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She’d needed this visit. Badly.
Chapter 7
Josh
“I don’t trust her.”
“What’s not to trust?” Josh was half-listening to his mother. The Bluetooth earpiece was a blessing when it came time to talking with her.
The chore didn’t happen often, and it was never instigated by him. Elizabeth had a nasty habit of going on and on, getting nowhere, and making Josh’s ears burn. Not only with rage from the crap she spewed, but also from the phone being pressed to his ear.
Well, that was before.
Thank goodness for technology.
That whole, ‘necessity is the mother of invention’ crap? Josh was sure most modern pieces of kit had been created just for moments like these.
Grinning at the thought, he peered down at the velvet tray in front of him. Lined with rubies, diamonds, sapphires, and emeralds, he wondered why the singular pearl amid the lot of them called to him.
In his world, the engagement ring a man gave his woman was as big a sign of prestige as the car he drove or the penthouse he lived in. It was proof positive that he’d made it.
The diamonds and other precious gems reflected that. The ten-carat canary yellow had caught his attention at first. It would suit Samantha’s creamy skin and sit quite nicely on her hand.
But it was the pearl that kept on drawing his gaze back to it.
It was simple, demure, and very, very elegant. He pictured Samantha’s hand and knew it would suit her perfectly.
Trouble was, the fact he could summon an image of Samantha’s slender pianist fingers disturbed him.
A lot.
Josh could barely remember his last date’s tits, never mind her hand!
Still, he tried to reassure himself that he’d seen her a lot over the duration of her marriage to Jamie. That had to explain it.
“Josh, are you even listening?”
“I’m half-listening,” he countered his mother’s squeak of outrage. “When you have something decent to say, I’ll reply.”
He was purposely biting with Elizabeth. To an outsider, he knew he probably seemed hard. Cruel, almost. But the truth was, Elizabeth deserved nothing less.
She’d been an absentee mother most of his childhood, only deciding to pop up into his life when he’d made his first billion.
That was no kind of mother, and as a result, he granted her the only right she deserved—some of his time. Not a lot of it. It was too precious, and he was too busy. But some of it was all she damn well deserved.
Elizabeth gritted out, “I care about you. That’s why I’m talking to you about this matter.”
“You’re trying to talk me out of something that has nothing to do with you.”
“You’re my son. I care.”
He couldn’t withhold his snort. “Since when? You care when your check might be a day late, and you care when it concerns you—because maybe, just maybe, if Samantha’s involved in my life she might convince me to cut you off for the greedy, penny-pinching bitch you are? Is that it?”
She choked off a curse. “You’ll regret speaking to me this way one day.”
“Will I? You know I don’t like lies and falsehoods, mother. With you, I can be very, very honest with my intentions. I pay you maintenance because it keeps you quiet. Don’t mistake it for my giving a damn about you. Without my money, and having spent what dad gave you, you’d be out on the street. Rather than bitching at me, maybe you should think about a different style of approach.”
Silence fell at his words. “Do you realize how hurtful you are sometimes?”
