Total pages in book: 100
Estimated words: 96513 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 483(@200wpm)___ 386(@250wpm)___ 322(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 96513 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 483(@200wpm)___ 386(@250wpm)___ 322(@300wpm)
“You looked like you needed some fresh air.”
I shrugged. “Sure.”
“And I have to tell you something.”
She actually looked… frightened. I straightened slightly. I’d never seen anything but the hardened, badass Monica behind the bar. She seemed so… small out here, on this bench.
“Tell me what?”
“I want you to promise me that you’ll let me explain.”
I raised my eyebrows. “Okay.”
“Promise, Camden. Say the words.”
I stilled even further at that. “I promise.”
It felt like a curse out of my mouth. I stared into her eyes and wondered what in the hell she was going to tell me. And why she looked like she was going to cry.
She took a deep breath. “I’m your mom.”
35
Camden
“Camden,” Monica said gently, “I know it’s a shock.”
A bomb had gone off.
My ears were deaf.
There was a ringing as I stared through the debris.
“Please say something,” she whispered.
“You’re not my mother,” was the only thing that I could get out.
She frowned. “I know this is hard to take in, and I’m sorry for that. I wanted to tell you. I wanted to tell you so many times.”
“I don’t believe you.”
She looked hurt, but she still had that stubbornness about her. “About two years ago, you went to the police chief and asked him to help you find your mother,” she said. “That’s why you became friends in the first place. It’s why you came here with him.”
“No one else knows that,” I hissed.
“I know. You had to go to José directly—with blackmail against him, I might add—so that he wouldn’t take it to your father.”
I stood and shook my head. “How the hell do you know this?”
“You promised,” she cried as I turned away from her. “You fucking promised.”
My teeth ground together. This was too much. Way too much. This night was a disaster. And this… this couldn’t be happening. It wasn’t possible.
But I had promised. As much as I wanted to walk away and never, ever look back, I turned, and I waited.
“I don’t know what you had on José. It doesn’t matter anyway, but he did what you asked. He came looking for me.”
“My mother’s name is Helena Percy,” I spat at her. “She was born Helena McAdams on Long Island, New York. She didn’t… she wouldn’t…”
“I know,” Monica said flatly. “I know what I was. Securely middle class, wide-eyed, innocent, beautiful, and everything a domineering, excessively wealthy man wanted to own. And I loved your father for many years. I really did.”
“Stop,” I said, wanting to block out the words.
“Carlyle was doting and kind. He showed me a world that I never could have imagined, and then a miracle happened—you.”
“This isn’t real,” I said, denying reality. “You know nothing.”
“But the baser tendencies that I ignored so I could love Carlyle came out with a vengeance after you were born. I tried to flee to escape him. I tried to take you with me, but you know who he is. What he’s capable of. He hamstrung me through the divorce, took everything, including full custody of you. He told me if he ever saw me near his son again… he’d kill me.”
“No,” I croaked.
But I knew it for truth. There was something in my chest that said that she wasn’t making this up. This was the father I’d grown up with. I could see him doing this precise thing. If he couldn’t have the woman he claimed to love, then no one could. Not even me.
“I’m sorry,” she said, a tear running down her face. “I was so young. I didn’t know how to fight for you. He wouldn’t let me. So, I ran. I changed my name. I escaped his shadow, and I tried to move on.”
“But your husband and son…”
“They were your father and you.” She choked. “I never married again. No other children. I dated, but…” She shook it off as if she couldn’t ever explain how much she had been hurt by my father.
How we both had been destroyed by him.
“If all that’s true, why didn’t you tell me who you were?” I turned back to look at her. This woman I’d trusted, who I’d turned to for advice. She’d felt like… family. Like a new family. But I’d never known what… who she truly was.
“I wanted to tell you,” she said, swiping at the tears running down her face. “When José found me, he came to the bar. He knew my past with Carlyle. He wanted to keep me safe. We agreed that he’d bring you here, to Hank’s, where I worked. That we’d meet, and at the end of the day, I would decide when to tell you.”
“He told me it was a dead end,” I said angrily. “He told me that Helena Percy no longer existed.”
“Which is true. Helena Percy no longer exists,” she said, holding her palms out to me. “I’m just Monica now. I’m not what I once was. And… I’m glad. I’m stronger.” She stood to meet me, and I saw that strength on display. “But I should have told you before today.”