Page 27 of Billionaire Retreat

She shrugged. “Those are the only actresses I’m familiar with.”

“They’re not actors, Mom.”

“Maybe not by profession, but they pretty much are. They get all dressed up, sit stiffly, and pretend to care about everything they’re saying.”

“Not another tirade about the news…” I whined.

“Ok, I’m done. You sound just like Sadie. I can’t believe whining is genetic.”

We laughed and then her expression suddenly changed and she sat back in her chair. “So, what’s the plan?”

“The plan? To do a great commercial and hope that it leads to more work.”

“Not that plan, Nina. You know what I’m talking about.” She folded her arms across her chest.

“You’re talking about Sadie’s father,” I said with a sigh. I never said his name. Calling him “Sadie’s father” somehow made the relationship seem more clinical… almost as if he were a sperm donor, some anonymous guy, rather than the one who had pretty much ruined me for other men.

“I honestly don’t think there’s anything that I should do.”

“Really?”

“I told you what happened when I tried to talk to him.”

“And you just gave up trying,” my mom said with disapproval.

“I told you what I saw, who I saw him with. He has a family, Mom. I’m a homewrecker.”

“You should have confronted him,” she said angrily. I remembered when I had told her everything that happened. She had immediately started crying and then her tears turned into rage and she was ready to fly out to L.A. to defend me. I had to have multiple conversations with my dad to ensure he wouldn’t let her get on a plane.

When I’d flown back to Georgia and had seen her face, I’d started crying all over again as she held me in the airport, rocking me as if I were a baby again.

I felt like a little girl now as she stared at me waiting for me to answer.

I shrugged. “Mom, we’ve been over this a million times. He has a family. He lied to me. Well, at the very least, he lied by omission. And to be honest, I don’t think his crazy mother would take kindly to me calling him again.”

“That old hag can go screw herself,” my mom growled, catching me off-guard.

“You okay, Mom?” Her words were pretty uncharacteristic of my mild-mannered mother.

“I’m fine. I’m just so mad for you… how humiliating! She had you escorted out like you were a peasant being kicked out of the king’s castle. Just because she has money doesn’t mean she can treat you like that.”

I reached out and placed my hand over hers. “Don’t get yourself worked up. It was years ago.”

She sighed and placed her face in her hands and took a deep breath before looking up at me with a small smile.

“I just get crazy when I think of anyone harming you, especially if that harm is emotional.”

“I get it… I mean, I didn’t really before. I thought you were overprotective and overbearing when I was a teenager.”

“Thanks, Nina,” she said, before becoming serious again. “I think since you’re going to L.A. you should at least try to contact him again. You never got to know your father and I—”

“That’s not your fault,” I said, knowing that my father died when my mother was pregnant with me.

“No, it’s not, I know that. But as your aunt so eloquently put it, you hadn’t exactly been planned, but I wish I’d told him. He died never knowing.”

She looked ready to tear up and I reached for her hand again and squeezed it. “Look at me.” She looked up at me with tear-filled eyes. “You didn’t know he was going to be deployed.”

“Oh,” she said, “he wasn’t in the military.”