Page 94 of Off Script

“Thank you for telling me.” Tristan spoke up. “But about tonight . . . being at Fuego’s . . . I thought you said—”

“I know, but sobriety is harder than it looks, okay?”

“Even with AAA?” Tristan asked. He hoped his comment would lighten things up, but she shook her head solemnly.

“I still haven’t gone yet, but I will.”

Now that the attention had shifted to her, Angela developed second thoughts about hanging around. “Thanks for letting me crash, but I should probably go.”

Although Tristan offered to let her stay until her ride arrived, Angela chose to wait outside, claiming she needed the fresh air. Tristan sensed she just wanted to be alone to mull over the decisions that awaited her. His suspicion was confirmed as she gave him a final, regretful smile.

“I know we caused each other a lot of harm, Tristan, but—”

“We’re even, Angela. Don’t worry about it.” Tristan assured her. As far as he was concerned, their chapter in each other’s lives was over. She’d given him a sense of closure to the rest of theSip That Teadebacle, and, hopefully, he had given her some encouragement to get the support she needed. Tristan still kept an eye out, though, to make sure Angela’s ride pulled up, before making his way back to his couch.

Considering calling it a night, Tristan reached for the remote. Right when he was about to turn off the television, he saw his mother’s shining smile gracing the screen, with a caption saying the illustrious star was still in town. As he watched his mom on camera, Doug’s words flooded back to him.You’ll never learn howto truly forgive and love someone until you take responsibility foryour actions.

“Well, Doug, if I have to take responsibility for my actions, then so does everyone else,” Tristan murmured.

This whole roller coaster ride with Jada had indeed taught him that actions had consequences. It was time to face his, but the only way to start doing so was by facing his mother. Still staring at his mother’s face on-screen, Tristan pulled out his phone to call the number that had been haunting him for weeks.

It was hard confronting your deepest wounds. But as Tristan sat down with his mom the following afternoon, he knew it was for the best. When he’d called last night, his mom had eagerly agreed to meet, providing Tristan a terrifying opportunity to confront his past trauma. With the two of them in his living room again, Tristan prayed take two of this conversation would play out differently. Finding a way tostartthe conversation was the most difficult part. For a while, the echoing tick of the wall clock was the only sound. Its maddening persistence forced Tristan to break the ice.

“Um, do you . . . do you want something to drink? Or eat? I think I have . . . water,” he asked dumbly.

What he wanted was his Jack Daniel’s. However, if he kept using alcohol to cope with difficult situations, he knew where that slippery slope could lead.

“No, I’m fine. Thank you,” she said. As she looked at him, Tristan memorized her features in a way he hadn’t been able to in their previous encounter. Taking her in fully this time, he saw she looked the same; a little older, but her smile was the same. The love in her eyes was the same, as if his doting mother had never left.

How ironic.

“So . . . I thought about what you said, and you’re right. I should hear you out. What did you want to tell me the other day?” Tristan asked.

“I want you to know my leaving was never because I didn’t love you or didn’t want to stay. Things just got complicated.”

“Complicated how?”

“I fell in love. With someone other than your father, obviously. What you don’t know, Tristan, is your father was a very possessive man. He was never physically abusive; you would have seen that. His methods were more subtle chastisements, controlling what I wore, who I talked to. Eventually, I felt suffocated and ended up meeting someone else. When your father found out, well, of course, he wasn’t happy. And that’s when he finally did hit me. When it crossed that line, we both knew I couldn’t stay. Not without things ending badly.”

Tristan took it in. It was hard to imagine his father hurting his mother. His dad had always been a little on the militant side but raising his hand to her? And yet, Tristan remembered the morning his mom left. The bags under her eyes hadn’t been from lack of sleep at all. His father’s sullen anger that morning hadn’t been about a headache. And maybe his father’s downward spiral after his mom’s disappearance had been more about guilt than loneliness. Thinking of this, he couldn’t deny her words like he had the previous time she’d come to his house. This time it didn’t feel right. Her words felt true.

“Well, who is this man?” The man who’d ruined his family. “Are you still with him?”

“Alejandro and I moved abroad so I could continue my career. But he passed away a few years later in a car accident.”

Tristan found himself reaching out to hold his mother’s hand. All of this must have been difficult to relive.

“So everything you went through was for nothing.”

“Oh no, Tristan. Despite how hard it was to leave you, I don’t regret falling in love with Alejandro. Not once.”

“Even though doing so destroyed our family?”

“When you find true love, you don’t let it go, mijo. I just hoped one day you would be able to forgive me. To this day, the only part I wish I could change is taking you with me.”

Tears welled in Tristan’s eyes at hearing the words he’d always longed for. But it wasn’t just the confirmation that his mom never stopped loving him. He knew exactly where he’d heard similar rhetoric about not letting go of true love. The night he went to Jada’s apartment because of this very same woman and her betrayal. But was it a betrayal for his mom to get herself out of a bad marriage? Tristan never would have wanted for things to get worse, or for his father to continue to hurt her. Her leaving wasn’t as black and white as his fourteen-year-old self believed.

“I understand if you can’t, though. If it’s been too long.” His mother’s voice shook him out of his thoughts. As she began to pull away, Tristan hugged her.

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