Taking a deep breath, I said, “Okay.”
I started with saving Chrys’s life, rehashing those terrifying moments of pulling him out of the car. I did not mention the kiss.
“Oh my God, baby!” Mom interrupted, horror etched across her face. “You could have been hurt yourself. Are you okay?”
“I’m fine, as you can see,” I replied, gesturing to myself.
Her eyes narrowed dangerously. “Don’t get short with me, little girl! Don’t think I won’t whoop you.”
I rolled my eyes, the exchange oddly comforting. Mom always threatened to whoop me, but never followed through. I continued my story, up to getting kicked out of Kat’s car.
Mom stood up, the sofa creaking beneath her sudden movement. “I’ll find Kat and beat her bony ass myself,” she declared.
“Mommm!”
“Don’t mom me,” she countered. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
I sank deeper into the sofa, feeling small. “I’m sorry, Mom. I just didn’t want you to worry. I was so happy to go on this trip, and I feared you’d have rushed here to yank me back to safety.”
Mom huffed but said nothing, because she knew it was the truth. I continued the tale, telling her of the Christakis’ hospitality and how kind they’d been to me.
“What I don’t understand,” she said slowly, “is why Kat would call me now? Am I missing something?”
I made eye contact with Kayla across the room. The night seemed to hold its breath as I explained Kat and Chrys’s relationship, then Chrys’s interest in me and everything that followed. Well, everything except the sex part.
“Tia...” Mom’s voice held a warning.
“Please, Mom. Let me finish.” For the next fifteen minutes, Mom listened as I told her about Chrys and me, Kat’s vicious rumors, the drama in Belgium, and finally, the engagement.
When I finished, Mom stood and turned to the Christakis family. “I’m sorry about earlier, and I appreciate you looking after my daughter. But we would like to leave now.”
“Mom, I—”
“Not now, Tia.” She cut me off, her eyes never leaving mine. The disappointment there pained me. “We’ll discuss why you didn’t tell me about your engagement to your ex-friend’s ex-man at my villa.”
The way she said “engagement” made it sound like a “felony.” But unlike the old Tia who might have crumbled under her mother’s disapproval, I felt the need to speak up.
“I will go to your villa with you to talk.” My tone was firm, surprising even me. “But I’m telling you now that if you attempt to convince me to end things with Chrys, I’ll leave, and you’ll hear from me only once a month moving forward.”
Maybe it was impulsive to draw the line with my mother, but it was my kind of impulsive. The kind that meant living for myself, not just surviving for her peace of mind.
Mom’s anger gave way to vulnerability. “You’d choose him over me? You love him that much?”
That question hung there. Heavy with every sacrifice and sleepless night she’d endured for me.
“I do, Mom.”
She studied me for a long moment before finally nodding. “Alright. Go get your things. I’ll wait in the car.”
22
I stared out the passenger window as my father turned onto the long driveway leading to the villa. My hand throbbed beneath its fresh bandage. A hairline fracture in two knuckles, the doctor had said. Just enough damage to remind me of my stupidity every time I moved my fingers.
“You’re lucky it wasn’t worse,” my father said for the third time since we’d left the clinic.
I didn’t respond. I was too busy watching my phone, willing it to ring, to show Tia’s name on the screen. We’d left the estate nearly three hours ago when my father insisted on taking me to thehospital after seeing my hand. Tia hadn’t reached out in all that time and neither had I.
My father pulled up to the entrance and handed the valet the keys after we stepped out. As we stepped inside, Dimitrios emerged from the kitchen, a glass of water in hand. His eyes immediately fell to my hand.
