Page 69 of Mason Wilder
Mason hung up the phone after a long, emotional conversation with both of his parents. He told them everything that had happened last night with Kendall. They had all cried. It was done, he told himself. Ready to put Kendall and the hurricane she brought with her behind him, he took a cleansing breath and put a smile on his face.
He found Tessa in the bathroom brushing her silky black hair. She smiled at him with affection and waited to see if he wanted to talk about the phone call with his parents. He didn’t. He took Tessa’s hand and kissed the third finger on her left hand. “I’m going to buy you the biggest diamond I can find and it’s going to be so brilliant that its sparkle will light up the sky brighter than the sun.”
Tessa’s smile stretched and reached her eyes. “You better.”
He laughed at her lack of modesty. She’d grown up with the best of everything, and he planned on upholding that tradition because nothing in the world was too good for her.
To aid his effort at being more romantic, he decided a morning walk on the sand before he took her to breakfast was the perfect way to start the day as an engaged couple. He breathed in the fresh ocean air when they exited the apartment building and turned his face up to the sun as they walked toward the beach. “It’s a beautiful day.”
Tessa was overflowing with happiness, with a bounce in her step and her face as bright as the sky. “That’s because we’re engaged.”
“It’s not official until I put a ring on it,” he joked, mimicking the talk show host who had interviewed Prodigy a few months ago and asked what it takes to snag America’s most sought-after bachelor. But Tessa wasn’t laughing. She wasn’t even smiling. She abruptly stopped walking and her face went blank.“What?” he asked. When she didn’t respond he followed her gaze to several yards in front of them and saw Kendall, two suitcases resting on the concrete at her feet. His blood rushed through his chest at the sight of her. “What the hell are you doing here?” he barked. “Haven’t you caused enough trouble?”
Kendall’s eyes filled with tears. “I know you hate me now. I feel absolutely awful. I want to explain. I want to tell you everything. I want to answer all the questions I know you must have. I’ll be completely honest. I swear it. Please. Let me say my peace. Then I’ll leave, and you’ll never have to see me again. I’ve been here for three hours waiting for you. I need to speak to you, and then I’ll go to the airport straightaway. Please, Mason. Just give me a few moments of your time.”
She had no right to ask him for anything, and he was fully prepared to tell her to fuck off, but he felt Tessa squeeze his hand.
“It’ll give you closure. Say what you have to say or ask whatever’s on your mind. You may not get this opportunity again. And, maybe she needs closure, too.”
After all the bullshit and the terrible manipulative things that Kendall had done to Tessa’s family, and to Tessa, she still had compassion for the woman. He realized Tessa was right. He had unfinished business with Kendall. He had questions and things he needed to say. “Go inside and wait for me upstairs. I don’t want her anywhere near you.”
“I’m fine, Mase, but if that’s what you—”
“It’s what I want. I should have protected you from her and I didn’t. She’s not getting a second chance.”
Tessa shook her head lightly, as if he was overreacting, but he had no idea what Kendall was capable of after he heard the things she’d done and found out that she’d trespassed onto the grounds of the Blade-Garcia mansion.
Tessa kissed his cheek and went inside. He waited until the doorman closed the door behind her before he faced Kendall. He almost asked her how she knew he was still here, worried she had camped out all night waiting for him, but then he realized he left his Lambo in the outdoor parking area on the side of the building last night. Unsure what exactly he wanted to say to her, he asked, “What do you want?”
She fiddled with a coin, turning it through her fingers. “Can we sit?” She motioned to the patio area in front of the apartment building, which had small groupings of tables and chairs.
Mason didn’t want to sit and chat. He wanted to hear whatever she had to say and be done with this woman once and for all.
“Please, Mason. Just let me have my say and I’ll never bother you again. I swear it.”
The pathetic, pleading tone of her voice somehow cut through the anger and resentment that hardened his heart and got through to him. He paused to look at her – really look at her. She wore the same designer trench coat that she wore on the first day he met her in the City, but the polished put together woman looked emotionally crippled. Her makeup was minimal, with no lipstick so she looked pale and gaunt. Her bloodshot eyes were swollen and heavy. Her hair, which was dyed black yesterday, looked as if she tried to bleach it back to blonde but the color was off. Instead of wearing it swept neatly back and away from her face, it hung in a loosely tied ponytail at the back of her neck, flyaways blowing every which way in the breeze.
He took a seat at one of the tables and waited.
Kendall let out a painful breath, as if it hurt to breathe, as she sat next to him. She didn’t look at him. Instead, she remained fixated on the object obscured in her hand. When she spoke, her voice was low and stressed. “I’ve thought I hit rock bottom many times in my life, but yesterday was a new low. Even for me. I honestly thought I’d never go back to the person I used to be. I thought that part of me was buried, never to resurface again.” Still looking downward, she shook her head. “I don’t know what happens to me when I’m around those people. They bring out the worst in me.”
Anger burned in Mason’s belly and re-ignited a fire. He had no interest in listening to her make excuses or blame the people he loved for her behavior, and he rose to his feet. “Stop blaming everyone else for your actions.”
She looked up at him, eyes wild and panic covering her face as she fiercely clutched his arm, preventing him from leaving. “I take full responsibility. This was all my fault. It’s . . . it’s what happens to me when I’m around Angel.”
Mason sat back down, curious to find out about Kendall’s obsession with Angel and her hatred of Jessi. “What happens?”
She wiped her forehead, exasperated. “I don’t even know where to begin. I’ve loved him for as long as I can remember. He’s the only man I’ve ever loved. I’ve tried to put him out of my mind. I fooled myself into thinking I didn’t love him anymore.” She grimaced, despair crinkling her lips and forcing her cemented brow to crease slightly. “But I do.” Her voice cracked. “I love him completely. And love makes you do crazy things.” She blotted the corner of her eye with the tip of a manicured finger. “He never wanted me, no matter how hard I tried. We had so much in common from the moment we met. It was in voice class. The moment I laid eyes on him my heart thudded. I’m not exaggerating either.” She looked off into the distance, a dreamy smile now on her face. “His dark eyes smoldered from across the room. He was so handsome. He smiled, and I swear my legs got all wobbly. When he stood in the center of the room and sang for the first time . . .” She clutched one hand to her chest. “It took my breath away. We became instant friends. He helped me with my pitch and vocal exercises. I didn’t know why he needed classes. His voice was perfect.Hewas perfect. I fell for him, very quickly. But he wasn’t interested in me that way. He told me he was gay, which . . .” She paused as she searched her memory. “Which I guess was true, but it didn’t register. I guess I didn’t want to believe it. For some reason, I always thought he was bisexual. I’d seen him with many men, but never women. Not in that way. Kira and Audra were always around him like star-struck groupies. He adored them, which made me despise them, I’m afraid. Even though they were younger, and I knew he had no interest in them romantically, I still resented the attention he gave them. I wished he’d shown me one-tenth of the affection he showed them.” She squeezed her eyes shut for a moment and swallowed. “And thensheshowed up, and he started avoiding me. She came onto the scene with her brilliant ideas on how to promote the band and talented design skills.” Kendall let out a deep breath and painfully grimaced. She paused as she looked at Mason. “Jessi.” As if she needed to clarify who she was referring to. “Angel worshipped her. She flaunted her talent and her gorgeous husband who seduced Angel, and he fell right into her bed. I was mad with jealousy. I admit it. I was a lunatic. I drank and did drugs, and I was compulsive. I did some very stupid things. Terrible things. Things I’m very ashamed of.” She lowered her head and a lone tear streamed down her cheek. “When I saw Tessa, I lost all control of my senses. Everything came flooding back. The love I had for Angel and how differently I wished my life had turned out. I thought to myself, this could be my daughter.Ourdaughter. Mine and Angel’s. I wanted it to be true so badly that I started to believe she could love me like a mother if I showed her how much I cared about her.”
Transference. She was transferring the love she had for Angel onto Tessa. But what about him? He was her son, but she didn’t seem to possess the same love for him. “So, the reason you’re obsessed with Tessa is because you love Angel so much? And because you never cared about my father, you never cared about me?” He sneered at her. “Nice.”
“No! That’s not what I meant at all. I love you, Mason. I’m your mother.”
“You’re not my mother. Audra Abelman-Wilder is my mother.” He wasn’t sure if he spat the words to hurt Kendall, or because it was true. Kendall was never his mother. Even before he came to live with his father, his memories were of late nights with Aunt Mary, never Kendall. He remembered crying in bed and asking Aunt Mary when Mommy was coming home. The answer was always the same – soon. But he’d fall asleep with Aunt Mary stroking his hair and when he’d wake the next morning, sometimes Kendall would be there and sometimes she wouldn’t. He remembered running to her bedroom the moment he woke up to see if she had come home, only to find a perfectly-made bed and Aunt Mary sleeping in the recliner in the living room.
He stared at the woman next to him, no longer a stranger, but nothing more than a bad memory brought to life that had come back to haunt him. “This is ridiculous. We’re done here. You’ve said what you had to say.” He stood up and took two steps before questions started lighting up his brain. This is your chance, Tessa had said, and he realized he needed some clarification. “What the hell is the story with that DVD? How did you get a sex tape of Tommy, Angel and Jessi?”
Kendall lowered her eyes to the object still concealed in her hand, and her cheeks flushed bright crimson. “As I said, I’m not proud of the things I’ve done. I’m quite ashamed, actually.” She took a deep breath and slowly let it out. “One night, when I was with Jimmy, I made him think Jessi and I were friends. It was easy because, at that point, Jessi and I didn’t have any open hostility towards one another. We had some words and rubbed each other the wrong way, but unless you were privy to those conversations, you wouldn’t have known.”
