“No, he won’t,” she said, standing up and crossing her arms over her chest. “He loves me. You know nothing about us.”
“I was you,” I shouted at her. “I let your mother cheat so we could stay a familyfor you. I believed that she loved me, but she betrayed me over and over. Don’t fall for his lies or his stupid fucking games, Melissa. You’re smarter than that.”
My phone buzzed in my pocket, and I pulled it out to make sure Mia was okay. But instead of seeing her name on the screen, I saw Melissa’s mother’s name, and I shut the damn thing off. Why’d she always call at the worst times? All I wanted was for her to leave me the fuck alone. I shoved the phone back into my pocket and glanced up at Melissa.
“Is that your girlfriend?” she asked. “Mia, who you’ll probably love more than you ever loved me?”
I closed my eyes and sighed through my nose. It broke my heart, hearing those words come out of her mouth because she knew that I did everything for her and that I would do anything for her. I had given her everything she could ever want for the past twenty-two years, and now, I was paying for it.
Was I a fool to let her take advantage of me? Was I a fool to let this happen to me again? Yes, and yes.
But she was my only daughter, and I wanted to give her the world. But she needed to be punished for this. I couldn’t let her get away with it so easily.
“Until you learn respect, you can’t stay here anymore. No more coming to use the pool. No more asking me for money. I’m done with paying your rent or any of your other bills. I’m sick of it.”
“Are you serious?! How am I supposed to afford my apartment?”
“Get a job. Work hard. Learn respect.”
“Dad, you can’t do that to me. Not after what you did with my best friend.”
“My relationship with Mia has nothing to do with this, so don’t bring that into this argument. When you’re really ready to talk about Mia and me, we can talk, but for now, I want you out.”
When I didn’t back down from her menacing glare, Melissa stomped upstairs, packed a bag of her stuff, snatched her keys back from me, and hauled it to her car. Without saying good-bye to me, she slammed her car door and sped down the road. I watched her tail lights disappear and frowned out the front door. Something about it was unsettling.
We had never fought before, especially like this. And I hated seeing her so angry, but she needed to learn a lesson. I couldn’t have Melissa turn into her mother—a drunk who attempted to hurt whoever she could, whenever she could.
But what was worse than the thought of Melissa’s mother was that my and Mia’s secret was out … in the hands of my furious daughter and the man who I knew could ruin Mia’s life. And I needed to make sure she wasn’t in harm’s way. Mia had been through too much these past few weeks. I wouldn’t let Mason make it worse.
I wentto the only place I thought Mia would go—the hospital to see her mother. Since visiting hours were almost over, it was quiet on the inside. The elevator was empty, and so was the waiting room. A few nurses passed me and nodded their heads as I headed straight for Mia’s mother’s room. If Mia wasn’t passed out in the waiting room, she’d be with her mother.
After I peered into the window and saw Mia’s mother lying there alone, I frowned. Though the room was dim, I saw her look right over at me and smile. She motioned for me to come into the room, and I hesitated. What was I going to say to her? That I’d lost her daughter and it hadn’t even been an hour since we’d left her?
“Michael, did you leave something here?” she asked, her voice frail.
I shut the door behind me and shook my head. “I’m looking for Mia.”
She furrowed her brows. “Mia? Didn’t she leave with you?”
Again, I hesitated.Well, here goes nothing. What a great start to our relationship, great impression on her mother too.I took a deep breath. “Yes, but …” Did I tell her about what had happened between Mason and my daughter? She was going to ask about why I’d told Mia to leave the house. “I took her back to my home to …”
God, I hadn’t stumbled over my words like this in years.
She smiled gently and pushed herself up to a sitting position. “To?”
“I took your daughter home because I care about her,” I said, swallowing my pride and telling her straight up that I had feelings for her daughter. I didn’t play games anymore. I wanted to be with Mia, and I wanted to be with her bad. “I wanted her to rest, but she and my daughter got into a fight, so I asked her to leave.”
“You asked my daughter to leave? What happened to caring about her?”
The words hurt, and I realized that they had come out different than I’d intended them to. “I asked her to leave, so I could discipline my daughter for—”
“Does Melissa know about you and Mia?” she asked, interrupting me. “Is that why they got into a fight?”
I felt so much guilt for Melissa’s actions. I couldn’t believe my own daughter would do something like that to her best friend after what her mother had done to us. It didn’t make sense to me, but I couldn’t hide my daughter’s mistakes. She had to own up to them.
“Yes, she knows. But they got into a fight for a different reason,” I said, shaking my head.
Eden glanced down at her lap and gulped. “Did Mason cheat on her?” she asked suddenly, as if she already knew but wanted confirmation.
