“No matter how you try to spin this, Mom, you won’t get out of it. You caused this, so you have to take ownership of the consequences. I’ve told you what it’ll take for us to try this again, and until those requirements are fulfilled, things will stand as they are,” I said.
“It’s amazing to me how far you’re willing to go to paint me like some kind of evil human being. Like I’m the one who can’t be trusted.”
“Are you saying Hailey can’t be trusted?” I asked.
“All I’m saying is that people like Hailey aren’t made of stern enough character. She’s talented but flighty. She runs from her problems instead of facing them head-on like a woman should. She would rather turn her back on them and act like they don’t exist than solve them and keep her head high. People like that betray people, Bryan. All I am is concerned for my son.”
“So concerned that you would threaten to take our child away? Mother, are you even listening to yourself? Hailey and I have been through hell and back. With John’s death. With this art gallery. With her cancer and being so sick.”
“And how many times did she willingly come forward with those struggles, hm? Did she willingly come forward about John and how she knew him? About the role she played in his life and in his death?”
“Hailey is not the reason John is dead, and you know that,” I said.
“And her cancer? When did she come forward with that? When she could no longer hide it from you?”
I was holding my phone so tightly, I thought it was going to shatter into a million pieces right there in the palm of my hand.
“Whatever you think of Hailey, it’s not true. That woman is loyal to a fault, and she’s going to be a splendid mother.”
“It’s interesting how you can’t deny what I’ve just told you,” my mother said.
“I’ve had enough of this. I’m attempting to start a fresh life with the woman I love who is carrying my child. Until you can apologize for the way you’ve been acting toward her since day one, none of this is happening. No dinners. No phone calls. No nothing.”
“No phone calls? Bryan, listen to yourself. Listen to how she’s isolating you from the family.”
“The only one doing the isolating is you,” I said. “You’re angry because you can no longer control the one son who is still in your life, and now you’re taking it out on the family I’m trying to build. And you can come after me and you can assault my character, but you will not come after my wife and child!”
“Oh, settle down, Bryan. I’m not some predator looming in the shadows. You don’t like the truth I’m telling you. You’ve always been that way, stubborn to a fault. You and your brother,” she said.
“We are done here. And if I have to block your number from our phones for you to get the picture, then so be it,” I said.
“Bryan? Bryan, wait. Son, listen to m—”
I hung up my phone and tossed it into the seat, my body shaking with anger. I gripped the steering wheel tightly as I raced through San Diego, taking back roads and flooring the gas. What in the fuck was happening with my mother? Was she mental? Was she insane? My jaw was clenched so tightly, I was giving myself a headache. I had to protect my family from her. She was dead set on trying to tear us apart, and I wasn’t going to allow her to do it.
No matter what she threw at us.
If she couldn’t see her fault in this matter, then that wasn’t my concern. And if my father couldn’t have a relationship with us because of her manipulative tactics, then that was on him. Anna and Drew would love this child, Ellen and the people at the foundation would love this child, and people at my construction business would love this child.
The family I surrounded this child with didn’t have to be blood-related.
And the more I thought about not having my parents in the picture, the more relaxed I became.
That was the solution to all of this. The solution was to bid my family goodbye.
Chapter 18
Hailey
I was training Kelly on how to greet and interact with customers as I wound down my week. It had been a long one, but I had finalized details with Ramon. He was going to purchase both of John’s paintings and hang them in a museum in Barcelona. He felt it was fitting to have John’s last two tremendous pieces of artwork hanging in the city where his niece or nephew had been conceived. It still ached that I had to part with the paintings. It was going to take some time before I’d be able to replace them with something else on the wall of my gallery. But that meant I had more than enough money to pay off this Ben character and be done with this entire debacle forever.
And having Kelly around to field the customers and deal with the cash register meant I could do this exchange in peace.
I was still worried about Bryan finding out about everything. This problem was almost resolved and without an ounce of it being spilled to him. I knew hiding it from him was wrong. I knew he wanted to know what was going on with me. But with the stress he was under from his mother and having this distance between him and his family, I figured he was going through enough. The last thing he needed to deal with was something from my past with his brother looming over our heads.
He had enough family drama on his plate.
Bryan had been tense all week. He was walking around with a scowl on his face, and his temper was short. But I couldn’t blame him. He’d told me about the conversation he had Wednesday with his mother and about the decision he’d made for our family with regard to them. Part of me ached for him, but part of me was relieved. His mother was becoming a very serious problem. Her words were stinging more than ever, and she was kicking up more drama than it was worth. Putting distance between us wouldn’t pile any more stress on my shoulders, but it did leave us feeling as if we were alone.
Without family dinners at his place and without a strong relationship with my parents, it almost seemed like we had been deserted.
But every night, when I laid my head down next to Bryan’s, he would utter those three words that made me shiver with delight. He would tell me he loved me before sinking between my legs and showing me, and it was all the reassurance I needed. In those moments, when his tongue was coursing electricity through my veins, all my worries faded into the background, the issue with Ben and the money I was going to pay him, the debacle with his parents, and the fact that my parents had disappeared after I was no longer riddled with cancer.
It all faded to the background when it was only the two of us in bed.
I knew I wouldn’t lose Bryan if he figured out what was going on, but I was ready to tie up the past. I was tired of being reminded of John. I knew how terrible that sounded, but I was. Every time I thought of him, I thought of that moment when I was standing around the corner and listening to those guys threaten and kick John around. I can remember the moment they ran off with John gurgling on his own vomit. I’d rushed to him and pulled his head in my lap, frozen in my spot when his eyes had connected with mine.
It wasn’t until he took my hand that I was pulled from my trance. And I would always wonder what would’ve happened to him had I reacted sooner, had I not been so shocked at what was going on. I knew I had only knelt there for a few seconds before I called, but that was seconds wasted that could’ve possibly saved John’s life.
And as long as his past continued to haunt us, I would forever be reminded that I could’ve saved his life but didn’t.
I carefully packed up John’s dual paintings in the shadows while Kelly dealt with the customers. She was really getting the hang of things, and I enjoyed how she interacted with the customers on the gallery floor. I watched as the customers left the store. Then, Kelly grabbed a broom and went to sweep.
“Kelly, hold off on that for a second. I want to talk you through something.”
The woman smiled at me and set the broom off to the side before she made her way toward me.
“What’s up?” she asked.
“I want to show you how I pack up paintings in case someone wants it shipped to them,” I said.
“All right. Lay it on me.”
“They have three different options. Option one is the cheapest, and it’s a simple bubble wrap and envelope measure. You wrap the painting twice in the bubble wrap and then slide it into the padded envelope.”
“You just keep all this stuff lying around?” she asked.
“I keep enough of the stuff on hand to do a various amount of shipments every two weeks,” I said. “For now, that’s all you need to know. If you have to start ordering things, I’ll walk you through how to do it then. But most of my things are used on a regular basis, so they’re automatically ordered after a specific time period.”
“Convenient. Okay. What’s option two?” she asked.
“Option two is placing the envelope in an opaque hard case,” I said.
“So, you do the bubble wrap twice, stick it in the envelope, and then grab a hard case that fits the painting and stick it in there.”
“Exactly. The hard cases can be mailed out as is. On the envelope, you address it like you would any other letter. On the hard case, I have mailing stickers you can write the addresses on and attach in the proper places on the case,” I said.