He’s peppering soft, sweet kisses all over her face like he more that adores my mother and the way she’s looking up at him, it’s a look she’s never given anyone before. Not even my father.
She’s looking at John Fitzgerald like he’s the love of her life.
What the fuck?
3
“What…” I stutter, looking at them in shock. “What are you doing?”
My voice comes out as nothing more than a broken whisper that I can’t control.
John practically jumps a few feet in the air the moment he hears my voice, but I don’t move at all. I can’t believe what I’m seeing, my jaw is slack as I blink slowly like I’m witnessing a bad accident.
Am I having some sort of a nightmare?
Did I just see Julian and Liam’s asshole of a father kissing my mother—I mean, my aunt? Was he just whispering inaudible sweet nothings in her ear?
“What are you doing in here?” I demand, staring at John in horror, shock moving through my system until I feel almost lethargic. My vision dims for a second, a low buzzing sound starts ringing from somewhere. What is this? It sounds like an alarm of some sort.
“Mia,” John starts, but I don’t really hear him as everything Courtney just said comes rushing back to me.
Oh God, of all the things I was expecting to find as soon as I opened this door… this wasn’t anywhere near the shit I was imagining.
“Oh my God, what were you doing just now?” I almost shriek, my heart thundering away in my chest.
I see Nancy slowly turn around with great effort to look at me, her eyes filled with horror when she sees me standing there, but I can’t peel my eyes off of John.
“Answer me!” I demand, my voice getting high-pitched.
“Mia,” John starts, but his voice is low and deep, his eyes filled with so much emotion that I refuse to identify. He glances at Nancy then back at me, opening and closing his mouth like he suddenly doesn’t know how to speak. “I know what it must look like to you.”
“What it must look like?” I screech, staring at him like I’ve never seen him before.
“I can explain,” he rushes to say but I take a step back, shaking my head. “I… I didn’t know you were back. The boys, your father, and Nicky are out of their minds looking for you.”
That’s his excuse?
“You don’t care about my father or Nicky,” I seethe. “Get away from her. Get away from her right now!”
John takes a step back from Nancy’s bed but doesn’t go away. Actually, he doesn’t look guilty at all that I caught him in bed with her. He just is.
He glances at Nancy with this look on his face, then he looks at me and it hits me like a freight train just slammed into me.
Nancy is the woman John is love with. She’s the other woman, the home wrecker… Oh God.
“We’re glad to see that you’re all right Mia, Nancy’s been so worried.”
We? Jesus, the man is even using plural pronouns.
My jaw almost drops to the floor. The audacity of this man…
“That’s what you’re going to say?”
Did Julian and Liam know about this all along? Was this part of their plan? God, what is their plan? How is this devastation part of hurting me? I think I’m going to be sick.
“I know this is shocking to you, but I can explain,” John says, and I start laughing.
The absurdity of this situation is so insane, I feel like I just stepped into an alternate universe.
I came here tonight to get Nancy out of this place, thinking that I caused all of this, that I’m the reason why my family has been under attack for such a long time, only to find this; the woman who raised me in bed looking cozy and in love with the man who single-handedly ended her ex-husband’s career. The man who left our family broke and almost homeless.
Is everyone in my life fucked up or am I just the common denominator that triggers this shit?
I sink down the wall, folding into myself like a wounded animal as I laugh—but it’s more like a howl of pain, but for sanity’s sake, let’s stick with laughter.
I laugh until tears start running down my cheeks.
I laugh until it feels like I’m being shredded in a million different pieces, my insides in knotting together, my back breaking in two.
I laugh until I can feel the hollowness inside. I laugh and laugh, all while staring at her… my fake mother, the woman who I’ve regarded with respect and admiration my entire life. Nancy.
She lies there, an oxygen mask covering her mouth and nose, but it’s her eyes, the same ones I came to rely on, the eyes that have kept me going these past few years, the eyes that I would be so relieved to see each morning after she’d go to bed with this distraught look, like she knew she might die during in her sleep; those same eyes stare at me now and for the first time in my life, I feel like I’m looking at a stranger.
“Mia…” John says, as the laugh dies down.
Courtney Mason-Fitzgerald is a genius. How to shatter Mia more than she is already? Let her see the ugly truth for herself.
“How could you?” I croak out, staring at her, my mother, my aunt, a woman I don’t know at all. I glance at John and see him glance down at his feet.
The fuck?
There’s nothing more pathetic than a wealthy, powerful man caught in bed with another woman, wearing only his suit sans the jacket and tie, his feet covered in his socks. His open neck shirt is wrinkled, like he’s been lying with Nancy for hours.
Bile rises up my throat.
“Dad was right, wasn’t he?” I say, my voice hoarse. “You did cheat on him.”
“I don’t think…” John starts, but I cut him off as bitterness and anger swirl in me, making one hell of a concoction.
“I’m not talking to you!” I snap at him.
If someone had slapped me hard across the cheek from nowhere, I wouldn’t be as shocked and horrified as I am now. John slowly moves away from my mother, watching me with caution.
I look at Nancy, then back at John. My brain feels like it’s short-circuiting as I stare at them, as more tears run down my cheeks.
“Uh,” John starts, then glances at Nancy. “I think it’s best if...”
“No,” I cry, cutting him off. I feel like I’m about to combust from all the pressure within me. “You’re nothing but a vile, evil man. Get out!”
“Mia—"
“Oh my God, get away from my mother!” I scream now, clawing at my chest as the pressure there starts building up.
“Mia, please calm down,” John says, his voice back to that rich, soothing and smooth baritone I first heard when I first moved in.
“Calm down?” I cry, my eyes bulging out. “Who the hell are you to tell me to calm down?”
“Mmm…” Nancy croaks and I snap my head toward her only to see that she removed the ventilator. Her body is shaking slightly, the peace and tranquility that I walked in on now gone like it was never there.
Frozen in place, I look in her eyes and I see the warmth I’ve always known from her.
She looks at me, then at John, and I swear to God, her face brightens up like she just got a magical glow.