Free Convince Me (Holton Series #1) by B. L. Blair

Steven
commented.  “Her work is very moving.”
    “Yes, it is,” Anna replied. 
“My mother loved these two prints.”
    “Your mother was African American,
wasn’t she?”
    “Yes.”
    “And your father?”
    There was a pause.  Steven
turned to see her watching him.  She walked over to join him in front of
the prints.  She nodded at the pictures.  “The two sides of a black
woman’s life.”
    “What do you mean?” he asked
cautiously.  There was a stillness about Anna that disturbed him. 
She was trying to tell him something.
    “This one,” she said pointing to
the first print.  “It shows her sorrow.  Her children aren’t
privileged.  They have a struggle before them and she knows they may not
survive.”
    She walked around him to stand on
the other side and pointed at the second print.  “This shows her
joy.  The friendships she shares with other women and the love of her
family life.”
    Steven knew he was missing some
major point she was trying to make but he waited patiently.  Anna
continued.  “My mother missed out on both.”
    “How?” he asked softly.
    “How do you feel about Nick?”
    Steven blinked at the sudden change
in conversation and started to make a flippant remark but when he looked at her
face he realized the conversation hadn’t changed at all.  He still didn’t
know what she was trying to say but he answered her honestly.
    “I love Nick.  He is a good
man.  He treats Julie well and has been a good friend to me.  Why?”
    “And the Moores?  How do they
feel about having a minority in the family?”
    All at once, everything fell into
place.  To give himself a moment to gather his thoughts, Steven walked
over to the chair and sat down.  He studied her a moment before answering.
    “They don’t think of him as a
minority.  To them, he is simply Nick.”
    She also sat down.  She was
seated as far away from him as possible.  She wasn’t ready to trust him
yet.  Steven resisted the urge to go to her.
    “And the rest of the people in
town?  How do they feel about Julie being married to Nick?”
    “Anna, what is it?” he asked, tired
of the game she was playing.  “What is it you really want to know?”
    She looked away then and stared out
the small window.  Steven knew she wasn’t really looking at
anything.  It was too dark to see but it gave her something to focus on.
    “You asked about my father. 
No, he wasn’t African American.  He was from a rich, white family and my
mother a poor, black one.  She was the help.  You might say their
marriage was doomed from the start.”
    Her eyes travelled around the room,
looking everywhere except at him.  Steven sat perfectly still knowing what
she had to say was very important to their relationship.  He hadn’t
realized she had a problem with their race difference.  He was angry with
himself for not seeing it sooner.
    “My mother was beautiful,” she
continued in a small voice.  “And my father wanted her.  Wanted her
until she became pregnant, that is.  Mayville is larger than Holton but
word gets around.  I’ve been told my grandfather was an honorable
man.  He forced his son to marry my mother.  I believe he was trying
to do the right thing but it would have been better if he had left things
alone.  I remember him vaguely.  He died when I was five.”
    Anna paused and then rose from her
chair to walk over to the window.  Steven wanted to go to her, hold her
close, and ease her pain but she had to do this on her own.  If they had
any future together, he needed to know what her fears were and why she had
them.
    “That’s when the trouble
started.  My father inherited all my grandfather’s wealth without ever
having to work for it.  My mother didn’t fit in with his society friends
and after my grandfather died, the rest of the family quit pretending to accept
her.  Things went from bad to worse.  My mother’s family disowned her
when she married and she had no friends of her