Free The Fortune Quilt by Lani Diane Rich Page B

like he’s been slapped, and he reddens.
    “Carly Simon McKay—” he begins, but I turn my attention to Mary.
    “What the hell do you think you’re doing?” I say. “Where do you get the right?”
    “Don’t you talk to your mother like that,” my father starts, but Mary puts her hand on his arm and says, “Declan.”
    “I’ll talk to her how I want.” I look at Mary and point at Five. “Did you know she hated the name you gave her? Van Morrison McKay? What kind of name is that for a baby girl, anyway? Carly Simon and Ella Fitzgerald were bad enough, but Jesus, lady!”
    “Carly!” Dad sounds really pissed off. I’ve never spoken this way in front of him before. It probably doesn’t help that I look and sound like I’m a kid, and that fact fills me with additional fury, which I promptly unleash on my mother.
    “She watched too much Sesame Street as a baby, because she didn’t have a mother, and decided her name was Five.” The muscles in my legs start to tremble and I know I should leave, but instead I move a step closer to Mary. “Because you weren’t here, my sister is named after a fucking number!”
    “Go to your room!” Dad says.
    I turn to him, and I’m sure I must look as shocked, hurt and offended as I feel.
    “Just to be clear, there’s a difference between looking fifteen and being fifteen,” I say, his betrayal blowing around me like a mini-cyclone.
    “And there’s a difference between being twenty-nine and acting it,” he shoots back.
    “Go to hell!” I yell at him. I’ve never said this to my father. Never . My legs are full-on shaking now and I feel like I’m going to fall over. Ella starts to weep actively in the background. I am at sea, I have no anchor, I don’t know if I’m out of line or not, and I don’t really care.
    After the moment of shock passes, Dad opens his mouth to speak, but Mary puts her hand on his arm. Again.
    “Declan.”
    Dad’s eyes go to her, and he instantly calms. Because she told him to.
    Jesus. She’s his wife. Seventeen years, and suddenly, she’s his wife again. My legs start to shake even more violently.
    What the hell is wrong with this family, anyway?
    Mary looks at me. “I thought I was doing what was best for you.” Her voice is thick, but she’s fighting the tears. Good for her. “You remember how I was. I was a mess. The doctor I found in New Mexico said it was postpartum, but by the time I got better…” She shakes her head, blinks hard, gathers herself. “It took me seventeen years to get over the guilt, to get the courage to come back, to tell you how much I’ve regretted not being here with you.”
    “Should have taken forever,” I say.
    “Shut up!”
    I shift my focus to see Five pushing herself up from the table. She walks toward us and slowly situates herself at Mary’s side.
    “At least you got a chance to know her,” Five says. She seems so mature, suddenly. Much more mature than me. And she’s taller than me. And she sounds older than me. I am overwhelmed with sudden bitterness that my baby sister looks more grown-up than I ever will. “I just want to know her. Think about someone besides yourself, Carly. Don’t ruin this for me.” A fresh tear skips over her cheek. “Don’t make her go away again.”
    Mary strokes Five’s hair and places a shaky kiss on the top of her head. “I’m not going anywhere, sweetheart.”
    Sweetheart . Huh. I turn to Dad. “So what now?”
    His eyes are such a mixture of anger and sadness that I can’t look at them.
    “Your mother is moving back,” he says.
    “No,” I say.
    He has the nerve to look offended. “Excuse me?”
    I cross my arms over my stomach. “I said no. If she comes back, then I’m gone.”
    I instantly regret the ultimatum, because I am against them. I think they’re horrible and manipulative and I can’t believe I’ve just laid one down. I’m about to take it back when Ella stands up.
    “Carly,” she says, “you can’t do that.”
    Yet, I