Page 88 of One Wild Ride

The following thought caused my heart to sink. I was going to be that man if my mother had her way. And she always had her way.

Alexa gave me a stiff smile as she fussed with her dark hair. Aria was right, there was no sister. Alexa was the dark-haired woman she saw with my mother.

“Alex, I’m happy you came. But don’t you think we should have left Aria out of this,” my mom said as she pursed her lips.

“Why? Why would I leave the woman I want to spend the rest of my life with out of anything that has to do with me?”

My heart sped up, not from confronting my mother, but that I spoke out loud what I had been thinking about for the past month.

“What?” Aria’s voice cracked beside me.

I didn’t want it to be like that. I wanted to whisk Aria off to that island we talked about. Serve her fresh fish, tropical drinks, and a diamond ring while gazing at the ocean.

I turned to her and took her hand. “I think you know how much I love you, Aria. And this is the last place I wanted to do this, especially in front of these people.” I glared at Aria’s dad as Aria gave my mom the evil eye.

“But, I can’t keep this inside anymore. The more time I spend with you, the more I realize that I need to show you, to tell you, how lucky I am to have found you in that art gallery three years ago,” I said as I stared into her warm brown eyes.

“You didn’t find her, Alex,” Aria’s dad interrupted me pouring my heart out to his daughter.

I turned my head toward him and regretted holding Aria back when she wanted to attack her father earlier.

He smirked. “Oh, you think you just happened to find my daughter in an art gallery? Your mother and I made sure you ‘found’ Aria. Mrs. Hawthorne was desperate. Since you refused to be a man and fuck a woman. Even prostitutes who would fuck anything if they were paid enough.”

“Dad!” Aria yelled at her father.

“Don’t tell me he didn’t tell you he was a virgin when you two finally had sex?” He waved his hands in the air in front of him.

“Dad, none of this is appropriate,” Aria said.

“Anyway,” he said ignoring his daughter’s comments, “when Mrs. Hawthorne mentioned her problem with her son, I knew my daughter was perfect for him. She loved art and would have sex with any man with a penis.”

I heard Aria and Alexa gasp but I only saw red. I don’t even remember moving toward Aria’s dad, but I remember punching him in the face. And in the stomach. And finally, shoving him against the window in the room before Mr. Dorton pulled me away.

Pushing Mr. Dorton off me, I turned to my mother. “That’s what you want?” I pointed to Aria’s dad as he lay curled in a ball on the floor. “You want to surround yourself with those type of people? People who would sell their family, their children for money. Then turn around and call their children whores. But I’m not good enough? I’m a problem to you?”

I could feel the hot tears streaming down my face but I didn’t care. My mother was awful and she wanted to be with awful people.

“It’s a necessary evil, Alexander,” my mother said after a sigh.

She had grown so immune to this sick life that it didn’t faze her.

“There is something evil in this room and she has a Botox face and wears diamond rings,” I said and smirked.

“Alexander August Hawthorne! That is no way to speak to me. I’m your mother.”

It only caused my smile to grow. I never made my mom angry and it felt good. She was always so in control, cool, and rarely fazed. Finally, I found one of her buttons to push and I wanted to take a sledgehammer to it.

“Oh yes, the mother who thinks lying is a form of endearment. Or telling him never to go outside during the day for fear he would be kidnapped and tortured . . . that’s what every good mother does. And that anyone who showed me attention only wanted me for my money.”

“I told you, Alexander, I did that to protect you. I may not have been a typical mother but it doesn’t mean I didn’t love you.” She stepped forward and tried to touch my arm.

I moved back shaking my head. “Don’t. If you loved me, how come you never told me?”

There was silence. My mother frowned and I thought I saw regret in her eyes.

“Mom, just—”

“Alexander, I’m sorry. I do love you, very much,” my mother said.

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