One of his hands remained firmly in mine. He leaned back in the armchair, but his gaze was on his mother, his posture rigid and his expression hard. He stepped up immediately. “Alright, Mom. That’s enough. What’s the real reason why you’re so pissed about our arrangement?”
She glanced at him fleetingly before giving her head a soft shake. “You’re both just so young and you hardly know each other.”
“Bullshit.” He let out a deep breath and kept staring at her until she finally turned back to him. “Therealreason, Mother. I know it’s not just because you don’t want yourbabygetting married.”
Harlan leaned closer to her from his armchair beside hers, reaching out to take one of her hands and cradling it between both of his. As she lifted her gaze to his, something unspoken seemed to pass between them, his expression gentle and hers becoming more resigned by the second.
“It’s time, Cecelia,” he said quietly, the words obviously meant for her. “Tell the story so they can understand.”
I risked a quick glance at Harrison, finding those bluish hazel eyes already locked on me. A five-o’clock shadow had appeared on his jaw over the last few hours, and as our eyes met, he gave me a slight, reassuring smile and squeezed my hand.
Leaning to his side in my chair, I let my gaze drift around the room, at least attempting to give Harlan and CC some privacy for their private exchange. The first thing that caught my eye was a gorgeous, heavily decorated, towering Christmas tree in one corner of the room.
A bar took up the other, a TV almost the size of a cinema screen against the wall to my left. Scattered in front of it were leather couches that actually looked used and worn. My own mother had never allowed us to frolic intheirliving room, preferring we used the kids’ pajama lounge upstairs, but it was clear that CC hadn’t had the same rules with her kids.
Dozens of photos lined the wall, her boys’ smiling faces in almost all of them. While crystal chandeliers hung overhead and the furnishings were tasteful and expensive, this place felt like the heart of their home. It was a room in which I could easily envision her erecting a playpen for baby Claire soon, teething toys littered all over her luxurious carpets.
The woman might not like me, but I felt a fresh wave of respect for her surging up in me. Despite her status, her upbringing, and all the money in the world, she’d created a loving home for her kids, a place where they could come for advice or comfort.
The mere thought of being responsible for coming between her and one of her kids suddenly brought tears to my eyes, but I quickly blinked them away. That was what we were here to avoid.
Finally, I looked back at them when the air in the room shifted. When my gaze landed on her, CC was glancing between Harrison and me, but it was him she finally spoke to. She sniffled indignantly and gracefully folded her legs, but it was clear that she was embarrassed about this.
“Regina and I were the best of friends back in high school,” she started quietly, occasionally glancing at the fire with her spine so straight, it might as well have been a broomstick. “I trusted her with everything. My secrets. My wallet. Even my boyfriend.”
She sniffled again, sighing as her gaze flickered to mine. “It turned out that she wasn’t as trustworthy as I thought.”
For a moment, she fell silent, then glanced at Harlan, who nodded kindly for her to continue. Weirdly, there was a smile on his lips, like he was amused by all this but was trying to hide it.
“I found out one day that she’d been stabbing me in the back for weeks. She stole my boyfriend and she didn’t even have the decency to tell me to my face.”
Harlan was chuckling, but my brow furrowed, and when I looked at Harrison, I saw that he was frowning too. Thankfully, CC elaborated, cringing and bringing one hand to her forehead for a moment as she shook her head.
“It was awful. Regina embarrassed me terribly, and to this very day, she’s never apologized. It also caused a huge rift in ourfriend group. A group that’s still suffering from her deception. Some people still feel guilty when they come to one of our parties or get invited to hers.”
She let out a long sigh before she lifted her head again, tears shimmering in her eyes in the firelight. She reached for Harlan’s hand again and peeked up at him with the most loving, beautiful smile I’d ever seen on the face of a woman like her.
“In retrospect, it all worked out for the best. I love your father with my whole heart and I wouldn’t have wanted a future with anyone else, but there are some people who still only think of that when they see me. This town has a long memory and I’ve never lived the humiliation down.”
Harrison opened his mouth, but I didn’t want him making excuses for my mother. The worst part was that it never even crossed my mind to try and defend her. I believed what CC had said, and while I didn’t quite understand why she was pissed withmeover my mother’s betrayal long before either Harrison or I had even been born, I totally got why she would still feel embarrassed about it sometimes.
“I’m sorry about what my mother did to you,” I said pointblank, meeting CC’s gaze directly when the sound of my voice drew her attention from her son and her husband to me. “God knows, Regina can be a real bitch sometimes. I’m the last one who will ever deny it, but this happened over thirty years ago.”
CC opened her mouth, but I wasn’t done yet. “Right now, today, Harrison and I want to get married. We aregoingto get married, and neither of us will let something that happened so long ago, something that has nothing to do with either of us, stand in our way.”
“What she’s trying to say is that this is petty drama and it’s cutting into our plans to get married for no good reason,” Harrison said, seamlessly picking up where I’d left off. “I loveyou, Mom. You know that. I’m sorry that any of this happened at all and I’m definitely sorry that it’s followed you the way it has, but you’re CC freaking Westwood.”
Harlan’s lips quirked into a smile and he brought her hand to his lips, brushing a kiss to her knuckles in the sweetest, warmest way. Harrison let out a soft sigh.
“The reality is that no one looks at you and only thinks about that, Mom. Sure, maybe it caused some drama years ago and people remember it, but shit. You’re their queen and we’re not asking you to forgive Regina. All we’re asking, like Aurelia said, is that you don’t stand in our way.”
“Heavens, no.” She sucked in a surprised gasp. “I would never stand in your way, darling. Is that what you thought?”
“Yes,” he said unapologetically. “We wanted to find out what happened from you, so that we could determine if you would ever let it go or if you were going to try to keep us apart.”
CC slumped back in her chair for a moment, which I assumed was seriously out of character for her, considering the surprise on both Harlan and Harrison’s faces. She inhaled a deep breath, letting her head drop back for a moment as she closed her eyes.
When they opened again, she focused on Harrison, tears shining brightly in her eyes. She rose and strode over to him. “I’m sorry, my baby.”
