She said nothing. The silence stretched between us until Iasked the only question I still had left.
“Why have me?”
She blinked, startled. Her face softening slightly.
“If you couldn’t be a fucking mother… why have me at all?”
For the first time, she looked almost offended. “Of course, I’m your mother. But I’m an Astor first. As was your father.” Her gaze settled on me with an eager smile. “And so areyou.”
For a long moment, I simply looked at her. Nothing I said today mattered. Nothing ever would. There was no revelation waiting for her. No apology hidden beneath decades of narcissism.
You couldn’t fight a conceited, self-unaware fool. And here I thought I’d need to mourn the loss of my parents. I barely had them to begin with.
So I slowly rose from my chair.
She frowned. “You’re leaving?”
“Yeah.”
“You’ll visit again.”
It wasn’t a question. It was an expectation like I was simply leaving her dinner table. Classic.
“No.”
She stared, looking genuinely baffled.
“I’m not just an Astor, Odette.”
I took a step back, nearly turning. “And I’m definitely no longer your son.”
??????
“Oh, I’m telling you, Cece!”
I hear Eloise Wentworth’s unmistakable voice before I even step into the Wentworth estate living room. She’s midway through another animated story, laughing so hard that she has to wipe at the corners ofher eyes.
It’s only been a couple of months, but Cece has started visiting her parents more often since theyattemptedto make amends.
I know Samuel genuinely regretted standing by while everything unraveled.
Eloise, though…
She surprised the hell out of both of us.
A little over a month after the nightclub incident—right after I was voted back in as President—she showed up at our doorstep.
Ironically, it happened on the day I was helping Cece move out of my apartment.
Onherinsistence.
And very much to my misfortune.
Looking back now, though, I know she was right. Starting over properly, dating each other without a clause looming over us, had been exactly what we needed.
Still, neither of us expected her mother to arrive.
We’d both frozen beside my private garage as Eloise climbed out of the car.
