Page 78 of Until He Confesses

When we arrived, to my surprise, it was the Capital Grille. I mean, sure, they had some vegetarian courses that could help my mom, but this had to be specially requested and would probably not be prepared with caution. I turned to look at both women in annoyance, but they ignored me and held onto each other.

"If you're going to spend this much money on dinner, then why not make it a healthy one?" I couldn't help but remark as we were shown to our table.

"We're going to ignore you," my mom threatened just as the waiter arrived. "Any more complaints, and I'm kicking you out of here. I'm not kidding."

With a tsk, Anna shook her head at me and then turned her attention to the waiter. They ordered cocktails, strawberry daiquiris to be exact, while I simply stuck to water. I wasn't in the mood to order anything as I couldn't help but feel frustrated at how careless they were being. My mom ordered a cosmopolitan ignoring my protest, but all of that died when I finally noticed a couple at the extreme end of the restaurant.

Their corner was dimly lit, romantic, and intimate, and the lady seemed to be having the time of her life. Her low but sultry laughter rang out from time to time. What I found, however, and why my gaze had been drawn over there was that the man had kept watching me.

I was so freaked out when I found that it was Lucas that I couldn't control the shocked expression on my face. Our waiter arrived then with our food, so I tried to return to our dinner, hoping that neither my mom nor Anna would see him either. If they did then this dinner was sure to turn into something else. So, I pulled my eyes away from him and continued eating.

Unfortunately, much sooner than I had expected it, my mother turned and was able to catch his gaze.

"Oh my," she said. "There's Lucas."

"Oh! He's here?" Anna asked, and I turned to her with a frown. My mother seemed to notice my confusion, so she turned to me as well but couldn't quite meet my gaze.

She continued with her meal, and so did Anna. A terrible suspicion began to gnaw at me. I considered it for a moment, disbelieving that my suspicions could be true, but when I recalled that I had given my mother Lucas's phone number in case of an emergency that neither of us could solve, I leaned back against my chair in shock.

"You called him?" I asked.

It took her a while, but she eventually nodded.

“Yeah, I mentioned that we hadn’t seen each other in a while. He said he was having dinner here today with a business associate and couldn’t come out with us. I said that we were having dinner here as well... what a coincidence, so maybe we would see him. Funny enough, he gave me the time for his, and here we are.”

I truly didn't know what to say. I didn't even bother turning to Anna because I was certain she was in on this too. Instead, I returned my attention to my overpriced food and kept eating. I wanted to storm out and leave them both to their dinner, but I didn't want to make this into a big deal, so I kept to myself.

However, the more I ate, and the longer the silence went, the more hurt and offended I felt.

Finally, I asked as calmly as I could manage.

“Did it never occur to any of you that I have my reasons for not wanting to see him? Why make me seem so shameless before him?” I asked.

At my words, they both looked up at me and then my mom set down her fork.

“I'm sorry, Callie,” she said. “We didn't mean to make you look foolish. It's just that with the way things have been between you two so far, we can't help but hope that you both can resolve your difficulties from the past and give your relationship another shot.”

At this, I could no longer stand to remain in their presence, so I set the fork down.

“Because he's rich?” I asked, and they both went silent.

“This has nothing to do with his money,” Anna said, and I cut her off.

“Is that the truth? You both are just not trying to push me on him despite whatever he did so that you can reap the benefits from it?”

As I spoke, I didn't dare look at my mom because I knew what this accusation implied. But I meant every word of it, and I wanted it to hurt.

My mom's next words surprised me.

“You're right,” she said. “His success does have quite a bit to do with why we're still pushing for you two to reconcile. As your mom, I should respect your decision on this matter, however, in case you've not noticed, I'm scared. Sure, I survived this time, but what about the next? And so, each night before I go to bed, and when I wake up, I can't stop worrying about who will take care of you when I'm not here. Lucas is capable, if not emotionally, then at least financially, and I know that with him you'll be cared for. So yes, I can't help but delude myself into believing him when he tells me that he actually didn't cheat on you because if this is true, then you just might be pushing away the love of your life... a worthy man and someone I can trust. I'm not going to apologize for this.”

After her words, she continued eating, but I had lost my appetite for dinner, so I pushed my plate away. Just as I got up to grab my purse, I finally noticed that he was walking over to us.

Our gazes connected, and for a few seconds, my mind went blank. He kept walking, and I remained in place until my betrayers finally noticed that something was wrong.

They followed my gaze and turned, and that was how we all watched and waited for the man to arrive at our table.

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