Spiral of Bliss 03 Awaken by Nina Lane Read Free Book Online Page B

displayed beside her. The kitchen is spotless and generic. A male voice booms over the scene.
    “For a great start to your child’s day, serve Honey Puffs cereal all the way! These crunchy puffs are packed with vitamins and dipped in honey for a breakfast that’s both nutritious and deeeelicious! Amy, how do you like your Honey Puffs cereal?”
    The girl picks up her spoon, takes a bite of cereal, then gives the camera a big smile and a thumbs-up.
    Jingly music filters from the speakers along with a chorus of,
“Honey Puffs cereal, crispy and sweet, full of vitamins and a tasty treat!”
    There’s another shot of Amy enthusiastically eating more cereal as the camera fades into a full-screen image of the Honey Puffs cereal box.
    I switch off the TV.
    “Honey Puffs cereal?” Allie asks.
    “That was my mother, Crystal, when she was five years old.”
    “Really?” Allie glances at the TV and back to me again. “That’s pretty cool. She was the Honey Puffs cereal girl?”
    “Just for that one commercial.” I toss the remote onto the coffee table. “Apparently they offered to contract her for more, but her mother wanted more money and the producers wouldn’t negotiate. I guess there was a big fight about it, and in the end they withdrew the offer.” I shrug. “So that was the end of her Honey Puffs cereal career.”
    “Too bad.” Allie seems a little confused. “So… is she still in show business?”
    “No. Rumors about
her
mother spread… you know, stage mother, difficult to work with. Crystal still auditioned a lot, but didn’t get any other big offers. She was in a lot of local theater productions and beauty pageants, school plays, that kind of thing. Then she got pregnant with me when she was seventeen.”
    “Oh.”
    “Her parents were furious… their perfect little girl, pregnant. They disowned her, kicked her out, so she had to drop out of high school and move in with her boyfriend.”
    “Wow. Harsh.”
    “Yeah.”
    I’ve gone through all this with two therapists, so I understand it—the compliments heaped on my mother as a child, her parents’ high expectations for her to succeed, the constant praise of her beauty and talent. All of that was ripped away when she got pregnant with me.
    Replaced by a bad relationship. Fighting. Regrets. Then when Crystal was rejected for another woman, she retaliated by taking me away from my father.
    She’s spent all these years searching for the approval she had as a child—through sexual relationships with men and a twisted relationship with me. I was the one who had to give her the right praise and approval, to validate her, while she never stopped resenting me for being the cause of her downfall.
    I get it on an intellectual, psychological level.
    Emotionally, it still hurts like a bad burn.
    “I haven’t watched that video in ages,” I admit. “But I wanted you to see it so you’ll understand where this is all coming from. I’ve always felt that my life has been shadowed by my mother, even though she hasn’t been part of my life since I was thirteen.”
    “When was the last time you saw her?”
    “Right after I married Dean.” I glance at Allie. “My father died when I was eleven. I’ve never known my mother’s parents or any of her family. But yesterday, I got a letter from a lawyer who told me my grandmother died and he’s handling the distribution of her estate.”
    I tell her the whole story, ending with, “So I want to invest the money in the bookstore.”
    Allie’s eyes widen behind her purple-framed glasses. “Oh, Liv.”
    “You know I’ve been wanting to help you, to be a partner.” Excitement rises inside me. “Now I can, Allie. I actually have the money to do it. We don’t need to take out a loan anymore or worry about borrowing the money from Dean or your father.”
    I jump up and start to pace. “I mean, I don’t have the check yet, but I’m signing the paperwork, and the lawyer is going to send it via courier next