“For fuck’s sake,” I cry out and bury my hands in my hair in frustration. “What the fuck is wrong with you?”
“Wrong with me? I had plans, you know.” Her voice rises in volume the longer she talks, finally giving me some of the truth. “I didn’t want to be stuck in that hick town, married to your father, having to take care of you. I wanted to be someone. I wanted a career. But then you”—she waves her hand up and down my body in disdain—“came along and everything changed. All the plans I had were destroyed.
“Instead I was burdened with you, in that house, in the middle of nowhere, with a man who was always busy doing something, or someone. I had to watch you and him and become this unit while I was on the outside looking in. You and your father already stole everything I was, I wasn’t going to just let you two be happy when I was miserable.”
I stare at her become what I can only describe as unhinged. “I was a child—”
“A child who destroyed everything. I could have been someone if not for you.”
“I never prevented you from becoming someone,” I yell, fed up with her bullshit excuses. “There are a ton of mothers who have a career and do what they love while having kids. That shit isn’t on me, it’s on you.”
“You’re jealous,” Kade speaks up from behind me, throwing her off guard.
“I—I— as if. Why would I be jealous of her? She’s nothing but an attention-seeking child who’ll never be good enough.”
“And yet, you risked it all by going to the press with the truth about the accident, risking jail time and losing that rich fiancé of yours, just to destroy Montana’s life, again.”
“Please,” she says dismissively, “I was never going to jail, the statute of limitations ran out on that two years ago. And Phillipe, well I’ll find someone better. He was always telling me to go to rehab. I don’t have a problem. The only problem I have is my ungrateful daughter destroying my life. And after everything she did, she deserved it.”
“Jesus, you’re crazy. I never did anything to you but try to stay away.”
“They all left because of you!” she suddenly yells, leaning forward, her face distorted in fury, a look I’ve only ever seen once before, and I back away, right into Kade’s sturdy frame. “Your father pushed me away because of you. Every man in my life left because you were too much to handle, or you tried to steal them from me, you slut. I know that’s what you were trying to do.” I don’t interrupt her crazy ramblings, even though I have no idea what she’s talking about. I made sure to never be around her creepy husbands or boyfriends. “But then you had to go and tell lies. You told them it was all my fault. You had your precious Daddy call me and accuse me of shit I never did, causing Phillipe to leave me. He left me for shit you brought on yourself.”
“What?”
“You had no right to tell them—”
“How do you know what I told them?”
“I—” A loud knock on the door interrupts whatever excuse she was about to utter.
I don’t move, trying to figure what the fuck she is going on about, so Kade walks to the door and opens it.
I turn around when I hear shuffling and a muttered, “Fuck,” by Kade, and watch as everyone I consider family rushes into the room. I stare wide-eyed as my dad and Lizzie walk into the room, followed by Bob and Dakota, shocked they’re here.
“Dad,” I whisper, unable to move. “What are you doing here?”
He doesn’t answer, instead he pulls me into his arms. As the warmth of his embrace seeps into me, the ice that filled me dealing with my mother melts. I don’t know why he’s here, how he knew where to come, but I’m grateful he is.
“Kade called yesterday and told us what happened. We were already on our way. I’m sorry I wasn’t there for you. I—”
“I know, I’m sorry, too. I just got so mad you didn’t believe me, that you chose someone else over me.”
“I get it. You’re my daughter, you needed me to have your back no matter what. I’m sorry I didn’t.”
“Oh, how fucking precious.” Veronika sneers behind us, interrupting our reunion.
Dad lets me go and turns to her, disgust and anger radiating off him in waves. “Shut up, Veronika. You’re done. After everything you did to my kid, you’re fucking done. I’ll make sure of it.”
“I didn’t do fuck—” she tries, but he doesn’t let her finish.
“This is the last time you fucked with our lives. What happened to you that you’d spy on your own child, try to alienate her from the people who love her?”
“Spy on me?” I interject, taken aback by the word choice.
It’s Bob who answers my question as Kade walks to me after closing the door and grabs my hand. “The PI called me back right after we talked. After finding out she tipped the press off herself, he kept digging into things. She isn’t very smart when it comes to hiding the money and paper trail. She paid some IT geek you went to high school with to hack your phone and download a hidden app that records every phone call and message. It will even pick up conversations you have with others if the phone is near. It’s how she knew what you told them back in Montana, isn’t it, Veronika?”
I turn to stare at her, shock reverberating through my body at how far she’d go to try and control me and my life. “Are you serious?”
“Well, clearly I couldn’t trust
