Page 63 of Call You Mine

Jade’s chest heaves in anger. “Wynter, I swear to God if you don't let me drag your mother out by her bleached blonde weave, I am going to murder you, then her.”

I shake my head and do what I always do, saving a woman who doesn’t deserve it. “Jade, please, just let me deal with her. She’s here because I ditched her lunch invitation earlier today. She’s a leech, a nasty little parasite and if I don’t give her the attention she so desperately craves, she will just keep coming back. Please, I promise, one drink, five minutes and she’s out of your hair, never to set foot in here again.”

Jade scoffs, her sharp glare once again meeting Willa’s who sits there with a satisfied smirk on her face. “Oh, she sure as fuck is never setting foot here again. Five minutes Wyn, or I’ll have security drag her out for me.”

I nod and Jade walks away though not before once again glaring murderously at my mother, and this time, I can see the tension in Willa’s face. Willa’s actually a little frightened by Jade and it’s hilarious.

“What is her problem,” Willa sneers, her gaze once again meeting mine.

“Her problem, mom? Maybe the fact that you barged into her business and insulted it before making yourself at home like you are owed something.”

“Her bar?” she asks unimpressed, once again looking around the space as if she’s looking for something wrong with the place. The Silver wolf is perfection—upscale elegance with an edge. The rich feel of the entire space—marble countertops and table tops along with authentic hardwood floors in a deep shade of espresso brown all highlighted by the elegant light fixtures hanging from the ceiling—create a luxurious ambiance. Yet the black leather of the booths and the eccentric art hung up on the walls give it a modern twist of danger.

It’s everything Jade and Bass represent.

“I should have known,” Willa continues, “That’s the one who sunk her claws into Sebastian isn’t it. Hmm, such a darling boy, a looker too, fallen victim to another one of those vile leeches that want nothing more than to suck the life and money right out of them.”

My jaw nearly drops to the floor from her bluntness but I shouldn’t be surprised. Especially since not three years ago, I’d probably be saying the same thing.

“God Willa, you truly are deplorable. Jade, is Bass’s fiancée, and the mother of his twins. She’s not only the perfect person for him, but she’s a good person and an even better boss.”

Willa scoffs, her bright red nails tapping annoyingly against the counter. What is with this new bold appearance? Willa would never be caught dead in such a bold and gaudy color.

“Boss? You mean to tell me you really work here?” Disgust revels inside of her at the mere thought of her daughter working at a bar, under a woman who just a few years ago was as penniless as she is now. “I thought this was just some serveyourself establishment, and you snuck back there cause the service sucks. Besides you have an incredibly wealthy boyfriend, why the need to work, daughter? Unless things have gone sour between you and your beau?” she continues, the tiny little wheels in her head turning. “Hmm I knew it would end at some point, well it is what it is, underneath the billions there still hid that pathetic poor little boy not worth a damn thing. I just hope for your sake you’ve gotten me what you owe me before you went and ruined it?”

From the corner of my eye I can see Jade speaking to Big Sal, the enormous, ex-NFL player she hired on as head of her security team here at The Silver Wolf. I just know she’s giving him the heads up to drag Willa out of here by the heel of her six-inch stilettos.

Trying not to cause a scene, I lean over the bar toward her, anger building inside me at her insufferableness. “Hush mother, someone can hear you. I told you I would get you what you needed but I can’t just waltz into the bank and take the money out myself.”

“You mean he doesn’t give you an allowance?”

“I’m not his fucking child mother. I’m not with Damon because of his money.” It’s not a lie. My feelings for Damon have only grown more intense in recent weeks and I know his status and wealth mean nothing to me. Not anymore, not like they did before. “In just a few months I will have plenty myself. I’ve needed nothing from anyone. The only reason I’m willing to give you anything at all is to get you the hell out of my life for good.”

She lets out a sharp, menacing chuckle that raises the hair on the back of my neck. “Oh my sweet, ignorant little girl,” she says, reaching forward to caress my cheek in a tender and motherly way. At least until her fingers tighten on my chin and she tugs me toward her, our lips so close I know she can feel mine tremble. “You’ve been mouth fed with a silver-spoon yourentire life you ungrateful little bitch. You do not know what it is like to need. You lived in a palace, everything you had was of the best quality—designer brands, luxury goods—you never wanted for anything…”

“But the love and care of a mother,” I interrupt her, letting my anger and frustration out. Tears burn in my sockets, aching to be released, but I can’t give her the satisfaction of seeing me cry because of her indifference toward me. Especially because her expression remains indifferent. I see no emotion in her glacial blue eyes as she stares back at me, a ghostly reflection of myself, of what I used to be like when under her guidance.

I thank the heavens daily I was never forced to do such a thing—that for whatever reason, Enzo never touched me. Our marriage was more to keep up appearances and give him the power and respect he so desperately craved and believed he was owed.

Though the more emotional I become as I remember the horrors of what I went through, I instantly regret having spoken so loudly when the heads of the patrons closest to us turn and they stare at me with pity in their gazes.

But it’s my mother who looks at me with nothing but hatred and shame in her expression. My words rattled nothing inside her. How could they when there was nothing there to begin with? Just a beautiful, empty husk corroded and rotting from the inside out.

At one point, Willa and I had a relationship, but it was never between a mother and daughter. She saw me as an equal, someone she could go out and party with, and borrow clothes from. I’d go as far as saying she was jealous of my youth and freedom—something she never had after being practically forced to marry Warren when she was only eighteen. Similar to what happened to me. Only she was pregnant with twins, a mother oftwo at eighteen, yet again forced in order to produce an heir for the Servite Dynasty.

Big Sal appears beside her before I can respond. Willa doesn't even bother looking toward him, already knowing why he’s come. She knows her time is up and before she can be dragged out and humiliated, she stands, grabs her Hermes bag from the counter, and walks away.

Though not before turning once last time to face me. “Tick, tock my sweet girl. Mommy is growing impatient. You don’t want to see what happens when my patience is tested.”

Chapter Seventeen

WYNTER

My blood is boiling, my eyes burn as the tears I’ve tried so hard to hold back push their way out, salt streaming down my cheeks and falling against my lips. I want to scream yet I know it will be no use.

Willa is a monster, just as bad if not worse than the men I’ve lived my life afraid of. Because she’s choosing to do all of this out of her own selfish needs. My fathers’, yes plural, did everything in order to maintain their power and prestige of the Servite name, and although in the end their efforts were in vain, we were at one point, untouchable.

Then there is Enzo who did everything out of pure vengeance. If Wesley had not crossed him, then he’d no need to come after me as retribution. But he came to avenge his cousin's death at the hands of my father. Wesley’s mistake was not caring who would pay the consequences of his wickedness. Though even if he had contemplated who would be blamed for it all, Wesley and I had no sort of relationship. He was a careless man, worse than that he was a stranger who ruled like a tyrant in my household. So of course I tried my best to avoid him at all costsand luckily he was too invested in training my brother and his friends to take over the reins of his self-made empire—though ironically in the end it was my brother who burned it down.

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