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“He came to tell us what happened.” She swallows. “What he did. And to apologize.”
“When?”
“Yesterday. We were surprised to see him, of course. And what he had to say, it wasn’t easy to hear. Your father… he was really angry at first.”
“What do you mean, at first?”
“Well, when he was telling us about how he bought that house, not because he needed it, but for the sole purpose of forcing himself into your life, and about how his PR team had cooked up this ridiculous plan, it was a lot to digest. I had to stop your father from throwing him out more than once.”
“Why did you stop him?”
“Because I’ve never seen a man so broken. Well, not since your father, anyway. After… Well, you know.” She looks down at her hands for a long moment before her eyes finally come back to me. “And also because I wanted to hear the rest of what he had to say. Clarke, I think he really loves you.”
“You don’t do that to people you love,” I disagree, finding it very difficult to hold my ground when the world seems to be conspiring against me.
First the interview.
Then Treyton going to see my parents.
Is the universe trying to tell me something that I’ve not been willing to hear?
“True, you don’t. But he didn’t know at that time that he was going to fall in love with you.”
“And that makes it okay?” I spit.
“No, never. But loving you, Clarke, it’s changed him. If you could have heard him talk about you, about how he feels about you. He’s not the same man that walked into that house all those weeks ago.”
“People don’t just change like that.”
“They do. I did.”
“That’s different.”
“It isn’t. Yes, the circumstances are different, but we both did things that now, seem unfathomable. People do change, Clarke. You are a prime example of just how much.”
I can’t argue my point because I know she’s right. I have changed.Hechanged me. So why is it so hard to believe that I changed him?
“You need to talk to him.” She eases her way in, trying not to seem forceful. “Hear him out. At least have all the facts before you decide either way.”
“I have the facts.”
“But you need to hear them from his lips.” She lets out a slow breath. “I’m on your side, no matter what you decide. Forgive him, don’t forgive him. Either way I only want what you want, and for you to be happy. If he can no longer give you that, then that’s okay. But don’t make that decision without talking to him. Because if you do, you’ll regret it.”
She stands, walking toward the door.
“Mom, where are you going?”
Without a word, she pulls open the door.
I clamp my mouth shut to contain the sob threatening to spill out at the sight of Treyton standing in my doorway. Clamoring to my feet, my heart is suddenly beating against my ribs so forcefully that I can feel the vibration all the way to my toes.
“Don’t make me regret this,” my mother says to him, exiting the condo without so much as a backward glance.
Like, what the hell, Mom?
First she’s insisting that I’m making the worst mistake by getting involved with him. Now, she’s on his side when he did exactly what she said he’d do? How does that make any sense at all?
“Can I come in?” Treyton hesitates in my doorway.
