My cheeks and neck felt heated. I felt so small whenever she acted likethis. I had the sudden urge to let her walk all over me, keep my head down and apologize.
“Is this what you do here in Los Angeles?” She gasped, shaking her head, her hair getting mussed. “Don’t tell me he’s the rich boyfriend you were talking about? He was right there! Oh my god, Chelsea,how could you?”
“Mom, calm down,” I said, wincing at the look she gave me.
“Donottell me to calm down, Chelsea,” she said, her voice high pitched with anger. “Karen was right. LA has changed my innocent daughter. My sweet sunflower kissing my high-school boyfriend…” She looked like she was talking to herself, pacing around.
“Mom, I get it he was your high-school boyfriend but?—”
“But?” she yelled, my jaw clenching at her tone. She sounded as if I had betrayed her. “But what, Chelsea? Can’t you see how weird it looks? You’re so young, and he’s taking advantage of you! He is the same age as me. Think about it.”
I massaged my throbbing temple and said, “He’snottaking advantage of me, Mom. You don’t know how much he has helped me. Helpedus. And I like him.” I took a deep breath and met her eyes. “I love him, Mom.”
She scoffed, rolling her eyes. “You can’t love a man that old, Chelsea. And he doesn’t love you. He just wants your youth and how naïve you are. He is playing with you to get under your pant—wait, you haven’t had sex, right?”
“I’m twenty-four years old, mom.” I pursed my lips. “I am not naïve.”
Her face changed and my skin prickled with the way she looked at me. As if she wished I wasn’t her daughter.
“I can’t believe you,” she whispered, shaking her head. “I have failed as a mother. What will Noah think seeing his elder sister, that he looks up to, make out with someone that old?”
I stayed my ground, my throat burning and eyes stinging with tears. “Noah likes him and so do I.”
“He’s my ex-boy?—”
I interrupted her. “You were fifteen when you dated him, mom. He’s forty-four now. He moved on and so did you. Stop getting stuck in the past.”
“Are you hearing yourself right now?” She demanded, her hands shaking my shoulder. “He is old enough to be your father!”
That’s why I love calling him Daddy!
I wish I was strong enough to say that out loud.
“Snap out of it, Chelsea,” she said, her voice softening. “He is a man and he will ruin you. Just like David did?—”
“Don’t you ever compare that man to Sean,” I said, flaring my nose. I stepped out of her hold. “It’s you who need to snap out of it, Mom. You need to move on from your deadbeat ex-husband. How long will you wait for him to come back?”
“This isn’t about me,” she said, clenching her jaw. She grabbed my hand and started dragging me back to the elevator. “I’m taking you back home. Come on. I’ll pack your things and you can stay with us. Go talk to Jesse and you will understand how?—”
I yanked my arm out of her hold and said, “I’m not coming back with you. I live with Sean. His home is my home now. He has treated me better in the past two months than Jesse ever did in my lifetime of knowing him. Jesse almost hit me, and you’re telling me to go talk tothatjerk?” It was wrong, but it made me happy to see the horrified expression on her face. “And I… I don’t want to see you until you calm down and we can have a normal conversation?—”
“Chelsea, if you are my daughter, you will do as I say,” she said, her voice on edge.
I took a sharp intake of breath and stared at her. How could she say that to me? My bottom lip quivered. “That’s manipulative?—”
Her face changed when she looked over my shoulder. Her eyes widened, and she reached towards me. “Chelsea, watch out!”
I was a second too late to turn around when something cold pressed against my nose. I struggled when muscular hands wrapped around me. I heard my mom’s scream, but I felt like I was suffocating. I flailed my limbs, trying to kick and punch, but I felt like I was falling and falling, going deep under the water. My limbs went limp and soon my world turned dark and hollow.
43
YOU’RE SAFE
SEAN
My face remained stoic as one of Cillian’s men drove the car full of armed men. We were going to the location to meet the loan sharks who had kidnapped Chelsea and threatened to hurt her.
It’s my fault.
