Page 94 of Synced to Us

Brad raises a brow. “You don’t want to explain your girlfriend’s—or fiancée’s, I can’t keep this shit straight—sordid past to Ma, first?”

“Boys!” May comes between them. “I don’t want this. Do you hear me? I don’t want this.”

“I can explain just fine,” I say mildly, pushing to my feet. Lucy eases closer, concern lining her face. I take a breath, nerves wracking my chest, but I’m thankful for the mental key Wyn gave me. It makes opening the door to my secrets that much easier. “I was an escort. I had a terrible time as a kid and that was the one way I found I could make money to survive.”

“You lied to me?” May whispers, her eyes round and wet as she regards me.

My heart sinks hearing May’s disappointment, but I keep going. “I had a way with numbers, even when I was young. A way with getting what I wanted, too. After I stopped the escort service, I went into something more meaningful. Still dealing with money, but in a way that was proper, legal, helpful. The opposite of illegal. I know accounts like the back of my hand, but I’m not like the men you were forced to deal with back when you lost everything, May. My past won’t let me. I’ve lost everything, too, and I wanted what I gained to be different than the legacy my parents left me with.”

“You told her what happened to us as kids?” Brad accuses Wyn.

Wyn sneers, “I trust her a helluva lot more than I trust you right now.”

May stares across the table at me, her expression morphing from crestfallen, to confused, to horror. I don’t know which one she’ll land on, but I pray it’s enough to want to keep me in her life.

“You’re the closest thing to a family that I’ve had in years,” I blurt out to her. Even Wyn twitches at my confession. “The nicest mother I’ve ever met, and we only spent a weekend together. That’s something to me. I felt terrible deceiving you about Wyn and I’s relationship. That guilt became even worse when I learned about your husband’s death and the excruciating domino effect it had.” My voice grows thick, and my eyes sear with hot tears, but I blink and swallow as much as I can to keep the sudden emotion at bay. “It took me a while—too long—to realize how lucky I was when Wyn came into my office and told me he needed me to meet his family. I was terrified at first. Mortified. I don’t do families—I’m not good at them and worked so hard to live without wanting one. Then that screen door out front creaked open and you were waiting in the hall. You hugged your son like he’d always belong to you, and I—and I—”

Wyn comes to my side.

“Please,” I say to May, casting the word out of my mouth like it was meant to be used. “I don’t mean any harm. I only want good to come to your son. I only want my heart to belong to him, too.”

Wyn’s arm comes across my shoulders, his fingers digging into my skin in quiet gratitude. May doesn’t speak, only studies me.

Get out.

You whore.

All you want to do is to take advantage of my son.

You’re a user. A crook. A con.

I wait for the insults to land their crushing blows.

33

Dee

It’s obvious Brad’s thinking every slur I can come up with as he glares at us, his furious gaze bouncing between Wyn’s hand on my shoulder and me.

“Well,” May says, her shoulders rising and falling with a breath. “Did you all know about this? Was I the only one in the dark?”

Wyn’s rumble vibrates against my side. “I wanted to tell you, Ma. But—”

“No, no, I understand.” She lifts a hand. “I’m fragile, always making you worry about me, never wanting to tell me anything in case I relapse,” May says before Wyn can argue. “I’m so sorry you felt the need to keep so many secrets from me regarding the woman you love. I have a lot of work to do, it seems, to win your security back. I promise you, I will work. I’m prepared to do it.”

“Ma…” Wyn starts to say.

Brad explodes. “Are you all fucking serious? She’s a goddamned whore!”

“Brad!” Lucy shouts, pointing at the children. “Are you blind? Watch your language!”

“I’m a goddamned whore who knows how to count,” I say under my breath, loud enough for Brad to hear but far away from the twins. “And you’ve been systematically robbing your family for years. How about you stop trying to redirect the narrative to my past, which has nothing to do with you, and start to look at your own mistakes.”

“Say whatever you want, Dee, but you have no pull with this family. No part of my mother’s trust. All you people exist for is to make money off other’s backs and throw us in the hole. I’ll deny everything you say. Lucy will back me. Ma will, too.”

“I won’t,” Wyn says. “And what will happen when the money stops coming in?”

“You’ll stop helping Ma out?” Brad sputters. “Really? You’d do that for this money-hungry hot dog hole?”

---