“To pack my things.”
“Don’t be ridiculous?—”
He spun, fury snapping through him.“Ridiculous?You fabricated emails.You bribed her parents.You shipped me off like luggage and erased a marriage you had no right to touch.That was monstrous.I should have walked away from you twenty years ago.I won’t make the mistake of staying now.”
Her face paled, but her spine stiffened.“You’re my son.You can’t just walk out on me.”
Tripp met her eyes, his own blazing.“Watch me.I’ll be in a hotel until Saturday.I’m not staying here a moment longer.”
He yanked open drawers, pulling out clothes and shoving them into a duffel.The sound of fabric hitting fabric filled the silence.He didn’t bother folding.He didn’t care.
Behind him, Suzanne lingered in the doorway, her mask beginning to crack.“Dustin, stop this nonsense.You’ll regret it in the morning.”
He yanked the zipper closed and turned, chest heaving, every word rough with years of pent-up fury.“The only thing I regret is letting you control me for this long.I should never have come back.I should have walked out the other night and never looked back.This time, I won’t.”
Her lips parted, her voice sharp but edged with something unfamiliar, fear.“You’d choose her over me?”
“Yes.”The word was immediate, absolute.His gaze burned into hers.“Every time.A thousand times.She is everything you’ll never understand, love, loyalty, truth.You’ll never accept her, and that’s fine.Because I don’t accept you anymore.”
“I’m your mother,” she whispered, startled, almost pleading.
“No.”His voice cracked, but it carried like a verdict.“You’re a monster.”
Tears pricked his eyes, hot and unwanted.He slung the duffel over his shoulder, his voice breaking yet steady.“Good-bye.”
Suzanne’s composure faltered.Her hand clutched the doorframe as though she needed it to stand.“Wait.”
He froze, shoulders taut.
“You never met your grandparents, my family, and there’s a reason for that.”Her breath hitched.“They were…white trash.”
Tripp blinked, stunned.
“I was once like Nicole,” Suzanne confessed, shame and venom tangling in her voice.“And I would’ve done anything to claw my way out.Anything.I married your father for his money.And when I look at her, I see myself.I know what girls like that are capable of.Don’t you see?I’m trying to protect you from becominghim.”
The words sliced through him, clarity coming with them.It all clicked: the relentless attacks on Nicole, the endless contempt.It wasn’t just cruelty.It was projection.His mother had spent her whole life punishing him for her own sins.
Now it all made sense, his parents’ cold marriage, his father’s quiet misery, his mother’s relentless social climbing.She hadn’t just wanted status, she needed it, fed on it like oxygen.She ruled their lives like a queen desperate to keep her crown, constantly comparing, competing, and clawing her way to the top of the society ladder.And in the process, she made everyone around her miserable.
Including Tripp.
But Nicole wasn’t Suzanne.Nicole loved him.Fiercely.Honestly.Completely.
He searched her face, for once seeing the cracks, the hollowness behind the pearls and perfection.“Have you ever loved anyone?Truly loved them?”
Her lips trembled.Tears glossed her eyes.And then, quiet, shattering—“No.”
“That’s what I thought.”His voice broke, but his resolve didn’t.“I love Nicole.She’s everything.And I won’t walk away from her again.Good-bye, Mother.”
He turned, heading for the stairs.She followed him, her footsteps frantic behind his.
At the door, her voice fell to a whisper, desperate and brittle.“You’ll come back.You always do.”
“Not this time.”
And with that, he walked out into the night, the cool air hitting his face like freedom.
For the first time in years, Tripp felt the chains snap loose.His future was uncertain, Nicole was gone, devastated, and he had no idea how to win her back.But one thing was clear: he would never again let Suzanne Masterson decide his fate.
