AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I’m packed,” I said, walking over to my suitcase and zipping it up with a smile. “Now, let’s go enjoy the weekend, husband.”
Chapter Thirty-Four
SPENCER
As my chaotic luck would have it, the private detective I hired when we returned from London to investigate Nat’s family situation called as I descended the stairs to where my mother awaited on the first floor of the beach house.
Now is not the time, Jeff.
I quickly sent his call to voicemail and stared at my phone, wondering how the fuck I was supposed to get this information in the presence of the Evil Queen. There was no fucking way this shit could’ve transpired at a worse time.
“You seem upset that I’m here,” Heidi said, her delusional comment flaring my irritation to a point I didn’t usually reach.
“Fuck,” I said, growling under my breath when Jeff called again.
“Spencer, darling,” I heard Heidi say, her voice cutting through my head like shattered glass, “you look peckish. Of course, I would have one of your servants tell the chef to prepare you something but imagine my surprise to find that you have no staff attending to you at this home. I simply cannot imagine why not, although that is a conversation for another time.” She raised her eyebrows in disbelief that anyone could live in their home without the help of fifteen people to wait on them hand and foot. My mother hadn’t made a bed, emptied a trash can, done a single load of laundry, or even made herself a meal in her entire life. “Perhaps Natalia could arrange for food to be catered?”
“No,” I said, looking up at her and slipping my phone into my back pocket. I would handle the call with Jeff from the yacht after I delivered this birthday gift into the hands of my buddies, and I had about a fifth of fucking whiskey in my system. “I hope you haven’t unpacked.”
“No, of course not. As I mentioned, no one was here upon my arrival to assist,” she said indignantly. “I will warn you, however, that there will be consequences—mentally and karmically—if you plan to kick me out.”
“Spare me your convenient spirituality and karmic bullshit, Heidi,” I seethed, second-guessing the decision to bring her around my friends, karmically fucking them over for four days on a ship.
Of course, if she fucked with me, she could always accidentally fall overboard—Fuck, Spencer. Pull your sorry ass together. Now, you’re thinking about throwing her ass off a four-story yacht? Imagine how that will look in the news. Five fucking billionaires and one of their mothers—
“If looks could kill, son,” she said with a menacing chuckle. “The expression on your face would have me buried at sea.”
“If only,” I sighed as she rolled her eyes. “I have a car arriving to collect us and bring us out for a four-day cruise in the bay on my good friend’s yacht.”
“Collect us?” she questioned.
“Yep,” it made me physically ill to even imagine this, much less say it out loud. “You will be joining Nat and me on a birthday weekend with my closest friends. I expect you to respect that you are a guest on their boat and are in the presence of extremely wealthy and powerful people.”
“Why must I join this celebration? These are people whom I have never met.”
“Then make a good first impression,” Nat said, walking down the steps and clasping her delicate watch onto her wrist. “As you did with me, of course.”
I grinned at Nat’s beautiful, bitchy smile, thanking God she and I had survived all the weird bullshit of her being shut down with me. I couldn’t imagine not having her sassy spirit back, especially when I currently needed it so much.
“I don’t understand why I must join you two. They did not invite me.”
“You don’t need to understand, Heidi,” I said, feeling a bit better about bringing her now that I’d witnessed her immediate discomfort at the idea. “You didn’t need an invitation to show up here unwelcomed either. I know you lied to Stephen for him to give you all access, too, and I will speak to Stephen later about his breach of confidence.”
Her lips turned up into a smile of sheer evil. “Now, that is the last thing I wanted, you boys fighting.”
“The driver is here,” Natalia said, snapping me out of the dark place I was spiraling into with the woman in front of me. “Let’s go. Avery texted and said we’ll take the helicopter to the yacht if they leave port before we get there. I’d love to board the yacht from shore, myself.”
“I’m sure you would, dear, so everyone can see you enjoying your friends’ wealthy lifestyle. That is why you’re married to my son, of course, for the life of luxury?”
“Not another word, Heidi,” I growled. “I’m serious as fuck when I say that your rudeness toward my wife will not be tolerated, so if you have manners, now might be the time to start using them for once in your pathetic life.”
We boarded the yacht just after eight in the evening, and with the warm reception from my friends, and the ladies taking Heidi and Nat into their possession, I felt the last couple of hours of chaos fade faster than the booze could’ve worked to calm me down.
“Nat and Heidi seem to have formed a picture-perfect mother-in-law and daughter bond,” Collin teased.
I took another sip of my bourbon, allowed the crisp night air of Southern California to breeze through my hair, and inhaled the salty fragrance of the ocean before responding.
“I swear to God I never meant for this shit to follow me out here,” I responded to Collin, where he’d caught me at the bar.
