“I’m in love with him.” Tears pooled in my eyes, but I inhaled sharply as if that would hold them off. “Not that it matters. Because he thinks you put me up to it. He won’t listen to me, even though I’ve tried talking to him. He made me promise to stay away from him. He never wants to see me again.”
“Then he’s a fool. If he really loves you, he’d try to understand.” Mother’s words surprised me with their sincerity.
“You’re better off. Better to mend your broken heart and move on than to stay mixed up with him.” My dad wasn’t helping, and my mother gave him a hard glare.
“She’s the one who lied, dear. You can hardly blame the man for not trusting her again. And with us so eager to sue, he probably thinks she’s a gold digger.” The words insulted my father, and he stood to his feet and doubled his fist.
“No daughter of mine had to depend on him and his money. I’ll take care of my own.” I say back in my seat thinking I’d made it all worse again, and as if on cue, my father stalked out of the room.
“You really messed things up.”
I turned my head and stared at my mother with a slack-jawed expression. “Thanks, Mother, as if I didn’t know that.”
She held her hands up in defense. “I only mean that you’ll have to fix this. I’ll deal with your father. He’s never going to accept that you’re a grown woman who doesn’t need him anymore. But now, to have some man out there thinking that his little girl is a bad person, well, that’s not going to sit well.”
“But I am a bad person, Mom. I did a bad thing. I conned him. Who could blame him for thinking worse of me?” I didn’t think there was a way I’d ever get Aiden to understand. “I just wish this stupid lawsuit had never happened. Then I could have been honest from the start, and there would have been nothing between us.”
“I still think we were within our rights, darling. And for what it’s worth, I think the judgment was fair. As much as I wanted to make them responsible, I never wanted to hurt anyone. It wasn’t about the amount — it was the principle.”
“If that’s true then you could have settled.”
“I guess I wanted to make them sweat.” Mother lifted her shoulder and was unapologetic. “But I understand now why you were so against it. I only wish you’d explained everything from the start.”
“He wouldn’t have kept seeing me. At first, I didn’t tell him because I didn’t think it mattered. Then, as I got to know him, I knew he’d stop talking to me. But once I fell in love, I did it out of pure survival. I knew it was on the road to ruin, but I had to hold onto him as long as I could.” I’d been so desperate to hold on, I’d damned all the consequences.
“So, what are you going to do about it? You have to move on and hope that love will find a way. If you believe he loves you, then it will.” She had always been practical, but I knew that would never happen.
“I know he did, but not anymore. There’s no way back from this. He’s always going to see me related to the lawsuit. I’d be an ugly reminder of the second worst time in his life.”
“Sounds to me like it wasn’t so bad.” My mother’s sly smile brought one to my face with a burst of blush. “You’ve been seeing him all this time, dear, do you think I don’t know how serious it must have been?”
I thought of all the times I’d been with Aiden intimately and knew I couldn’t discuss that with my mother. “Yeah, well, it was pretty amazing and deep, but he doesn’t think any of it was real, so. . .”
“Give it time; I have a feeling he’s not done with you yet.” She patted my hand and then got up to find Dad.
I let those words stir in my mind. Not done with me yet? I imagined the warm feel of his touch, but then the memory changed and I remembered his hard, cold eyes burning through mine. There hadn’t been love in those eyes. Not a trace. They were tinged with nothing but cold, bitter hate.
Chapter Thirty-Three
Aiden
I became aware of my aching bones as I woke up on the hard floor. My mother’s Aubusson rug did nothing for padding the hard tile beneath it, and I missed the discomfort of the prissy ass sofa. Footsteps had roused me, and I opened one eye to see that Mattie was tiptoeing around me, carefully gathering discarded cans and bottles. I moaned as I rolled over and tried to stretch out my aching muscles.
“You are a pitiful sight.” Mattie stood over me with a handful of empty bottles and placed them on a tray she’d brought from the kitchen.
“Yeah, I’m sure it’s heartbreaking.” I sat up and glanced around for another beer, but my mini cooler was empty, and the ice had long melted.
“You drank the well dry.” She shook her head as a low groan escaped me.
“So, I’ll get more.” I stumbled to my feet, climbing over the side of the sofa and planting my ass on it.
“You can’t even walk. How are you going to drive? You need to sober your ass up and get over that lawsuit. You should consider it a win, from what I heard. The judge didn’t give those vultures half of what they wanted.”
She was right. Things had worked out well in my favor, though any amount given was too much for those people. Knowing Lexa was one of them was too much to handle.
“I slept it off, and the lawsuit isn’t the reason I’m drinking.”
“You gonna tell me why, then.”