Page 7 of Salty, Spiced, and a Little Bit Nice

The loud thumping of my heart was deafening. “So the only reason I got my job in the first place was because youbribed them? Why would you do that?”

“Mom, she’s an adult,” Eric said. “You can’t just go around payi—”

“I did, and I’ll do it again if I have to.” She glared at him. “It was for her own good. She was so adamant she didn’t want to work in the family business. Now she can work at your brewery. With the family. With George. Because that’s where she belongs.”

“I’m standingright here.” I raised my voice. “Does it always have to be about the business? Is that all you care about?”

She raised her chin, looking indignant. “The businessmustcome first. It’s the only way we can give you and Eric a comfortable life. And,” she said to Eric, “you know perfectly well why I did what I did. With her condition, I had to make sure she was employed at a place with a safe working environment. Nothing too stressful that can put her in danger.”

“What danger?What does that even mean?I’m perfectly capable of looking after myself, so don’t make this about me.” I slammed the laptop shut.

Guilt roped around my heart as her eyes flared. Perhaps I was being ungrateful, and I was headed straight to the fiery inferno of hell the minute I walked out of this office.

“Ever since you were diagnosed,” my mother advanced on me, her eyeballs almost leaping out of their sockets, as her face twisted in a furious scowl, “we’ve always kept you safe. Made sure you’re well. And this is the thanks we get? Let’s face it, Ellie. You have limitations. And you will never amount to anything without us.”

“Mom,” Eric said, his tone placating, “why don’t we talk about this later?”

She ignored him and jabbed a finger at my chest. “Here’s what you’re going to do. You’re going to call George to apologize. Get back together with him and accept his proposal. Then you’ll start at the brewery, effective immediately.”

I raised my chin at her. “What if I said no?”

Her brown eyes, so much like mine, narrowed with rage. “Then I will cut you off.”

That’s it.That was the last straw. As she glared at me, the past few days came flashing back, like a series of terrible movie clips you didn’t really want to watch but had to because somebody threatened you with bodily harm: the public proposal from a man I wasn’t even in love with; Stewart firing me; and the sad, nasty realization that I was, and always had been, a puppet to my controlling mother, who pulled the strings to suffocate my life.

Using my health as her excuse.

Naomi was wrong. The line between looking after me and micromanaging my life wasn’t super thin and blurry.

It was nonexistent.

“Go ahead. Cut me off. Maybe it’s time to test my so-called limitations.” The words tumbled out of my mouth before I could stop myself. “See if I can survive without the family in my life.”

“Ellie,” Eric turned his world-class negotiation skills on me, “let’s not overreact. I understand you’re upset, but so is Mom. Why don’t you go home, and we can talk once you’ve all calmed down?”

The thing about Eric is, he never subscribed to my manipulative- parent hypothesis. Sure, he conceded that they could be a bit much, but he always reminded me how they had sacrificed a lot for us over the years. How hard they’d worked for our family. Call me cynical, or him naïve, but he was a staunch believer that they always had our best interests at heart.

Whichever it was, I wasn’t sticking around to find out.

“Not overreacting.” I started toward the door. “Just doing what’s right.”

Mom placed her hands on her hips. “If you go through that door, you’re dead to us.”

I ignored her and walked out of the room.

“You hear me, Ellie?” She was yelling so loud, the staff outside her office were craning their necks to see what was going on. “I don’t want to see your face ever again!”

Yeesh. She could now add “melodramatic” to her storied parenting career.

“Hey.” Eric followed me out. “Where are you going? Don’t rush into something you’ll regret later. We can talk about this.”

“There’s nothing to talk about.”

“Be reasonable, Ellie. What are you going to do?”

I had no idea, but I wasn’t going to tell him that. “I’ll keep you posted.”

And with that, I pushed the front door open and left my family.

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