Page 118 of Return to Us
“You’re what matters,” I assure her.
She grins. “Good.” She turns back to my mother. “Then you can like me or not. You can remind me how far beneath you I am or that my mother once cleaned your toilets, and that’s fine. She did. We’re not ashamed of it, regardless of what you might hope.”
I get to my feet, walk over to her, and extend my hand. “You’re what matters,” I tell her again.
Jessica places her hand in mine. “I know.”
As though I’ve shed my cloak, I feel lighter. I look at my parents without hatred, more pitying because they are the ones who are without. Even if they cut me off, I’ll still have more than I ever could’ve had with my job and money. I have an amazing woman and a beautiful little girl.
“Mom, Dad, I’d like to say it’s been a pleasure, but that would be a lie. I don’t know why you can’t get over this idea that you have a say in who I love, but I choose Jessica. You can both have each other.”
My mother gets to her feet, her eyes shrewd and calculating. “I didn’t want to do this,” she says as she makes her way over to a side table, grabbing an envelope. “I wanted us to talk and discuss things that had nothing to do with Jessica, but you saw this dinner as something else.”
I saw it for what it was, an ambush against Jessica and I. Still, I find myself asking. “Then what was it about?”
She looks to my father and back to me. “I asked you here tonight, Jessica, because regardless of your background and financial situation, I believe that you truly love my son. God knows he’s going to need to feel that.”
“What do you mean?” I ask.
“I wanted just you here for dinner before I talk to the rest of your siblings. In fact, I haven’t even said a word to your father about this. However, he’s been having an affair.”
I laugh once. “You might want to change your singular to plural. You can’t seriously tell me that you weren’t aware ofthem.”
My mother swallows and then straightens. “Don’t be ridiculous, I’ve known for years. I’ve accepted it, dealt with the embarrassment, and turned the other cheek because, what were my other options? Until now, it’s never had need of my attention or brought embarrassment to this family in this way. That has changed, and after almost forty years of marriage, I’m leaving him.”
“Why has that changed?”
“This. I will not allow this to go on.” She hands me the envelope. “Open it. It’s all there.”
When I do, I see the photo of him, and . . .her.
Before I can even understand what’s happening, I punch my father in the face and I see nothing but red.
Chapter 30
Jessica
Grayson hasn’t said a word in fifteen minutes. He keeps clenching and unclenching his bloody fists. I want to talk, to ask him who was in the photo, but I stay quiet. The scene was something out of a movie. There his father was on the floor with blood coming from his nose and Grayson screaming in his face.
He wasn’t making much sense. It was a lot of yelling and threats before I was able to pull him off his father. Then he looked at me, grabbed my hand, and practically ran out of the house without a word.
The silence is eating me alive.
We pull into his driveway, he throws the shifter in park, and just sits. Each breath is labored—clearly, the drive did nothing to diminish the anger.
“Grayson?” I keep my voice even and calm.
He shakes his head. “Don’t, Jess. Please don’t.”
“Don’t what?”
“Don’t . . . fucking ask me what I saw.”
In all the years I’ve known him, I have never seen him like this. He’s always been the level-headed and collected guy. This version of Grayson, I don’t know.
“Okay, I won’t ask.” However, I will make about a million assumptions and all of them don’t end well.
He releases a very heavy breath and then slams his hand on the wheel. “He’s fucking Yvonne.”
