Page 45 of If You Could Only Believe
But before I could explain, I deep, masculine voice boomed throughout the room. “Are you serious, lady?” Aiden asked as he stomped over to stand next to me.
My mother’s evil eyes shot to Aiden’s. She must have not noticed the resemblance because she said, “And who might you be?”
“Mother, Phoebe, I’d like for you to meet Aiden Buchanan,” I said drolly. And, ignoring Phoebe’s embarrassment and my mother’s puckered fish look, I continued the introductions. “I’d also like you to meet Shane Buchanan, Denise Buchanan and Justice Buchanan.”
Phoebe wisely kept quiet, while my mother’s eyes turned back towards me. “What is going on here, Sophia?”
“Yeah,” came a pissed off voice behind her, “what is going on here?” I closed my eyes and prepared myself for the inevitable.
Michael, Gabriel and Mason had just made it back from their trip downstairs and their timing was really movie worthy. By now, Denise, Justice and Shane had joined Aiden in standing next to me, and when Mason, Gabriel and Michael all took their rightful places next to their spouses…well, it was a hell of a freakin’ sight, let me tell you.
It felt awesome!
Michael stood behind me, with his hands on my shoulders, very much like the first time he met my horrible family. “What’s going on?” he repeated.
“My mother and sister came by to visit and were shocked to see us packing,” I explained. “The assumption is that I got evicted.”
Gabriel’s laugh turned into a grunt when Justice elbowed him. And I’m pretty sure I heard Aiden growl. The weirdest family, ever.
“Well,” my mother huffed, “why else would you be packing up your apartment? You act like my assumption is out of the realm of possibilities.”
I knew I should probably speak up for myself, but after years of enduring her petty, sometimes scathing remarks, it felt good to have someone sticking up for me. Michael reached down, grabbed my left wrist, and started waving my hand around like a lunatic. “How about you recall what Sophia told you the last time you were here, how about that?” Michael questioned instead, his voice biting. “We got married and we’re here to move Sophia to my place since it’s bigger.”
Phoebe’s eyes rounded to the size of dinner plates and my mother’s face turned an ugly shade of red. Phoebe had always been her favorite. Phoebe was going to be the one to make a wonderful social match. Phoebe was going to give her perfect grandchildren and that perfect family Christmas card.
Phoebe.
Not me.
Never me.
My mother tried her best to eye my ring, but after Michael was done waving my limb around, he took my hand in his. She looked up at Michael. “You actually married Sophia?”
Michael’s hold on my hand was starting to sting a little. “You bet your fucking ass I did,” he seethed, not caring about respecting her title as my mother, when she obviously had no respect for me.
“But…but…why?” she asked, sadly genuinely confused. “She’s nothing compared to Phoebe!”
Before Michael could murder her, Mason stepped forward and you could feel the shift in the air. I felt it and I know my mother and sister felt it when I watched Phoebe shrink a little and my mother straightened her shoulders, trying to make herself look more intimidating than she was.
I should probably feel sorry for her at this point, but I couldn’t bring myself to. She’s been awful to me my entire life, and now knowing what it feels like to matter to someone, I’m realizing how not okay her treatment of me has been.
She deserved whatever Mason Buchanan was about to do to her.
“Who in the fuck are you?” he asked, his voice placing her at the bottom of the food chain.
A perfectly manicured hand flew to her chest, the perfect look of outrage coating her face. “Well, I am Sophia’s mother, and who are you?”
She really was a tool. All the Buchanan men looked alike, save for Mason having grey eyes instead of green, but the resemblance was obvious. “I’m Mason Buchanan, Sophia’s brother-in-law,” he announced, and my mother’s face paled a bit, her shoulders drooped.
“Well…well, I’m her mother and this is Phoebe, her sister,” she repeated.
Mason cocked his head at her and eyed her like a bug with no purpose. “So, let me make sure I’m clear on this,” he said coldly. “You’re one of the people who is supposed to know Sophia best, but you think she’s the type of person who would get herself evicted and is not good enough for my brother?”
My mother’s eyes widened, and it was then I could tell she knew her image of the perfect mother and family was cracking. She always made sure to insult me privately, and she worked her hardest to appear as if we were all perfect and she was ruining that.
The Buchanans were such a refreshing change from trying to be the perfect family. They weren’t perfect, and they admitted it. And they accepted just how imperfect I was.
And because she didn’t have the opportunity to backtrack, she confirmed Mason’s accusations. “Well, she might have a high IQ, but that doesn’t mean she’s smart. And a person has to only look at her to see that she does not belong with you lot.”
