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“You’re standing in the way of a little girl growing up with both parents. For what? So you can get my son’s money? Don’t you know how damaging that is?” Her voice slowly began to rise.
“You will not talk to me like that.” If she thought she could come in here and accuse me of being a gold digger and a homewrecker, she had another thing coming.
“You stupid little girl. You have no idea what I’m capable of. I’ll have your bakery shut down, and also, you’re fired.” She adjusted the designer handbag on her arm.
I didn’t care that she fired me because I was going to quit anyway. But I couldn’t ignore her threat about shutting down the bakery. That was what I had been afraid of–I didn’t want my mom to lose everything she’d built over the years.
But I couldn’t back down. Not today.
“Why are you so obsessed with your son?” I knew the question would strike a nerve.
“He’s my only child. You’ll never understand until you have a child of your own.” She clearly had no idea I was going to do just that in about, oh, six months or so.
But I knew I would never treat my child like this. I wanted my child to have the freedom to love whomever he or she wanted to love and I’d be supportive.
“I guess I don’t understand, but this isn’t fair to him or me.” I tried to make her see reason.
“I couldn’t care less about what’s fair to you. You’re not worthy of my son and as long as you continue to see him, I will make your life hell and I will make sure your family doesn't go unscathed. You'll have to start over again. All of you. Somewhere far away from here,” she hissed.
I knew she wasn’t bluffing. Rebecca was capable of everything she had threatened.
She didn’t wait for a response before spinning around and storming out of the bakery. As I watched her leave, I thought about what she had said to me. Everything she said pointed out that this whole situation was a mess. The Adler's power was something I knew would be difficult to deal with and it broke my heart to think this relationship would affect my family.
I loved Tristan, but maybe this was the nail in the coffin.
Tristan
Something was wrong. Arya wasn’t her usual self as we sat on my grandparents’ back porch. She stared into space, watching the sunset with eyes that seemed to be a million miles away. I pulled her close, and she leaned into me, but she was more rigid and I couldn’t help but wonder what was going on in her mind.
The past few days had been beautiful. We were taking risks for each other and fighting for our love. I kissed Arya on the forehead, and she sighed.
“What’s wrong?” I asked. She tipped her head up to look at me and I saw the glimmer of tears in her eyes.
“Your mom came to the bakery,” she said. I already knew nothing good was going to come of this.
“Oh?” I asked. My throat felt tight, like it was trapped in a vice.
“She made…threats,” Arya said, and sounded worried.
“What did she say?” Anger started burning through me, cell by cell. I couldn’t believe my mom wouldn’t let me be with anyone in peace. This was officially old and needed to be stopped.
“She said that I have to stay away from you or she'll make my life, and my family's life, difficult here in Bardstown,” she said with a shaky voice.
“I’ll talk to her.” I pulled her close, but she pulled away.
“I don’t think that’s going to cut it.”
“Then why don’t we just move away?” I asked. I’d thought about this as a last resort for a while now. I really wanted to stay in Bardstown, but if my family was going to make it difficult, what was the point?
“Even if we do, my mom and Mason still have to be here, and your mom will make sure they suffer. I don’t want things to be that way. I want them to live peacefully. Running away with you doesn’t solve anything.”
Arya was right, and I hated that she was right.
“What should we do then?”
Arya was quiet for a moment and when she turned to me, she had tears pooling in her eyes.
“I think we should break up. I'm so sorry, but I don’t want to be in a relationship like this. I don’t want to look over my shoulder all the time and I definitely don’t want my family to live like that too,” she said and my heart broke into a million pieces.
