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“He says he had to leave, the environment at the company was toxic.”
Sure, it was. Cameron had probably been the toxic element. Orlando would bet all two thousand dollars that his sperm donor had been fired. He seemed to be getting worse with age, not better.
“I’m so sorry honey, you shouldn’t have to deal with this.” It wasn’t a manipulative tactic, his mother actually meant it, which was what made it a better guilt trip than any intentional manipulation would have been. “If it weren’t for you, I’d wish I never married that man. You were the only good thing to come out of my first marriage. There are just too many hard lessons learned in a first marriage, that’s why so many of them don’t work. I’m just lucky I found Lawrence after he’d gotten throughhisfirst too.”
“I know, mom.” It was a familiar refrain. From what he could see, she had a point. Lawrence’s first marriage had also been happy until it wasn’t, just like her and Cameron. Relationships were hard, living together was harder, and having kids was the hardest. Orlando rubbed his forehead. “I’ll get in touch with him this morning.”
Because that was how Cameron rolled. He knew better than to contact Orlando directly. Orlando would never help his sperm donor out for his own sake. No, he did it for his mom’s.
“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t ask this of you.” Real guilt threaded through her voice. Every time she felt guilty. Every time she still did it. Because her guilt over accepting above and beyond child support for years was even greater.
“No, mom, I’m glad you did. I’ll deal with Cameron. He’s my dad, not your husband, if either of us should be dealing with him, it should be me.” He’d give his sperm donor a good lecture as well. It had been a while since Cameron had contacted his mom, probably because of how harshly Orlando had dealt with him the last time.
“Maybe.” His mom sounded mournful. “But you would do a better job of telling him no than I do.”
It was the first time she’d said anything like that out loud. Orlando felt a little jump of hope pop up in his chest. He wasn’t going to get his hopes uptoohigh, of course, but maybe his mom was finally waking up to the fact that she’d more than paid any debt she had to Cameron. After all, he might have sent extra money, but she’d still done all the work of raising Orlando. Even when she was going through cancer treatments.
Cameron hadn’t stepped up to help with that.
“I would. Maybe you should start blocking his number.” It wasn’t the first time he’d made the suggestion. To his surprise, his mom went quiet rather than scolding him or telling him that she couldn’t do that. “Mom?”
“I did. He called from a new one,” she admitted.
Anger grew in his chest. Dammit. His mom had finally —finally—taken a step to end Cameron’s leeching off her and he’d gone around it instead of taking the hint. Nope, fuck that. Orlando wasn’t having it. If his mom was ready to end things, that was it for him.
“I’m going to have a talk with him, mom. He won’t call you again, fromanynumber.”
“Now Orlando-“
“No, mom. We’ve paid him back more than enough money at this point. Besides, it was his job to provide. Especially since we both know he wasn’t doing any of the raising and he was copping out of his responsibilities.” Something he’d said to her over and over again, but this time she really seemed to be listening. The hope that had bubbled up in his chest expanded, sinking its claws into his flesh.
This might really be it. The end of the line for his sperm donor into his and his mother’s life.
“You’re right,” she finally said, sighing. It was all Orlando could do not to let out a shout of joy. He clenched his jaw against the emotion. “I already blocked the number he called me from.”
“And?”
“And I will start screening my calls.” Amusement tinged her voice, along with the sadness that was there.
“Thank you, mom. You have no idea how glad I am to hear it.”
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have put you through this every time, I just… he really did save us.”
After abandoning them in the first place, but sure. Supposedly Cameron just hadn’t been ready for marriage the first time around. He hadn’t done much better the second, though Orlando considered it karma. The cheater had been cheated on and left. The fact that he was a sad sack over his shitty second ex-wife and not over Orlando’s mom said more about his quality of character than anything else.
“And you’ve paid him back,” Orlando said gently, rather than arguing with her. He knew arguing didn’t do any good, but it seemed that reminding her of the fact that she’d been helping him out over and over again had finally sunk in so that’s what he was sticking with.
“I know… I know.” She blew out another breath of air. “Lawrence is calling for me. I have to go. Come over for dinner later? Juliet will be here. It would be nice to get the family together.”
Damn. Her words hit him straight in the solar plexus.
The family.
Because Juliet was family to his mom.
And she was happy with Lawrence. Finally cutting all ties with Cameron.
Fuck.
