together.

“Nope, that’s my hair thing.”

“Why did she do that?”

“I don’t know, Ari; she’s something of a psycho.”

Ari rubbed my back.

“She’s not psycho, Ava; she’s just possessed.”

I smiled, then I laughed, then I laughed harder while I held onto my side in pain.

“That wasn’t funny, Ari,” I said, scolding him.

“Are you sure? Because I think it was,” he said playfully, pointing a finger at me.

I handed him back the money.

“Here, you can have it. Maybe cash will make up for the less then awesome Christmas gifts I got you this year. Can I see that bracelet again?”

“Aw, Ava Baby, how romantic, but I like my presents from you,” Ari said as he put the money down with the shirt and grabbed the bracelet. “I’ll add the money to the donation you made to Pacific Rehab. They need it more than us.”

I smiled at him and kissed the corner of his mouth. “That
’s a great idea.”

I looked across the table to see Aggie staring at us.

“What?”

“Do not
‘what’ me, Ava.”

I let out an irritated sigh.

“Did you just give Ari that cash?”

“Well, what
’s mine is his, so I don’t really see what difference it makes.”

“How much was there?”

“Ma, stop,” Ari said with a serious look on his face, forgetting to hand me the bracelet.

“Ava didn
’t give me the money; we are donating it to Pacific Rehab. Ava has been working with the center’s founder since Misha passed and she has added them to her charity list. She had them construct a memorial in Newport. It is really beautiful.”

Ari and Andy were aware of my financial situation, but I don
’t really know if anyone else was. I think for the most part people just assumed I had inherited
some
money but they didn’t know to what extent. Ari supported the fact that I donated my pay from
House to Home
back to the cause and we mostly just lived off what he earned at
baio
. No one was aware of the fact that I work with any charity’s and I liked to have it that way.

“Ava, how much money do you have?” Aggie asked with a bit of a snotty tone.

If she wanted to play this game then I would play it with her.

“I don
’t know, Aggie. Hundreds of millions. Why?”

“You
’re serious aren’t you?” she asked.

“Ma, that
’s none of your business. Stop now,” Ari snapped at her.

Max let out a tiny whimper.

“Yes, I am serious,” I said, ignoring Ari’s plea to end the conversation. I didn’t know why Aggie cared. She and Andy had plenty of money. Maybe she enjoyed thinking of me as an orphan.

Aggie smiled a tight-lipped smile and took a bite of her food and Ari shot me an irritated look.

“What? She asked,” I whispered at him as he got up to put my gifts in a bag by the back door.

We went back to our post on the couch after dinner and watched basketball with the rest of Ari
’s family. I fell asleep before the end of the first quarter, thanks to the painkillers. I had loopy, weird, nonsensical dreams about Aggie until Ari woke me up when it was finally time to go home. We walked back to the house behind August, Collin, Julia and Rory.

“What
’s gotten into your mom, Ari?” I asked, not able to stand her beef with me any longer. “I swear one minute she is fine and then the next minute she looks for an excuse to hate me.”

“She loves you, Ava, you know that. I don
’t know what her problem is. I’ll have a talk with her tomorrow.”

Ari did not have to talk with Aggie the next day because when we left for home Christmas night, she caught up with us on the beach before we reached our gate. Her eyes filled with tears and she enclosed me in her arms and held me in a tight, painful hug.

“Ava, I am so sorry.”

“Okay, Aggie,” I said petting her hair, “it
’s fine.”

“No, it
’s not fine. I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I am just so sorry.”

“Mom,” Ari said pulling her off me, “it
’s alright.”

She threw her arms around Ari and cried. He calmed her down after a few minutes and she agreed to let him walk her back to the house. I gave Aggie one last hug, Ari handed me the bag with the gifts in it, and then I headed up our back steps towards home alone.

I sat on the couch and waited for Ari. It took him ages to get home and I was beginning to feel anxious. To kill the time, I pulled the scissor bracelet out of the bag. The bracelet was silver and shiny. I turned it around in my hands a few times while I stared off at the blackness beyond the window. The wind had picked up briskly and was whistling and pounding on the glass. I suppressed a sudden chill, tossed the bracelet back in the bag and took it, the cash and the tee-shirt back to the study. I threw the cash in a drawer, and took the bracelet and left it on top of the desk. Perhaps, Ari could add it to the collection behind the glass case. I walked back up the hall and threw the Cubs shirt in the closet. When I got back to the living room, Ari still wasn’t home. I finally broke down and called his cell phone. I heard it ring the same time the kitchen door slid open; I was relieved when I saw him and hung up the phone.

“What took you so long?”

“Sorry, she just needed to talk I guess,” Ari said as he took a seat next to me.