Chapter 14 - THE BASIN JOLENE WANTED BACK
Six months after the dinner, Jolene’s assistant emailed Sloan.
Jolene wanted the metal washbasin returned.
Sloan stared at the request.
The basin was not expensive.
Maybe eighty dollars.
It belonged to Jolene’s mother and had apparently been used decoratively in the Mercer family’s old Connecticut home.
Sloan almost threw it away the night of the incident.
Instead it sat in the back of a storage closet.
Katherine asked:
“Want me to send it?”
“Yes.”
Sloan paused.
“Actually, no.”
She called Jolene herself.
Their first direct conversation in half a year.
Jolene answered cautiously.
“Sloan.”
“I have the basin.”
“Thank you.”
“I’ll have it delivered.”
Silence.
Then Jolene said:
“I was drunk that night.”
Sloan closed her eyes.
“Don’t.”
Jolene stopped.
“It explains nothing,” Sloan said.
“I know.”
That surprised her.
Jolene continued:
“My therapist says I use explanations to try to negotiate the size of what I did.”
Sloan almost smiled despite herself.
“Smart therapist.”
“Expensive.”
For one second they sounded almost normal.
Then Jolene said:
“I should never have asked you to kneel.”
Sloan looked at the city beyond her office window.
“No.”
“And I should not have told Tinsley you were stealing from the family.”
“No.”
“Or let Vance’s embarrassment become my excuse for lying about the apartment.”
Sloan said nothing.
Jolene’s voice broke.
“I thought if my children looked successful, then Graham dying hadn’t changed who we were.”
That was the first thing Jolene had ever said that sounded more sad than defensive.
Sloan understood it.
Understanding was not forgiveness.
“I’ll send the basin tomorrow.”
“Thank you.”
Before Sloan hung up, Jolene said:
“Tinsley wants to apologize.”
Sloan’s body tightened.
“She has my email.”
“She’s afraid you won’t answer.”
Sloan thought of Tinsley’s raised hand.
The slap Sloan blocked.
The months of insults afterward.
“That’s a consequence, Jolene.”
Jolene was silent.
Then:
“Yes.”
Sloan ended the call.
The next morning she wrapped the metal basin in brown paper herself.
She did not smash it.
She did not keep it as a trophy.
May you like
She sent it back.
Some things did not need to remain in her house just because she had survived them.
