Page 113 of Embracing the Change

He shook her off.

Instead of showing chagrin for her husband or finding another way to support him during this emotional scene, her face got hard.

Oh my.

Was there trouble between those two?

“It doesn’t matter if I did, because she didn’t care,” Roland said to my son. “You knew your grandmother. And you’re a grown man now. Imagine having that woman as your wife.”

“Dude,” Archie entered the conversation, “are you seriously blaming your ex for you cheating on her?”

“You didn’t know Eleanor,” Roland retorted.

“I didn’t need to, man. That’s whacked,” Archie shot back.

“It is, totally whacked. Grandmother was awesome,” Valentina asserted.

“She was cold as an icicle,” Roland stated.

Before anyone could say or do anything, Nico exploded, and that was when all the men, plus Valentina, moved.

Toward Nico.

“Fuck you!” he roared, bumping chests with his father.

Darryn got there first, wrapped an arm around his chest, and pulled him back, but even though Darryn was six four, and quite built, and my son was no slouch, but he was not, Nico fought it. He didn’t win, but he fought it.

Dru sidled up next to me and took my hand.

Dear Lord, she was witnessing this debacle.

My chest threatened to cave in.

Nico stopped fighting Darryn and jabbed a finger at his father. “Tell yourself that, you asshole. Convince yourself that Mom did shit to deserve you shitting all over her. All over your marriage. All over your family. Tell yourself that, you motherfucker.”

Roland looked struck.

“Nico,” he whispered.

“You didn’t take us to school, Mom did,” Nico bit out. “And she was standing outside every fucking day to walk us home. She might not have made us after-school snacks, but she sat with us while we did our homework, so if we had a question, she could help. We had family dinners every night, and you weren’t around for most of them, because you were working or off fucking one your whores. She was a Mom.” He threw his arm out to indicate the room. “We were a family. I’m sorry you weren’t a part of it, but that was your choice, not hers, and not ours.”

Jamie turned to me during Nico’s speech, and the warmth coming at me from his beautiful blue eyes set in his stony-angry face was probably the only reason I kept my feet.

“You went to the best private school in the city because of the work I had to do,” Roland returned.

“Had to do,” Nico scoffed. “Bullshit,” he fired back. “You came from money. So does Mom. And newsflash, Dad, I’d give it all up if I could erase just one time hearing her crying at night in your room when it was late, and you still weren’t fucking home.”

At that, the warmth in Jamie’s eyes turned to fire, and he aimed it at Roland.

As for me, the threatening ended, and my chest caved in.

I had no idea my son had heard me.

Quick glances at my daughters and their forlorn expressions directed my way told me they’d heard it too.

But I couldn’t focus on his new knowledge.

At Nico’s words, Jamie was done, I knew, because he stepped in and asked Nico, “Have you finished?”

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