Page 49 of Unfinished

“I can ruin you, and I will. Protect yourself, Hannah, because if you continue this relationship, I’ll make life beyond difficult for you, your father, and Ashley. I’ll do anything to make sure my son ends up in an advantageous marriage.”

“You can’t do that,” I gaped at her.

“I already did as a preemptive for this night, to prove that I can,” Elaine hissed out the words and my mouth dropped open in shock, “I hope your father can find work.”

Elaine was the reason my father lost his job and she did it to prove her ability to ruin me and the only family I had. Even if I managed to stay in a relationship with Liam, this woman would ruin the two other people I loved the most in this world to spite me. I swallowed back my desire to rip her hair out and glared at her.

Taking a step back away from Elaine, I closed my eyes briefly. There was a lot I wanted to say to her but I turned and walked out of the kitchen without saying a thing. Liam came walking down the hall towards me. His mother came out of the kitchen and patted my shoulder before walking away. Liam looked at his mother in confusion then back to me. There must have been something in my expression because he stepped in front of me and looked into my eyes.

“Let’s go,” Liam said and he took my hand and pulled me to the front door.

He opened the car door for me and I glanced up at the house before dropping into the seat. How had I been so ignorant to all the warning signs? I knew his mother wanted him to marry one of her picks. He had told me about his ex being invited and the many dinners he dodged this summer. His mother was relentless in getting her way, and she had the power to make it happen. It was my fault that my father lost his job and would be forced to give up the house he worked so hard to keep for the last six years.

Liam and I were holding hands and walking down the sidewalk in our town center. I couldn’t get his mother's threats out of my head. Every reason why I shouldn't be with Liam came flooding back too. The differences in our lifestyles. The long-distance issue. How busy I was working and studying and how that would be impacted. With the added pressure of his mother's hatred and threats I couldn't help but feel that the odds staked against us were insurmountable.

The “trash” comments didn’t hurt, but realizing that I would never fit in his world did. There would always be someone who looked at my lineage and looked down on it. Would our story always be the poor girl who got a rich husband instead of two people who fell in love and, against all odds, made it? Furthermore, did I even want my love stories to be fodder for a magazine article? Being with Liam meant privacy would be hard to come by. We'd be in the public eye for the rest of our lives. Maybe not in the same sense as a movie star but in societal sections.

There was that part of my brain telling me that as much as I wanted to ignore what other people thought, the reality was not many relationships survived under that type of scrutiny. Especially when, for four years, we would be long-distance. His mother would try to make my life a living hell. Every event. Our wedding. The birth of our children. Their birthday parties. Everything would have a cloud over it because of her. Not to mention what she did to my dad. Who wanted that?

Could I really continue this relationship knowing that I'd be risking everything I worked so hard to achieve? That I'd be risking my father's retirement and Ashley's future? Was loving Liam and having him worth harming the two people who had been there for me through everything?

“Are you okay?” Liam asked.

“Yes,” I lied. I wasn’t okay at all. Everything about this night wasn’t okay and I was being forced to choose between the man I loved and my family. None of this was okay.

“My dad loved you,” Liam started. “He can see why I fell in love with you.”

“That’s good.” I nodded and forced a smile.

“What were you and my mom talking about in the kitchen?” Liam stopped and turned to me.

“Don’t worry about it, I’m not,” I said. There was no way I was telling him what his mother did. She’d likely deny it anyway. Even if Liam believed me, I wouldn't be the one to do her dirty work. If she wanted to destroy her relationship with her son, she would have to do it herself. Liam gave me a look like he knew I was keeping something to myself. “She’ll never accept me, Liam.”

“I don’t care what she thinks, I love you.”

“And how do we handle every single event of our lives with her?”

“We don’t invite her.”

“That’ll be a little hard to do and it’ll be something she blames on me.”

“If anyone says anything, I’ll give them the facts.”

“Okay, Liam,” I said, not wanting to argue about this.

“Don’t do that.”

“Liam, it’s been a long night, I really don’t want to talk about your mom.”

Liam looked at me with concern and it broke my heart. Every doubt I have ever had about this relationship was screaming in my head. He didn’t know exactly what was said in their kitchen, but he knew I wasn’t okay when I left it. His mother left me with no choice.

I turned and continued walking. Liam grabbed my hand and held it as we walked in silence. This may be one of the last times that we were together. In the end, I had to protect my father and Ashley.

Chapter 22

Liam

I hadn’t seen Hannah at all this week and texts and phone calls were all being kept short. She said that she and Ashley were getting things prepared for their return to Pittsburgh. She was avoiding me because of whatever my mother said to her in the kitchen. She wouldn’t even tell me about that conversation.

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