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Once again, I rolled my mother fucking eyes.
“John, talk to me, dear,” she said. “Is it the job you retired from that’s bothering you or losing the girl you hardly knew?”
“The job I retired from?” I said, my voice raising nearly an octave in response. “I didn’t retire, Mother. I was forced to resign. Big damn difference in the meaning of those two words.”
“You had to know the day would come,” she said. “Our family has no choice but to remain dutiful to ourselves in this nasty world we live in.”
I finally looked at her. “Nasty world we live in, eh?” I questioned her.
“You know how ruthless it is out there. People kill each other over the?—”
“Stop,” I said, unwilling to sit through another Aster family history lesson, outlining our value and worth for being such amazing people when all we did was stab each other in the back to get our way. “All I know is that there couldn’t be anything crueler in the world than the things I’ve witnessed in my own family. You say it’s ruthless out there, ignoring our family’s tactics.”
“I won’t listen to you speak ill of our family because you’re acting like a spoiled child.”
“Give me a goddamn break, Margot,” I snapped, using her first name. “You’re lying to all of us, forcing that shit down our throats, but you’re lying to yourself most of all.”
“Oh, really?” she said as she dropped the soft, tender-loving mother mask she’d been wearing to get me to open up to her. “Please tell me how I fill everyone—including myself—with lies.”
“As if you don’t know,” I scoffed. “Everything is based on a lie. You are obsessed with projecting a picture of perfection to all of your associates—I won’t call them friends because we know you don’t have anyone you care about other than us—but you will stop at nothing to get whatever you want. You and Dad have had people silenced, torn down, and sent away more times than I can count. You’ve destroyed countless reputations of people who dared to cross either of you and have been responsible for the rise and fall of politicians, corporations, and families all over the globe.” If looks could kill, I would’ve dropped dead. “And then, of course, there’s this fake bullshit you’ve been pulling since I was forced to live at home?—”
“Fake?” she snapped. “I may be many things, darling boy, but fake is not one of them.”
“Really? After everything I said, what bothers you is that I called you fake?” I laughed in disbelief. Talk about being out of touch with what’s important. “Fine, let’s focus on being fake. Since I’ve been made to stay here, you’ve been sweeter than ever, even having the chef prepare all my favorite meals.”
“And?” she said smiling, “That is because I love you and want you to be happy and comfortable.”
“You were just kissing my ass to keep me pacified.” I leaned forward, both elbows on my knees, and ran my fingers through my hair in agitation. “Fuck, I hate all of this,” I growled, miserable, trapped, disgusted, and unsure of how to break free from this prison.
“I understand,” she softly said. “I felt the same way when I was young, growing up in the same type of home as this family.”
“Stop saying the word family,” I snarked. “It’s not what we are.” I looked over at her, “We have no idea what the hell a family is, and we still throw that word around as if it applies to the fucked-up people we are. We defend ourselves, yeah? That’s what families do, right?”
“Right,” she matched my angered tone.
“Then tell me why you all went behind my back and set up that fucking hospital the way you did, forcing people to pull their donations and tank the place if I didn’t come home?”
“Because,” she said, “an Aster has no business?—”
“And you call yourselves family?” I cut her off because I wasn’t going to hear another excuse. “Family doesn’t do shit like that behind each other’s backs. I just don’t understand what you plan to do with me, or what the fucking point was to bring me back here?”
“Your father will need you to take over the French?—”
“No,” I cut her off. “I’m not moving to France. I’m not fucking dating Summer, and I guarantee you that I will remain single for the rest of my life before I date any woman you and Dad decide will make me happy. I found a woman, and you both threw a fucking fit about her. Now, she’s gone, along with my life, and here we sit.”
“Fine, then,” she said. “Tell me, what was so very special about this woman? I should’ve let her ruin it for both of you, but I didn’t want you hurt. I felt it was time we end it before?—”
“So, while Dad and Seb fucked with my career, you had your eyes on my love life. All of you were ready to pounce at the first sign of losing me to any of it, right?”
“Wrong,” she snapped.
“Sounds to me like that’s exactly what happened. It took Mark having enough of this family’s shit and running away for the straw to have broken the camel’s back regarding me.”
“John, that woman has no idea who you are and where you come from.”
“You mean that woman has no idea how wealthy my family is, and the status they need to uphold, and she would become an embarrassment if she married the youngest son?”
“You think you have it all figured out, do you?”
