“Vanessa was in on this too?” I balled my fists.
She nodded. “She was the one who told me that Claire was only after you for your money so...We hired a private investigator to dig up some dirt on her past and I used it against her...I even hired an investigator in Pittsburgh to follow her ex-husband and his new wife around so I could throw that in her face...I thought she was using you...I thought—”
“Did I ever ask what you thought? Did I ever say, Mother, tell me what you think about Claire?”
“No...”
“No? Are you sure?” I wasn’t going to hold back anymore. “Or is that something else you don’t remember?”
She began to cry.
“Do you want to know why the answer is no? It’s because it doesn’t f**king matter what you think and it never will. I don’t need—”
“I was only trying to protect you! I didn’t know that —”
“There are a lot of things you don’t know, a lot of shit you can’t seem to remember lately. But since we’re sharing stories now, let me help you out. Let me tell you exactly why what you think will never matter to me: You were never there when I needed you to be. Ever. You let me, a f**king kid, take care of a toddler while you and my father were out doing god knows what. You showed up high to everything I had at school—you were so f**king high you made me drive the car to the store when I was eight! But you don’t remember that do you? You don’t remember how you never did shit for us—how we had to beg you to come back with food, or how you left us in a trailer that damn near killed us. You still have yet to even apologize for that because you don’t want to own up to being the horrible f**king mother that you are. ”
“I was on drugs! I’ve apologized over and over and you just keep dragging this out because—”
“Get out.”
“Please just lis—”
“Get. Out.” I pulled the door open and walked over to my desk. I was done with her.
Sobbing, she slid her purse strap over her shoulder and headed for the door. She twisted the doorknob and slowly pulled it open.
“Wait.” I sighed.
She looked back with tears in her eyes. “Yes?”
I glared at her, tempted to say “I never want to hear from you again. Stay the hell out of my life,” but I couldn’t bring myself to do it.
As furious as I was with her, I was now even angrier with Claire. She didn’t even think to tell me about everything that had gone on; she’d simply used my mom’s behavior as an excuse to take the easy way out.
“Take a seat.”
“No...” She wiped her face and sniffled. “I don’t care how mad you are at me, you’re not going to treat me like—”
“SIT DOWN, mother.”
She moved away from the door and walked over to my desk, plopping down on a seat.
I took a deep breath. “You and I are going to talk, without our therapist. You’re going to be completely honest with me and I’m going to be completely honest with you. Once we’re done talking, if nothing good comes of it, we’re going to go our separate ways...I want you to know that I’ll always take care of you and give you whatever you need, but we don’t have to pretend like this relationship is something worth salvaging if it’s really not. Can you—”
“I want to be a part of your life regardless of this conversation. I don’t think it’s fair for you to write me off like I’m some type of—”
“Was what you did to Claire fair to me?”
“No...” She sighed. “And I’m sorry, but I—”
“I said ‘if’ this isn’t something worth salvaging, so you better be completely honest with me. Are you willing to do that?”
“Yes...”
“Good. Give me one second and we’ll start.” I picked up my phone and called executive affairs. “Milton, get me the proper paperwork to impeach a member of the board. I want it within an hour and I’ll be exercising clause seventeen to make the impeachment effective immediately.”
Chapter 29
Jonathan
Two months later...
Stacy ran her fingers through my hair and kissed my lips. She tried to part them open with her tongue, but they wouldn’t budge. She slowly unfastened the top buttons of my shirt and started to pull it off, but I pushed her hand away.
She sighed. “I should’ve known you weren’t up for this...” She grabbed her bra off the chair and handed it to me. “Can you help me put it back on?”
“What?”
“My bra...Can you help me put it back on?”
“Oh. Sure.”
“The third row, please. And for the record, I’m officially taking the ‘with benefits’ tag off our friendship. We haven’t had sex in forever.”
I snapped the last hook on her bra. “Fine...”
“I’m really worried about you.” She turned around and cupped my face. “You’re scaring me...”
“Because I’m not having sex with you?” I rolled my eyes.