AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He must have been trying to recall her from high school. That had to be his reason for staring at her that way.
“Well? Your mom?”
He only wanted her to share her story. She should have been focused on that, as well. If she didn’t tell it soon, she wouldn’t get the chance, with as antsy as Luna was becoming in her high chair.
“Payne’s first wife, Tessa, hired my mom. After Tessa died, Mom worked for his second wife, Selina, who was vicious but for some reason liked her. She even gave her a big raise.”
“Your mom must have been great. I’ve heard horror stories about Selina from back then.”
“After those two divorced, she continued to work on the ranch once Genevieve came into the picture.”
Asher held both hands up in a plea for her to stop. “Please don’t tell me that my mom was part of this, too.”
She shrugged at that. “Sorry. Genevieve usually treated the staff with respect, but Payne stepped in.”
“What did he do?”
“This one night while your family was out, Mom did something stupid. She’d just found out she was pregnant, and the guy had abandoned her. So, to cheer herself up, she tried on one of your mom’s fancy dresses and some of her jewelry.”
She sat back and crossed her arms, waiting for his judgmental comment. When he nodded instead, she licked her lips and continued.
“Just once, she wanted to know what it was like to look and feel like a princess. To imagine she lived a different life. Like the royal Coltons.”
“We’re not like that.”
He looked away and reached for the slobbery toy Luna was about to drop and centered it between her hands again. “Sorry. Go on.”
“Unfortunately, your family came home early. Mom didn’t have time to take off the dress or the jewelry. Payne accused her of planning to steal all of it and fired her on the spot.”
Asher shook his head, his brows furrowing.
“Didn’t she just explain it all to him?”
“She tried, but he wouldn’t listen. Though Genevieve defended her, too, she might as well not have bothered with the weak appeal she gave. My mother left the ranch jobless, homeless and pregnant.”
“Did she tell them the last part? They didn’t send her packing after that, did they?”
The obvious compassion in his eyes surprised her. A Colton who cared what had happened to a staff member and her unborn child?
She shook her head, both in answer to his question and in her attempt to make sense of what he’d said. “She had too much pride to tell them about the pregnancy.”
He blew out a breath. “What they did was bad enough already. I’m sorry—”
“Mom told me that story so many times,” she rushed on, interrupting his apology. She finally had the chance to share it with someone else, and now that she’d told him all he needed to know, she couldn’t stop herself from saying more.
“It was her cautionary tale to remind me that I should create security for myself. She was always chasing it for us. Different cities. Different schools. She even married some guy for a few years, looking for a better life. That didn’t work out.
“So, she used to preach about the important things. An education. A home. Maybe a business. Things that no one could ever take away.”
Finally, Willow stopped herself, blinking. She’d agreed to have coffee with Asher because she finally had the chance to call out one of the Coltons about the injustice to her mother, but no way had she initially planned to share so much.
He nodded, his incisive gaze making her squirm.
“You said ‘was’ and ‘used to.’ Is your mom...?”
“Yeah. A kidney condition. Four years ago.”
“She never got to see her granddaughter?”
