Sweet Revenge

life.”
    “You had no right—”
    “It has nothing to do with rights. I know it was difficult, even horrible in many ways, but it’s over.” He tightened his grip. “You’re clinging to something you should have let go a long time ago.”
    “I’m taking back what’s mine by right, by the law, and by my birth. I’m taking back what dignity was stolen from my mother and from me.”
    “We both know that stones don’t bring dignity to anyone.”
    “You don’t understand. You can’t.” Her fingers tightened on his a moment, then relaxed. “Come with me a minute.”
    She led him out of the breakfast nook, through the hall, into a sitting room. She’d decorated it in white on white with a few passionate slashes of red and royal blue. Over a marble fireplace scrubbed clean as glass was the portrait.
    More than the clipped photographs, more than any film he’d ever seen, it showed Phoebe Spring in her glory. Her hair, that furious trademark red, fell wave upon wave to her shoulders. Her skin was like new milk against an emerald gown that dipped to her breasts and left her arms andshoulders bare. She was smiling, on the edge of a laugh, so that her wide, luxurious mouth seemed all the fuller. Her eyes, a striking Viking blue, were lit with promise and unmistakable innocence. A man couldn’t look at it and not be drawn, not want, not wonder.
    Around her neck, as he’d seen before, was The Sun and the Moon.
    “She was magnificent, Addy. The most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen.”
    “Yes. But she was more than her looks. She was kind, Philip. Truly kind. Her heart would break over a strangers trouble. She was easily hurt, a sharp word, an angry look. All she ever wanted to do was make people happy. She didn’t look like this when she died.”
    “Addy—”
    “No, I want you to see. I had this painted from a picture that was taken of her just before she married. She was so young, younger than I am now. And so much in love. You can see just by looking that at that moment she was a woman secure in herself, happy with life.”
    “Yes, I can see that. Time passes, Addy, things change.”
    “It wasn’t a matter of time for her, or of natural change. That necklace—she told me once how she’d felt the first time she’d put that necklace on. She’d felt a queen. It hadn’t mattered to her that she’d be giving up everything she’d known, going to another country to live under different rules. She’d been in love and she’d felt like a queen.”
    He touched a hand to her cheek. “She was.”
    “No.” She lifted her hand and laid it on his wrist. “She was only a woman, naive, big-hearted, afraid of the dark side of life. She’d made something of herself, become something. Then she let it go because he asked. The necklace was a symbol, a promise that he was as committed to her as she was to him. When he took it back, he was making a statement that he renounced her, and me. He took it back because divorce wasn’t enough. He wiped away the marriage, as if it had never been. When he did that, he took the last of her dignity, and he stole my birthright.”
    “Addy, sit down a minute. Please.” He lowered to the sofa with her, keeping her hands in his. “I understand how it feels. There was a time I looked for my father in everystranger’s face. In every teacher I ever had, every cop I avoided, even in the marks I chose. I spent my childhood hating him for turning his back on my mother and refusing to acknowledge me. But I still looked. I don’t know what I would have done if I’d found him, but I do know that there comes a time when you have to be enough for yourself.”
    “You have your mother, Philip. What happened didn’t destroy her. You didn’t have to watch her die bit by bit. I loved her so much. I owe her so much.”
    “What’s between a parent and child doesn’t require payment.”
    “She risked her life for me. It was no less than that. It was for me she left Jaquir much more than for herself. If she’d been caught, taken back, her life would have been over. No, he wouldn’t have killed her,” she said when Philip’s eyes narrowed. “He wouldn’t have dared, but she would have wished herself dead. She’d have been better off dead.”
    “Addy, however much you loved her, whatever you feel you owe her isn’t worth risking your life. Ask yourself if she’d want you to.”
    She shook her head. “It’s down to what I want. The necklace is mine.”
    “Even if you