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Epilogue
Grayson
If she's everything you say she is, the best thing for you to do is to leave." Marv's words echoed in my mind. Leave. That's all I ever wanted to do. She had gotten her time with me. Marv was right. Now was my time. Today was the last day I'd ever set foot in her venomous presenceagain.
Unlike four years before, I drove my own car up the long driveway straight to the front doors of the mansion. I had spent the last three years sequestered here when I wasn't at school or doing something forher. Why else would I have chosen to sign up for the football team every year? The practice was year-round. At least, for me it was. I used any excuse I could to get out of thisprison.
I took the steps two at a time, steeling myself as I threw open the front doors. An antique butler, probably older than the floors themselves—newly remodeled—rushed up to me out of nowhere. "Master Caruso, you're home. We weren't expecting you sosoon."
I waved him away. "I'm not staying. Where is Teddi?" If he, or any of the other servants she required around her twenty-four hours a day, thought it was odd that I would call my mother by her first name, they never saidso.
The old man bowed his snow-white head. "She's in the study with a guest, sir, but she asked not to be—Master Caruso!" he cried out when he realized that I was already heading in that direction. "Master Caruso!Stop!"
Perhaps it was my urgency, but I wanted to get this over with as soon as possible. I was meeting with Marv and Knix as soon as they returned to Charleston with Harlow. I found the room I was looking for and in the split second it took for me to reach for the handles, I realized that my mother’s voice wasn’t the only one inside. The study room doors hit the walls with a loud bang and the man standing over my mother, laid out on the desk, scrambled up. I gritted my teeth as I glared at theman.
For her part, Teddi didn't even flinch. Then again, that might have been because of her regular Botox appointments. I used to think it was those very chemicals that made it so that she couldn't feel anything, until I got older and learnedbetter.
"What the fuck!" the gray-haired, foul-mouthed geezercursed.
"Get out," I said coldly, standing to the side of the doors as the butler gaped openly before squeaking and turning to rush away on his spindly little legs. Chances were he would be fired by the end of the day—one of many casualties in Teddi's empire of servants. The old man would be betteroff.
"Who the hell do you think you are?" the old man puffed up his chest and stuffed his now-limp dick back into hispants.
I glared at my mother as she huffed out a very put-upon sigh and sat up, straightening her wrap dress so that it appropriately covered her body. I swear I vomited a little in mymouth.
"I'm her son, jackass. Now, get the fuck out before I kick you out." I pointed to the opendoorway.
Teddi showed no emotion—not that she really could—as the man whipped his head around to look at her. "I thought you were in yourtwenties."
I rolled my eyes. "Yeah, asshole. They all thinkthat."
The man huffed and, with a red face, finally made his way out of the study. Teddi looked at me with a bored expression and waited until the front door slammed shut. She puffed out another breath. "Well, that went well," she said. "I hope you're happy. That was my next trip to Bali, I hope youunderstand—"
"Fuck Bali and fuck you," Isnapped.
She waved her hand at me, unconcerned as she moved to sit on one of the lounges. Crossing her legs, one over the other at the knee, she nodded towards the decanters against the opposite wall. "Pour me adrink."
"I'm not your fucking servant," I said. "I only came by to tell you that I'm moving out. I'm done withyou."
She didn't say anything for several minutes. Then, with a sly smile, Teddi uncrossed her legs and stood up. As she approached me slowly, tapping her long, sharp nails against her side, an uncomfortable tingle raced up myspine.
"Grayson, darling," she said quietly, reaching up and taking my chin in her delicate hand. I had never hit a woman before, but I wanted to now. A bad feeling sank like boulders to the pit of my stomach. "Why are you so cruel to yourmother?"
I jerked my chin away, breaking her grasp. Her hand fell to her side "Your goddamn alimony ran out and this is what you resort to?" I sneered. "Fucking strangers in the study? Yeah, you're the fucking mother of the year. You've known this was coming for a long time. If you had any leverage, you would have used it against me by now. As it stands, you havenothing." I hissed the last word, enjoying the feel of it on my tongue. I turned away but stopped when the most chilling sound hit my ears. She was laughing. Theodora Vandersen-Caruso didnotlaugh. At least, not likethis.
I turned back. Teddi gave mild chuckles or vaporous giggles. She did not laugh. It was disturbing to hear, but even more disturbing to watch. There were actual,real, tears in her eyes. "Oh, Grayson," she wiped them away with a delicate hand, "you're soamusing."
I stared at her as she moved away, heading towards the decanter. Taking a crystal glass from the rack, she lifted and poured the brandy that always seemed to be there. No matter how much we drank from it—and for me, that had been quite a lot while I stayed here full time during the school year—it always seemed to refill. The servants more than likely kept our glasses well stocked. The drunker my mother was, the easier she was to handle sometimes. For hours, she would just lay about, staring at the ceiling as she drank absently insilence.
Now, however, she was anything but absent as she turned back to me and lifted the glass to her lips. When Teddi lowered the crystal to the stand again, a noticeable red lipstick smear lined the glass where her lips had been. "You seem to think that you have a say in what you do next," she started. "I've let you go out and have your fun, darling, but truly did you think it would be like thatforever?"
I shook my head. "There's nothing you can do to stopme."
Taking her glass and refilling it before she returned to the lounge, Teddi watched me with her beautiful—albeit deadly—eyes. She was like a snake, gorgeous even when coiled and ready to strike. "Face it, Grayson, you're the last of the Vandersen line. Your brother was adisappointment."
"He—" I started, but she cut meoff.
"Oh, I know," she snapped, "you put him in rehab and look where that gotyou."
