Total pages in book: 82
Estimated words: 78016 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 390(@200wpm)___ 312(@250wpm)___ 260(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 78016 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 390(@200wpm)___ 312(@250wpm)___ 260(@300wpm)
“Now, son...” her husband starts to say, which has me turning my glare on him.
“Fuck you. I’m not your son. Hell, I’m not her son either.” I turn my attention back on her. “It’s been nineteen years since I’ve seen you or heard from you. You left and immediately started a new fucking family? Why?”
Tears well up in her eyes, but I don’t give a fuck. She did this, not me. “Why?” I repeat.
“I left for you,” she whispers. “Your dad and I—”
“For me?” I cut her off, a humorless laugh escaping. “You left for me?”
“Braxton...maybe let her explain,” Kaylee says softly, her hand going to my arm. It’s meant to be comforting, but all I can think about is how when I found out she lied to me, she said the same shit. I did it for you.
“Fuck you,” I hiss, shaking Kaylee’s hand off me. “You didn’t do it for me. You did it for you. You left and got yourself a whole new family.”
Denise—because fuck that, I’m not calling her Mom—shakes her head, liquid spilling down her cheeks, and I can’t be here another second. My body buzzes with pent-up aggression, my heart pumping with raw emotion. I need to get the fuck out of here before I do something, say something...
I turn on my heel and stalk away. I hear voices murmuring behind me, but my head is too fuzzy to know what they’re saying.
“Brax, wait!” Kaylee yells, trying to catch up to me. “Talk to me, please.”
“Not now, Kaylee,” I bark. “I need some space.”
When I get to the house, I grab the bottle of liquor sitting on the counter and take it up to my room, slamming the door behind me. Seeing my mom and her perfect little family and hearing her tell me that she left for me is just too much.
My dad told me why she left—she didn’t want to be a wife or a mom. She wanted to act, wanted to live that life, and we were only holding her back. She broke his heart, so he moved us back to New York to get away from her.
Yet soon after, she remarried and had three damn kids. Not once, in all the years since she left, did she ever reach out. I never looked her up because I didn’t want to face what I might find. I was afraid I would find her happy, living her life without a single regret of walking away from Dad and me, but I never thought for a second I would find out she moved on so quickly and started a whole new life.
Fuck, my dad. I wonder if he knows. If he did, it would probably gut him.
I take a swig from the bottle, the alcohol burning as it slides down my throat and warms my insides.
“Braxton!” Kaylee yells through the door, banging on it.
I ignore her. I know she didn’t do anything, but hearing another woman who I loved tell me that she did what she didfor me, something that hurt me, tore me up inside, has me raging, and I can’t be around her right now.
“Braxton, please,” Kaylee begs. “Open the door. Your mom is here and wants to explain.”
Well, that gets my attention. I don’t want to talk to the bitch who walked away, but maybe I need to hear her excuses so I can have all the facts when I tell her to go the fuck away for good.
“Where is she?” I ask when I swing the door open.
“Downstairs.”
Pushing past Kaylee, I take another swig from my drink and go downstairs, finding Denise sitting on the couch alone.
“Where’s your perfect little family?”
She flinches, wiping her eyes. “I wanted to talk to you alone.”
“So talk.” I sit on the coffee table across from her.
“When I met your dad, I was young, barely eighteen. I came from a poor family, and he was older. I wanted to go to LA to pursue acting, but then I got pregnant. While he was finishing law school, I stayed by his side, focused on raising you, but I had dreams too...”
“Dreams that were more important than your son?”
She shakes her head. “You were my entire world. A friend of mine told me about a film doing auditions in Manhattan. I didn’t think I’d get the part, but I still went for the heck of it. Weeks went by, and I assumed I didn’t get it, but then I got the callback. They wanted me. One movie turned into two, and the next thing I knew, I was being offered the chance of a lifetime to star in a huge production. The only problem was they needed me in LA...
“Your dad wasn’t happy. He was up for partner at the firm he was working at, but I needed this... for me. So we agreed I would go, and we’d visit each other when we could. I wanted to take you with me, but he said no, said that living on set wasn’t the life for a child, and I agreed. So you stayed with him. I was supposed to come back after filming, but then I was offered another role in another movie. The pay was more than your dad made, and I told him I would be a fool not to take it.”