Was most of it in my head?
I didn’t know how much real and how much was I was my imagination. They’d looked so intimate.
My jealousy rattled me. But I couldn’t deny it was there. It was something I needed to untangle, if I ever wanted a relationship built on trust and honesty.
I snatched my phone and tapped Reply, typing the first letter of her name before backspacing, then tossing the phone aside.
I lay there, staring at the ceiling. I wanted to fix things. But how could I? Surely her love for me wasn’t as strong as mine, not if she could kiss someone else.
Her name glowed on the screen. I’d lost count of how many times it had lit up. Each time, my thumb hovered over Call before I turned the phone facedown.
One day after another drifted by in a haze until my mother breezed into town. I’d slept even less the night she’d arrived, I was adrift, like a boat with no one at the helm. Closing my eyes, I slumped into the pillow, trying to calm the snarl of thoughts tangled in my head.
I basically had no family.
The thought dragged me back to the day before, when my mother had arrived on the doorstep… she’d flown into Sydney, for some extravagant event with her usual flock of private-jet-traveling, lavishly dressed friends. Apparently, her harborside residence was undergoing anotherrenovation. So I had the pleasure of her company.
Instinct had warned me not to confide in her—she’d never loved me, not the way a parent usually does—but I needed her to know what my father had been doing.
And maybe it was pure desperation, because I was hurting, but I’d tried to talk to her when she’d arrived. Mother to son…
“There’s much to do before tonight.” She tossed her purse onto the gleaming marble bench. “Ross, fetch the luggage. I’ve been on the plane for hours. I need to get ready.”
Ross, her personal assistant, quickened his step at her command.
Searching for a hint of interest, I caught her eye. “Mom, I need to talk to you.”
“Can’t it wait?” She shook her head impatiently. “You have terrible timing. My designer is arriving soon, and I need to go over the details of my wardrobe with him urgently.”
My shoulders dropped. “Not really.”
“Well?” She sighed. “What is it?”
Clasping my hands together, I suppressed the desire to flee. “There are things you need to know. But first, I wanted to tell you I met someone amazing,” I said, shifting from one foot to the other.
Her face lit up. “Yes, that girl, Bella? That’s wonderful. How’s it going?” She beamed. “I should invite her to the event tonight.”
“No, Mom. Not Bella.”
“What do you mean, ‘not Bella’?”
“Mom, I met someone on the Gold Coast. She was special. I’ve never felt like that before, but Karlos found out and he threatened to hurt her… and her dad.”
Every muscle in her body went still as her laser-like eyes fixed on mine.
“There’s more,” I said, hopeful she might be sympathetic. “I found out some terrible things are going on at SolStar. Karlos is behind them, Mom.”
An icy glaze settled over her eyes. “Your father needs to play rough sometimes to make the kind of money we have, Karson. To protect us from losing all this,” she said, sweeping her hand in an arc. “And to protect us from people who could never understand us, or how we live.”
“But he’s—”
Ross, carrying a mountain of sleek luggage, appeared in the doorway.
“Karson, don’t be so dramatic. Your father knows what’s best. Now, I simply must see to my wardrobe.”
As she stalked away, barking out orders to Ross, a knife twisted in my back.
Falling to pieces, I retreated to my bedroom and sank lifelessly into the chair, staring out through the window. The waves pushed upward, peaking in a triumphant crest before collapsing and repeating the cycle again and again.
