The words ripped out of him. “I’m married.”
Judith’s smile didn’t falter. “Tom, darling, you’re separated. It’s hardly the same.”
“I’m married,” he repeated. Louder. Sharper.
Richard sighed. “Frankly, it’s for the best. She was never?—”
“Stop.” Tom’s voice came out low, dangerous.
Judith gave a small, dismissive laugh. Tom felt heat and cold battling in his veins at the sound. “You can’t put your life on hold forever,” she said.
Jake’s voice cut in, harsher than Tom expected. “Mom. No. Tom doesn’t want this. He wants his wife.”
Tom felt like a beam cracking under pressure. He found himself standing without making the conscious decision.
“Thomas,” Richard said, his tone snapping into command. “There’s no need to make a scene.”
He laughed once, sharp and incredulous. “There’s every need to make a scene.”
Judith’s lips thinned. “You’re upset?—”
“This isunforgivable, Mom.” His voice was raw, louder than he intended.
Lila interrupted then. “I’m sorry—maybe I should?—”
Tom turned to her, trying to soften his tone but failing. “Apologies for this, Lila. It’s not your fault.”
No. Of course it wasn’t her fault.He’dcaused this. He’d let his parents believe Lauren was an accessory instead of the center ofhis life. He’d left her undefended for years because he’d been too uncertain, too fucking afraid to challenge them.
He wasn’t letting anyone misunderstand where his loyalty lay ever again.
He looked at Judith. “I love you,” he said. “You’re my mother. But if you want to set up a choice between you and Lauren—I choose Lauren.”
Judith gasped. “Tom?—”
“Every time,” he said grimly. “Even if she never takes me back, I still choose her.”
Tom grabbed his coat from the back of the chair. The blood was rushing in his ears.
“Lauren wasneverthe problem,” he said. “She was the best thing that ever happened to me. You want to know what wasn’t right for me? This.”
He gestured around the table. The perfect plates. The sterile light.
“This house. This life. Pretending everything’s fine because it looks fine.”
Judith blinked. “Tom?—”
“Every time we came here, I let you treat her like shit,” he said, louder now, his voice cracking. “And instead of leaving me the first time I did that, she wanted to earn your approval instead. And she tried. God, shetried.”
He had to leave. Had to get out before the walls closed in. But at the doorway, he stopped, one hand braced on the frame.
“Lauren was never the embarrassment,” he managed, voice rough. “I was.”
The reflection of his parents’perfect front windows shrank in the rearview mirror until it disappeared altogether.
He should drive back to his guest room at Linda and Gerald’s. Sleep, cool off, breathe. But he turned right instead of left.
He should’ve felt proud for finally standing up to his parents, but pride wasn’t what burned in him. It was something darker. Hotter.
