Free Condemn Me Not by Dianne Venetta, Jaxadora Design Page B

your education
so you can go off half-cocked on a business venture with your boyfriend—”
    But
her daughter had shut down.  Mariah wasn’t listening anymore.
    Simone
tightened her grip and eased toward her daughter.  Her pulse pounded. 
“Mariah—you have to see this from my point of view.  I’m not trying to ruin
your life, I’m trying to save it.  One day you’ll understand and appreciate my
efforts but for now you’ll simply have to trust me.”
    As
though operating on a separate channel, Mariah mumbled into empty air. 
“Rebecca’s mom said she believed I could do it.  That if any young woman could
go out and make her own way it would be me.”  Moisture glistened in the whites
of her eyes, the green growing fluid as Mariah turned to face her.  “Why can’t
you say the same?”
    Resentment
seared a reply clear off Simone’s lips, but her thoughts were loud and clear.  Claire
should keep her thoughts to herself.
    “Maybe
it’s because she was always there and you weren’t,” Mariah went on, evidently
misreading Simone’s silence for a lack of rebuttal.  She turned, and plunked
herself down onto the damask-upholstered chair cushion.  “Maybe that’s why she
can see the real me and you can’t.”
    “I
was there for everything important in your life, Mariah.”  Simone maintained a firm
hold of the table, the only thing keeping her solid and upright.  “I never missed
a play, an open house.  I never missed a sports game or a dance recital.” 
Through the years her daughter had tried her hand at a wide variety of
activities and she had busted her butt to attend every event.  She was proud
not to have missed a one.  Not a big one, anyway.  But she couldn’t be
expected to watch every soccer game, every tennis match.  Tournaments yes, but
every game, every match?
    No
one could boast that record.  No one but Claire.  Annoyance percolated.  But Claire didn’t have anything else to do, but attend her daughter’s games and
dances.  It probably helped pass the time, but it wasn’t fair to compare the
two of them.  They dealt with wholly different obligations.  She was a
good mother.  And a successful career woman.  She was disciplined and caring. 
To assert anything to the contrary was inaccurate.  But that’s exactly what her
daughter was doing.  “It’s unfair of you to claim that I wasn’t around, because
it isn’t true.”
    “You
weren’t at my tenth grade spelling bee, the one where I won runner-up.”
    “What?” 
Simone’s surprise was swift and complete.  She released her hold of the bed and
approached Mariah.  “I most certainly was and do you know what it took me to
get there?”  She remembered the day clearly.  Len had scheduled a late
afternoon meeting and demanded all senior VPs attend.  Simone attended but
begged out early.  The move earned her a scathing dismissal from her boss—one
most unusual for him—but Simone understood and accepted her lot.  When your
largest client announces it is withdrawing its capital, tsunamis of pressure
steamroll through the corridors of a banking firm, wiping out everything but
the need to retain and regain.
    Simone
ran the numbers three times before the meeting and twice during, but
unfortunately still came up short.  Len was not happy with her, but she would
have to implore forgiveness later.  Her daughter had earned a place in the
competition’s finals and she was damn well going to be there for it.
    “Really?”
Mariah challenged.  “You weren’t sitting with Dad and the Atkins.”
    Well Dad had the luxury of time, garnering a front row seat with a half hour
to kill.  She on the other hand, was lucky to snag a spot in the back.  It was
standing room only in the dark shadows along the auditorium wall and almost too
far from the stage to see her daughter’s face.  But Simone craned and tiptoed
and watched every second of her daughter’s performance—which had been priceless. 
She had had that