AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“To pay the bank before the house gets repossessed.”
I want to tell her that’s her problem, but I don’t want to be rude. And I’m not going to allow my mother to milk a dime from me every chance she gets.
I need to stand up to her. Being married to Jasper has taught me that I don’t need anyone’s approval for them to love me. Jasper loves me for me, and right now my mother wouldn’t be sitting here with me if it wasn’t for my marriage to him.
Anger and regret settle in my chest. I don’t know why I even bothered showing up here, but guilt eats at me like a disease because she’s my mother and I love her at the end of the day. I’m not going to ask Jasper to pay this bill, so I’ll take it out of my own pocket. Jasper doesn’t require me to pay bills in the household and he refers to my money as play money to spend on myself. As a matter of fact, I don’t have to lift a finger, and he prefers for me to enjoy the luxuries of the new life I have with him.
“What about the money Jasper gave you to save the business?”
My mother’s head drops. “Your stepfather blew through it and lost the winery.”
I shake my head. “Ask Jimmy.”
“He already paid our bills last month. Jasper is in love with you, Poppy. Use it as a tool to control him.”
I was going to give it to her from my own pocket, but the fact that she has the audacity to try to rope my husband into this is wrong. God, how could I not see how awful she is? I’m tired of looking at her through rose-tinted glasses and I’m not going to allow myself to be a pawn anymore.
I’m seeing her for what she really is, and that’s a snake in the grass.
“I fell in love with Jasper, so I’m not going to do that.”
She laughs like a hyena. “Love? That’s rich coming from you.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“You’re like your father, you wouldn’t know what love is even if it hits you in the face. All you’re going to do is ruin his life, like you ruined Link’s life.”
Her words dig into my chest and take root. I wish I could say she doesn’t mean them, that she’s only acting out of anger, but this is how she feels about me. When someone shows you their true colors, you have to believe them, otherwise you’ll end up breaking your own heart. I told her how Link cheated on me, yet I’m the one who ruined his life.
“I don’t like Jasper, he’s a bad influence on you.”
“You like Link, but you don’t like Jasper?”
She straightens her spine and holds her head up high. “Yes, Link was the one for you, and he was more accepting of your family.”
I grab my purse and strap it over my shoulder. “You know what I think, Mother?” I give the nail technician my card, and he disappears to process my payment. “You’re jealous I have someone to love me for me, and you don’t like the fact that someone actually cares about me.”
Jasper was right about her. She’s jealous of me, but not in the way I thought. She’s jealous because she’s with a man who can’t provide for her and love her, and she doesn’t want that for me. She wants the provide part but not the love part. She wants me to be abused and suffer because she has to suffer with my stepfather. Why else would she like Link and not Jasper? Jasper sees through her bullshit, and it sucks that it’s taken me this long to see it. But not anymore.
“Please, as if I would be jealous of you.”
“Whatever you say, I’m not helping you with money or doing any favors for you anymore. I’m no longer your meal ticket nor am I your punching bag. You tell my stepfather to find his own way.”
“You little bitch!” she yells.
Everyone stops what they’re doing, staring at us. The nail tech hands me my card back. I sign the receipt and hand it back to him.
“After everything I’ve done for you. I took care of you while your father was high as fuck. You owe me. I had to do some despicable things to keep a roof over your head, even marrying someone I didn’t love. Is that how you’re going to repay me?” She grabs my forearm, digging her nails into my skin, and I snatch it away.
“You two need to leave,” the nail tech says.
I nod and head toward the door as she calls me all kinds of names.
“Stupid bitch.”
“Dumb ho.”
Once I get into my car, I zoom out of the parking lot like a bat out of hell. She can find her own way back home.
