Page 103 of Worth Every Game

“What do they look like? The pictures?” I ask Derek, and my panic bleeds down the phone.

He whistles. “Fuck, man. They’re hot. Explicit. She’s on a piano.” He chuckles. “It's on brand, I guess. That’s a definite pro.”

Sweat pearls on my forehead. The back of my neck. My torso. I’m so fucking hot right now, I might expire.

My phone pings as Derek’s message pops up, and my fingers shake as I go to open it.

“Jack.”

My name might as well be a gunshot fired in a library for the shock it gives me. My phone tumbles to the floor with a crack, and I look up to see my mother staring at me. She’s elegant as ever, dripping in jewellery. She stalks towards me like she’s on a mission.

I sink to pick up the phone. The screen is cracked, but I find Derek is still on the line as I put the phone back to my ear. “Derek, I’ve got to go. I’ll come back to you.” I hang up and slide my phone into my pocket, trying to push down my panic about the photos being out in the world.

“You haven’t answered my calls,” Mum says, her voice accusatory.

I force myself to focus on her, but inside I’m dying a slow death. “I’m aware.”

“You can’t ignore me forever.” She paces a little closer. “Elly was good out there. She can really sing.”

“You re-evaluating her?”

Mum snorts dismissively. “It makes her slightly less useless, I suppose.”

Fuck this. I stride towards her, waiting for her to move aside, but she doesn’t. Instead, she remains firmly where she is. Immovable. “You deserve the best, Jack. And Elly isn’t it.” I hear the echo of my own words in my mother’s, and it makes me feel sick. Elly’s comment rings in my head.A mother’s influence is like a virus… “Look at Kate with Nico. Now, he’s a catch.”

“Unfortunately, Nico’s taken,” I deadpan. Mum’s severe expression doesn’t crack.

“I’m thinking about the future. My baby boy, locked down by an unworthy woman.”

“Oh, fuck off. I’m done with this. If you don’t have anything good to say, then keep your mouth shut.” I push past her, heading back into the party.

“Don’t you dare walk away from me, young man.”

I don’t stop.

“You’ll live to regret this,” Mum calls after me, and for some reason this is the thing that hooks me. I swing back to face her.

“Regret what?” I stalk back towards her, eating up the distance between us. “Falling in love? Because I love Elly. She means more to me than anyone else ever has, and if you can’t support that, then I don’t see that we can have a relationship at all. If you want me in your life, you have to accept my choice. And Elly is it. I’m thinking about the future too, and there is no version that doesn’t involve her. You, on the other hand… I’m not sure I see you there.”

Even as the words leave my mouth, I know they’re true. I’d choose Elly over Mum. I’d choose her over everyone. I love Elly in a way I’ve never loved anyone before.

Mum must know it too, because her face crumples into a vision of misery, and she lets out a keening wail. It should move me in some way, but I feelnothingas I watch my mother weep. She glances at me through the tears, and when she realises I’m not reacting, that I’m not going to hug her or put my arm around her, or attempt to make this better in any way, she says, her voice weak and breaking, “How can you speak to me like this? How can you?”

I grit my teeth, holding back the urge to fix this whole scenario. To apologise and keep the peace and add this to the list of other crap I’ve ignored over the years. But this time it’s toomuch. How can she accuse me of speaking badly to her, after the things she said to Elly? But then again, Mum’s always been one for double standards.

“If you’d rather I didn’t speak at all, I’m okay with that too,” I say.

Mum heaves breaths like she’s having an asthma attack, but the fact that I’m not going to change my mind must be seeping into her awareness, because her odd breathing ceases and she wipes the tears off her face, being careful not to ruin her makeup.How much of that display was even real?She ducks her head without another word, hurrying past me back into the party.

Fury is biting through me, tearing at my organs. If this is the type of shit Kate has dealt with for years, then I’m not sure how Mum and Kate have a functional relationship at all. Maybe they don’t.

I pace back and forth across the narrow corridor, trying to calm myself, willing the anger to fade, but it doesn’t until I remember why I came out here in the first place.The photos.At the recollection, fear sweeps in to take its place, and every thought of Mum vanishes.

I take out my phone and open the message Derek sent, fumbling to bring up the images, and what I see nearly brings me to my knees.

No, no, no.

Elly, draped over the piano. The hair, the cowboy boots, her skin, her legs, her breasts… fuckingeverything.

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