“You don’t understand—”
“Yes, I do!” I explode.
She blinks, stunned by my response.
Everything that’s been building up in me—my anger at Coco, the agony I suffered because I loved her, discovering her betrayal—I’ve kept it all bottled up tight for weeks. But seeing my mom, this is the cherry on top, the moment that breaks me wide open.
“Stone . . .” she says feebly.
“Since you don’t seem to understand that what you did was so horrible, let me break it down for you.” I drum my fingers on the desk to give me a way to focus on something other than how torn apart I am. “When you divorced my dad, you made me think he didn’t want to have anything to do with me or my brother. You perpetrated that lie,fed it, and stoked it until Pane and I were so full of bitterness toward him there wasn’t room in our hearts for anything else. Then you know what happened?”
She shakes her head slightly.
I lean forward. “One day I ran into him on the street. Instantly recognized him. It may have been twenty years since I’d seen him, but I knew my dad. He explained what you’d done, how you told him if he attempted to see us, you’d destroy him financially. Now you tell me this—what kind of mother does that to her sons? What kind of mother shields them from a father who loves them?”
Sylvia cringes. “I assure you, Stone, there were reasons.”
I slam a fist on the desk. “No, there weren’t. There were no reasons strong enough for you to do that. He’s not an awful person. He didn’t abuse you, or us. The one fault he had was that he wasn’t a Maddox. Hell, you didn’t even let us take his last name. We tookyourlast name.” I lean back in the chair. “The bottom line is, he wasn’t good enough.”
“And what do you know about good enough?” she demands, clutching her purse so hard her knuckles become pale hills. “What do you know about raising two boys and making sure they keep the family name strong and won’t let the company die a sad death? Do you know how many companies fold when the head family member dies? Do you know how many don’t survive? Maddoxes are survivors, and I needed my boys strong enough to carry that name into the next generation.”
“And now you don’t have either of us. You did this, Sylvia.You.You pushed Pane and me away. We will never run the Maddox Group. We’re forging our own path, one that isn’t based on lies.”
The corners of her eyes tighten. “I know from your perspective, this is hard to understand. My goals, my motivations must seem so foreign to you.” She rubs her forehead, and this may be the first time I’ve seen what appears to be vulnerability from my mother. She’s an ice queen through and through. The whole time we were growing up, she never shed a tear, not even when her father passed away.
“All I wanted was for my boys to grow up strong and be ready for the world. But I see now what I’ve done.”
“And what is that?”
Her gaze latches on to mine, and regret swirls in her eyes. “I thought I was protecting you.”
“From what?”
“From him. From him leaving, because when you have money like we do, people only want you for so long before the shine wears off.”
“What? That’s not true.”
Wait.
If anything, I should be agreeing. I should say,Yes, you’re right—all anyone ever wants us for is money.
But Coco didn’t. She never asked for a dime.
Don’t think about Coco now. Not here. Not yet. This is about Sylvia.
“I realize now I was training you to leave before anyone could leave you, and I suppose I deserve it.”
I frown. “What are you talking about?”
Sylvia unsnaps her purse and pulls out a tissue, blotting her eyes. “Your grandfather was a cold man, and I suppose I inherited much of his temperament. Though it may have looked like my actions were done to keep love away from you, I was only trying to keep you from heartbreak.”
My voice softens. “How?”
“Because it’s inevitable. No matter what we do in life, we wind up destroyed. My marriage would have ended. I just did it on my own terms. I did it to keep us safe, to protect you.”
“But it didn’t protect me or Pane. It destroyed us.”
She shattered us, and on purpose. My mother, thinking she was protecting me, only made my life worse.
