She comes striding into the kitchen, the clickity-clack of her heels already the most irritating thing I’ll hear all day. She looks to her son before glancing across to Charlie and then finally at me. Her face falls. “Oh, you’re here,” she spits. “Is the pool house I have supplied not efficient enough that you have to come and overtake my home? Sorry, my generosity is not up to your standards.”
“Mom,” Colton snaps. “Lay off. You’re embarrassing yourself with your shitty attitude. This is my fucking house and I’ll welcome whoever the hell I want into it. Besides, Ocean has more right to be here than you do. Now, what do you want? I have shit to get done.”
She rolls her eyes and reluctantly tears her glare away from me to focus on her annoyed son. “Ugh, I did not raise you like that.”
“Funny,” he grunts. “I don’t recall you raising me at all.”
She lets out an irritated huff and slams a credit card down onto the counter. “You need to put a call into your financial team. My card isn’t working.”
“I know.”
“You know?” she questions, standing straighter as Charlie and I flick our gazes between the two like some kind of intense tennis match.
Colton looks to me for a brief second as if to tell me to pay extra special attention. “Yeah, I know. I cut you off. I’m your eighteen-year-old son, I shouldn't be responsible for funding your extravagant lifestyle.”
My mouth drops and I find myself leaning in closer as Charlie does the same, not wanting to miss a single moment of this.
“Excuse me?” she shrieks. “What did you just say?”
“I think you heard me.”
Oh, fuck. This is not going to go well.
“This is unacceptable behavior. You can’t do this. I’m your mother. I demand you call your team and have them reinstate my access. I have a luncheon this afternoon and I can not have my card declining in front of those women, that would be mortifying. This would have never happened if your father was still here.”
“Oh, you mean that man who you set alight during his own damn funeral? The man who gave you over a hundred million dollars in your divorce settlement despite the prenup and who continued paying for your lavish lifestyle even after you took off?”
“That was a part of our settlement. He had a financial obligation to me. Don’t act as though he was doing me some sort of favor.”
Colton scoffs. “No, of course, he wasn’t doing you any sort of favors. It’s not as though you’ve ever worked a day in your life or did anything to deserve the piles of cash that are constantly coming your way.”
“How dare you speak to me like that. I put up with your father for twenty long years. I deserved every cent.”
“Well, that’s just the thing, Mom. Dad is gone now and I sure as hell don’t have any kind of obligation to keep funding you. So, here’s an idea, why don’t you stand on your own two feet and support yourself for a change instead of living off other people for the rest of your life? Whatever happened to all that money anyway? Surely you didn’t blow it all on extravagant trips around the world, ridiculous parties, and those male escorts you like to use so much.”
A laugh bubbles up my throat as I watch her cheeks flame a raging red. “Oh, dammmnnn, Momma Carrington. That sucks. Though, if you speak to Harrison, I’m sure he will be able to sort out some shifts for you, but beware, he’d have to clear it with the boss first.”
Her jaw clenches and her stare zones in on me, and for a moment, she looks like the most dangerous woman on earth. If looks could kill, I’d be up in flames, but as it is, she’s just a nasty bitch with a pathetic bite and there’s not a damn thing she can do to me. “This is all your fault,” she spits. “If you weren’t around to poison my son’s innocent mind, this never would have happened.”
“Trust me, lady. Your son lost all his innocence the day his mother decided not to fight for him. By the time I sunk my claws into him, he was already as bad as they come. So, unfortunately, I can’t take the credit for that work of art.”
“I, uhh …” Charlie says slowly while awkwardly backing out of the room with his bacon and egg roll in his hand. “Just remembered that I need to go and stick needles in my eyes,” he says, glancing back at me. “I’ll meet you outside in ten if you still need that lift to school.”
I nod and in a flash, he's out of here, not willing to stick around for whatever bullshit storm Laurelle is about to create. With Charlie out of the way, she’s quick to throw her glare back at her son. “I want this fixed right now, Colton or so help me …”