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WHEN I CLOSED MY OFFICE door behind me, I took a deep breath, tossed my coat onto the sofa, and then sat at my desk while Ann did exactly what I’d asked of her—she gave me a few moments to collect myself before she put my mother through.
When the phone rang, I steeled myself and answered the line.
“This is Jennifer,” I said.
“Oh, is it?” she said. “After all these years, I’d barely recognize your voice. Do you recognize mine? It’s your mother.”
And so it was—I’d know her voice anywhere. In fact, given the undertone of anger and sarcasm I heard in it, I knew it all too well.
“I could pick out your voice in a line-up,” I said to her.
“Already with the prison insults—always so quick, Jennifer.”
“Right,” I said. “And by the way, it’s nice of you to call. I believe it’s been...what? Five years or so since we last talked?”
“You’ve got our number, girl. The phone goes both ways.”
“So it does. But here’s the thing, Ava,” I said, addressing her by her first name because I refused to call her by any other. “I never wanted to talk to you again.”
“Clearly.”
“Can you blame me?”
“I can. In fact, I do.”
“Then you don’t remember how you raised me, and you especially don’t remember the fight we had when I left Maine. You remember—the one in which you said to me that if I walked out the door, I’d never have a relationship with you again? That I should expect to never hear from either one of you again? That I’d be dead to each of you? Do you recall saying that?”
“I do. It was a bright spot in my week.”
“Then I suppose you also remember calling me a cunt when I left the house to meet Lisa in the driveway? Because I sure as hell remember it. I’ve never forgotten it. So I have to wonder why you’re calling me now, Ava. Are you calling from the clink? Or is my father dead and you’re calling because you need money to bury him? Which is it? Why are you calling me after all these years? Are you calling to hurt me? To shame me in some way? Because that’s been your pattern since I was a kid.” Before she could answer, I waved a hand in the air, as if I could wipe away all the years of abuse with a swift flick. “At this point in our relationship? Here’s where we stand, Ava—I’m giving you one minute to tell me why you’re calling. This conversation ends if you don’t get to the point—and fast.”
“Well, listen to you,” she said to me with fury in her voice. “Calling your own mother by her first name. Is this how you respect the woman who gave birth to you? Who fed and cared for you?”
“Cared for me?” I said in exasperation. “Is that what you did for me, Ava? You cared for me?”
“I did care for you. I nursed you, for God’s sake. I wiped that smelly ass of yours, I bathed you, and I clothed you. And by the way, Jennifer, what the fuck has become of you? The only reason you dare to speak to me like this now is because you somehow landed yourself a billionaire. Apparently, you think that you can talk to me like that. But I’m telling you this, Mrs. Wenn—you can’t. You need to show me the respect I deserve.”
“Give me one reason to.”
“Excuse me?”
“How about this?” I said. “Let’s just get to the point, Ava. Why are you calling? Why the sudden outreach? I have a busy day ahead of me, and I sure as hell have no time in it for you.”
In a girly, mocking voice, she said, “Maybe it’s because you’re so close to giving birth. Maybe I wanted to rattle you before the big day arrives. Hell, Jennifer, maybe I called because I wanted to force you into early labor so that you can feel the pain I went through when you were born.”
“You know what? I’m not doing this. Best to you and the monster you’re married to. Goodbye—”
“Hang up on me, and I’ll call Alex myself,” she said in a threatening tone. “And trust me on this, sugar—if I do call, I plan on telling him that you weren’t as pure as he thought you were when he first married you. Because here’s what I know about you, darling daughter—you’ve never had the guts to tell him the truth, have you? No, I didn’t think so. You’ve been living a lie, and I’m about to reveal the truth to smash you two apart.”
And there it was—the truth that only she, my father, and I knew. I was so ashamed about what my father had done to me when I was a child that I’d never been able to tell even Lisa about it. His molestation of me was my deepest, darkest, most intimate, and humiliating secret—and my mother was about to use it against me.
This was the reason for the call, and because I knew what was coming next, I never had felt so betrayed. I wanted to burst into tears that my own mother would sink so low to hurt me, but since I knew who she was—just how ugly she was—I tried my best to remain strong as she spoke.
“What would those New York tabloids think if your mother happened to call them out of the blue and agree to be interviewed about how your father put his hands on you when you were a little girl?” she asked. “Well, goodness, what would the world think if they knew the truth about the great Jennifer Wenn? To be more precise, Jennifer, what would your husband think about you for not telling him about your past? For lying to him by not revealing to him what your daddy did to you...?”
“What makes you think that I haven’t told—”
“Don’t fuck around me with me, girl, because I know that you haven’t. You’ve said nothing to Alex about any of it—that’s who you are. And I know who you are. You’ve kept this a secret from him. And you and I both know that if he found out now, it could destroy your marriage. Am I wrong?”
At that moment, my head was spinning so fast that I said nothing.
“So I’m not,” she said, seizing my silence. “What a surprise. You’re as deceptive and devious as you claim your father and me to be.”
“Don’t you ever equate me with either of you after what you did to me. You could have stopped him when it was happening, but you chose not to. You knew he came into my bedroom when I was asleep at night, and what he did to me there. You knew that for years he put his hands on me. The only reason I escaped it all is because I somehow had the sense to tell my fourth-grade teacher about it. You remember Mr. Gardner? Yes, I bet you do. He wanted to go straight to the police then and there, but I begged him not to because I knew that my sorry ass of a father would beat the shit out of me if he did. But Mr. Gardner still found a way to act, because he’s the one who came to our house and threatened my father. He’s the one who told him that he would go to the police if he didn’t stop. And you know what, Ava? I’ve always wanted to ask you this—how did you ever sleep at night knowing that your husband was molesting your own child for four years?”
“A cheap bottle of vodka can get you through anything, honey. And beyond that, I needed your father at that point, and so did you. He was working hard for us then—covering the bills, including the ones that kept you and I eating. You should be grateful that he got up each morning and worked his ass off for us.”
“I’ll never be grateful to that bastard,” I said. “Or to you. I might have loved you when I was a young, but I sure as hell don’t love you now. And trust me on this—I want nothing to do with you now.”
“Well, I guess right now that isn’t the case, is it? Because here’s the thing, Jennifer. After sitting for years on the sidelines and not hearing a word from you, Ava’s out for revenge. Ave’s about to call in her chips.”
“So let me guess—you want money?”
“Oh, I do! Millions. In fact, tens of millions—because I’ve been following you on Google for years, baby girl, and I know what you’re worth. I’ve been waiting for you to be at your most vulnerable, which I have a fairly good idea is right about now. According to the tabloids, the whole world is waiting in anticipation for the new addition to the Wenn family, but what if that moment was shattered when I tell the truth that you were molested? And that you married Alex without ever telling him? What would your husband or those who fawn over you think if they knew that you were a sham when you went into that gilded marriage of yours?”
Just hearing those words from my mother made me want to cry, but I kept it together—because there was no way in hell that this woman was going to get tears from me.
“What do you want from me?” I asked.
“Twenty million.”
“You better get real on that figure, bitch.”
She just laughed when I said that.
“Jennifer, your father and I are serious about this, even if it does expose his past transgressions, which happened so many years ago, he legally can’t go to prison for it now. We’ve researched the law. What we want is for the money to be in our account by tomorrow at noon. If we don’t get it, I plan to go public with the tabloids and destroy every glittering image the world has of you. Sure, everyone loves you now. But when they hear how you deceived your husband, what will they think of you then?”
As rattled as I was, I managed to keep my voice steady.
“Even if I did agree to pay you off, you’d just threaten me again once you’ve gone through the money.”
“Who’s to say, baby girl? I’m ruling out nothing.”
“You’d really do this to your own daughter?”
“What daughter? You abandoned us the moment you got rich. I don’t have a fucking daughter. I don’t even consider you my daughter! And if I have to, I’ll do anything to get what I want. I’ll do anything to get what your father and I deserve.”
“I’m getting off the phone now,” I said. “It was great speaking with you, Ava. I’d like to say that your time in prison changed you, but it clearly hasn’t. You’re the same bitch I used to know.”
“Really?” she said. “Are you really going to try to shake me off now, girl? It doesn’t work like that, honey. Not today it doesn’t.”
“I’m hanging up.”
“Then you should know this before you go,” she said. “Listen to me very carefully, because what you need to understand is that I’ve already looked up every reporter I need to get in touch with when it comes to revealing your awful truth to the world. I plan to tell each of them your history with your father. Beyond that? I will go on record with it. And while I know that I’ll take my share of abuse because I didn’t protect you from him, I plan to soften that blow by telling the press that for years your father did this behind my back, and that I didn’t know any of it until recently, when you told me so yourself out of anger.”
“You knew all along,” I said. “And you did nothing!”
“Who gives a shit? What you need to know is that this is what I’m telling the press. I’ll tell them that when it was happening, I was sleeping, because I sure as hell knew nothing about it. I’ll tell them I was shocked when you revealed it to me.”
“And they’ll be hearing this from a woman who just got out of prison for fraud,” I said. “And they’ll know if they print any of your bullshit that Wenn will sue their asses. So good luck with that, lady.”
“They’re tabloids, Jennifer—they get sued all the time. And don’t you see? I’m willing to stand behind my words. I won’t back down for anyone.”
“Why are you doing this?” I asked. “If you needed money, why didn’t you just come to me? I would have given it to you. Why this?”
“Because I hate you,” she said. “I’ve hated you ever since my husband took a liking to you over me when you were just six. I was in the prime of my life at that point, and yet he stopped fucking me because it was obvious he’d rather fuck you. I stopped loving you then, Jennifer. I even thought about killing you. And believe me, if he had penetrated you? I would have killed both of you, so you can count your blessings for that.”
She cleared her throat.
“I’ll end with this—if you don’t come through with the money by noon tomorrow, the world is about to look at you with fresh eyes. And so is your husband. If I fail to hear from you in twenty-four hours, I plan to smear your name as far and as wide as I can. I will ruin your reputation. And I will taint Wenn Enterprises in the process. And when I do that? No one in your circle will ever look at you the same way again, least of all your precious Alex, who will probably drop your ass the moment he hears the news.”
