Page 117 of The Deal with the Playboy

Chance merges onto the highway, switching lanes, the city already alive ahead of us. The sky is cloudy gray and specks of rain tap the windshield.

I glance over at her to see her cock her eyebrow. “For?”

I intertwine my fingers with hers and bring her hand to my lips and kiss it. “For being here with me.”

A smile spreads across her face. “That’s what married couples do.”

Worry burrows deep in my chest, and I sigh. “What if she doesn’t admit what Tommy did? Then my mother won’t get the justice she deserves.” I stroke the back of my neck with my other hand, trying to relieve some tension.

“She will. You saw how guilty she looks. She knows a lot more than she put on. Especially since I brought up her husband’s death. But if she doesn’t, we’ll work through it. We always do.”

Poppy

My mother wanted me to meet her at a spa, and after the last few weeks I’ve had I needed to get pampered. But I didn’t want to come, because I know she’s up to something. She never calls unless she wants a favor.

I sit in the seat and slip off my shoes, placing my toes in the warm water as the nail tech files my toenails down. I glance at my mother who has a towel wrapped around her head and a magazine in her lap.

“How was your week, darling?” she asks.

I haven’t spoken to her since we had our little spat during that dinner and even though I didn’t want to meet with her today, she kind of forced me, speaking about how much she misses me and how she can’t go another day without speaking to me. I don’t believe her words because she didn’t have a problem going months without speaking to me before I married Jasper. She wants more money out of me.

I grab my phone from my purse and set it on the table next to me.

“That’s a nice purse. The latest Prada bag. It hasn’t been released yet.”

I force a fake smile and say, “Jasper bought it for me. And to answer your question, my week has been great.”

Tension builds in my shoulders and I rub them. The nail tech asks me what color I want my toes and I tell him I want bright orange. Hopefully, it will brighten my mood. Brighten up the rest of my week. Jasper and I have been going different ways to find evidence against his father. We looked at police records of the crime scene. I couldn’t look at most of the pictures, of his mother’s blue face and her lifeless eyes. It was Jasper’s first time seeing them and he burst into tears. I felt so sorry for him.

She nods. “The girls at the country club miss you and want you to rejoin. They want you to attend the first ball of the winter season there.”

I shake my head. Those same girls she speaks about turned their backs on me the moment my mother cut me off. Those are the type of friends I don’t need in my life. I suspect my mother only wants me to rejoin the country club so she can brag about how I married well. Anything to make her image look good. I’m starting to see her for her true self. The woman who I’m looking at is one I no longer recognize. I remember when there was a time where she used to bake me cookies, and we would watch movies together—she was my best friend—but everything changed when she remarried. When Jimmy and Sophia came along, she kicked me to the curb like worn-out shoes.

“I’ve been so busy with Jasper that I might not have the time,” I say instead of voicing how I really feel.

I’m not telling her I’m opening up a daycare either, because she’s going to talk me out of it, and right now, I can do without her negative opinion.

She wants to have lunch after we leave the salon, but I’m not hungry and I don’t want to be around her. I married Jasper so I could get in good graces with her, practically begging her to love me, and all she wants to do is use me for money. She doesn’t care about me, and she never did. She’s so angry at my father and me, blaming me for things that were beyond my control. How can she blame me for her being a single mom and my father for being a crackhead?

If I ever have a child, I wouldn’t treat her or him like shit.

“I want to tell you I’m sorry for the way I treated you at Sunday dinner.” She places her hand on my arm, and her touch feels like a hot iron, so I flinch a little. “You know I love you and will do anything for you.”

More lies.

This is an act, because my mother never apologizes for the things she does. She always acts like nothing happened and we move on with our lives. I see where Sophia gets it from. Our relationship has always been toxic, and I was too naïve to see it because I wanted her acceptance so bad. I wanted to be loved by her so badly, but it only set me up to be used by her.

“I need a favor.” Her bottom lip trembles, and she looks up at the lights then back at me.

I’ve never seen her so scared, and I crinkle my brow, worried.

I exhale. “What is it?”

“I need thirty grand.”

I knew she wanted something, and this spa date was all a ploy.

“For?”

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