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The pieces were falling into place.
Whoever this guy’s parents were, they were rich.
Well connected.
More so than my mother.
And that’s the reason she wanted me to fix this because if I didn’t dig us out of this hole, they had the power to bury her in it.
“I should have known you’d be more worried about your own image than my best friend being sexually assaulted.” My mother’s selfishness knew no bounds, so I shouldn’t have been surprised that all she could think about was how this was going to impactherlife.
I couldn’t remember the last time I felt anything but disappointment and disgust toward the woman whom I once admired and looked up to like she was a queen. The little girl in me still craved the mother who would braid my hair at the kitchen table as we ate breakfast, who would take me out on girls’ days to get our nails done, just the two of us, while my brother had to stay at home.
At the time, she’d been auditioning for small television roles, my dad supporting us by working two jobs so she could follow her dreams.
And that’s what she did.
She followed them straight into the depths of hell.
“I won't,” I argued, shaking my head. “There’s no way in hell I’m saying sorry.”
Her lip curled into a sneer. “You broke three bones in his arm.”
“He’s lucky it was dark,” I answered with a shrug, leaning back into the leather seats and allowing my eyes to close. “I was aiming for his head.”
“Karl!” my mother called to her driver. “Pull over.”
Karl quickly jerked the steering wheel to the left.
I didn’t have time to grab anything as my body was tossed like a ragdoll against the door, then slammed into the front passenger seat when Karl tapped the brakes and pulled the car to a hard stop.
Then she looked at me with the kind of hatred in her eyes I would never forget. “Get. Out.”
Reed stared at me across the table when I was done telling him the story of how my mother condemned me. His features were frozen, pinched in a dark glare that I knew wasn’t meant for me, but that sure as fuck felt as though it could vaporize me in seconds. “How old were you?”
I tipped my glass up, getting the last few drops of alcohol out of the bottom. “Seventeen. One of Jade’s previous step-siblings went to Dartmouth at the time, and she’d invited Jade, Maddie, and I to this Halloween frat crawl. They didn’t ID anyone who walked through the door. As long as you were wearing a costume, you were all good.”
“Your friend, Maddie, was she okay?”
I pressed my lips together and forced a smile. “No. Did the guy get away with it? Yes.”
His hands clenched a little tighter to his beer glass. “And she just threw you out like that?”
I managed to laugh a little, the tension of having to relive those moments slowly easing from my body. “In her defense, it had been years of me doing whatever the hell I could to push that woman’s buttons.”
“She still should have protected you. She’s you’re fucking mom.”
“Eh,” I answered with a shrug. “I don’t really claim her anymore.”
Sure, it hurt like hell to think about the bullshit I’d been through because of that woman. The lessons I’d had to learn on my own, the months I’d spent couch surfing in Jade and Maddie’s homes until I turned eighteen. I’d given up a lot of things that could have been in my future had I just done what my mom wanted and not made waves so high that they could wash away her career.
I could have gone to an Ivy League college.
I could have used my family’s powerful connections to get a high-paying job.
I could have had it easy had I simply kept my mouth shut and followed her rules.
But that wasn’t me.
