Chapter 34 Make It Stop – Rory
MAKE IT STOP
RORY
“Come with me,” I said to my mother, then hustled her down the drive. If the security guard and Rhodes heard any more of this conversation, I was going to die of embarrassment. I was surprised I hadn’t already.
I glanced at my mother, her beady eyes raking over my high-end outfit, shiny hair, and tasteful jewelry.
Dying of embarrassment would’ve been easier…
“What, don’t you need your knight in shining armor to protect you?”
“Just stop it, Mom. Please.” I shook my head as I led her away. Once we were out of earshot, I whirled on her. “How did you find me?”
“I told you, I got served.” She jutted her chin. My mother had been pretty once, but years of hard drinking, smoking, and fighting had robbed her of any softness. It looked like she’d just never left the party, and years later, she was worn out.
“The address was on the paperwork.” She shrugged. “How the hell did you end up here, anyway? And why’re you all dressed up like that?”
“I was at a board meeting,” I mumbled, glancing down at my designer pantsuit and slingback heels. My outfit mocked me. “And I’m here because… Rhodes and I are engaged, Mom. We’re getting married.”
“The hell you are.” But then she saw the ring—it was too enormous to hide. Her jaw dropped open. “I can’t believe it. I thought they were lying.”
“Who?” My pulse quickened. “Who was lying about what?”
“Let’s just say I got some information. They told me you were here and getting married. I didn’t believe it, but I guess it’s true. Wow.” She whistled. “My own daughter, a prostitute.”
“I’m not a prostitute! Mom—”
“And now you’re trying to take your brother and sister away from me,” she said, bitterly. “What did I ever do to you, huh?”
“It’s not about me,” I said, disbelieving. “You left them. They’re little, Mom. They needed you, and you left them!”
“All you ever do is judge me.” She raised her chin. “I deserve to be happy, too, you know.”
This was classic Tammy Harris. If it wasn’t about her, who the hell was it about?
“Of course you do,” I said, although I wasn’t so sure. “But Josie and Bo can’t take care of themselves. Which is exactly why I want guardianship. I can take care of them, Mom. You can go and be free. Live your life and be happy, just like you always wanted.”
She took a step closer to me, and I caught a whiff of her familiar scent, Marlborough Lights mixed with Irish Spring. “You don’t get to tell me what to do. I’m the mother, not you.”
“I care about Josie and Bo. All I want is what’s best for them!”
“No, all you want is to shove it in my face that you think you’re better than me. Fancy pants and a big ring, now I’ve seen it all. I know where you came from—me. I gave you everything, and now you’re taking everything away from me!”
“Mom.” My shoulders sank. “This isn’t about you. It’s about Josie and Bo.”
She shook her head. “They gave me money. They told me to stay away, and that’s when I knew. I knew there was more to it. So I started looking on my phone, and I saw this place, and your fancy boyfriend, and I knew I should come up here.”
“Who gave you money?”
“A detective.”
The fuck? “How much?”
“A hundred thousand.” She puffed her chest.
“That’s a lot of money.” More than she’d ever seen, I knew.
“I thought so, at first…” She looked over at the gate guard and up at the house. “But he offered it to me like it was nothing. He paid me in cash, a big wad of bills.”
My heart sank. “I see.” My mother could sniff out a grift from a mile away. She’d been doing it her whole life.
“He said he was trying to help the family out. He said I was doing the right thing if I went away quiet, but quiet’s not really my thing.
You can’t take my kids, Rory.” Her beady gaze raked over me.
“You don’t have the right—and I can tell by this place, the money they offered me is shit. I knew it.”
I took a deep breath, even as my heart thudded in my chest. She’d come back to ruin everything.
She, who had left my brother and sister without a backward glance, without any money, without any food in the cupboards.
She, who had never cared about anyone other than herself, had turned up like a bad penny once again.
Her timing couldn’t be any worse. There were twelve board members and a Miranda inside Barrington Manor, all of whom would be transfixed by the truth about my background.
I needed to diffuse her. But I wanted to scream in my mother’s face, to scratch her, to roll her down the driveway straight into a ditch.
“Why don’t you tell me how you really got here, huh?” she asked. “Grammy said you’d been locked up in your room on the internet for weeks before you left. But you never had a boyfriend over the house, she never saw you on the phone. You just up and left out of the blue.”
“It happened fast,” I said. But the words were hollow.
“Something’s fishy. They wouldn’t have given me all that money without batting an eye unless they wanted to keep me quiet.” Mom smirked at me, triumphant. “There’s gotta be a reason.”
I fought myself. My mother brought out the worst in me—panic, anxiety, hysteria. I found myself fighting with her even when I knew there was no upside, no winning. She infuriated me. Her refusal to take responsibility for anything, her constant lashing out and blaming, made me crazy.
But fighting with my mother was purposeless, and there was more at stake at the moment than my own sanity.
If I sank to her level, if I gave into my emotions—which made me want to shriek at her, to try and make her see that she’d hurt my brother and sister, over and over again, that she’d abandoned them and that she was wrong—I was going to lose, and I was going to lose Josie and Bo.
I couldn’t let that happen.
I stared out at the grounds, mind racing.
“I could just start yelling again,” Mom threatened, interrupting my reverie. “Eventually, somebody up in that house is bound to hear me.”
“Don’t do that. Just let me think.” My head was pounding.
“Did you say they offered you a hundred thousand?”
“They gave me a hundred thousand. I took it, but I never said I wouldn’t ask for more.” She jutted her chin. “And I never said I’d sign those papers. You’re not getting the kids that easy.”
I nodded, listening carefully to her words. There had to be a way. I could not let my mother take everything from me. Not again.
“The thing is, Mom…”
I raised my eyes and met her gaze. “If I get married to Rhodes, I’ll have plenty of money. More money than I can even comprehend.”
She watched me, brow furrowed.
Do something, Rory. I had to stop this, stop her…
Having never had more than a hundred dollars in my bank account, the idea of being wealthy was completely foreign to me. After paying off Grammy’s debts, I hadn’t really thought about all the money I’d earn from this arrangement. But it was millions.
Five million.
In the back of my mind, I’d pictured being able to fix up the farm, buying Josie and Bo new clothes and backpacks for school, and getting Grammy a new Subaru. My imagination really hadn’t wandered beyond that.
I had no experience with having the agency and autonomy that came with money. But now, faced my mother’s threats, I realized that it gave me power—something I’d never had before in my whole life.
“Think about it, Mom.” I stared her down. “If you blow this up for me, I’ll walk away with nothing.”
“But they’ll give me more money to keep quiet,” she said. “I know they will.”
“I’ll give you more,” I said quickly.
“Huh.” My mother rocked back on her heels, appraising me. “How much?”
“I don’t know yet. But it could be a lot, Mom. If I get paid, you won’t ever have to worry about money again. I can promise you that.” It killed me to say it. Although we were talking about a lot of money, it somehow made me feel cheap.
It made me feel exactly like what she’d called me.
She put her hands on her bony hips. “I’m asking you again—how much?”
“A million dollars.”
Her jaw dropped.
“Rory.” Rhodes headed toward us down the drive. “Is everything okay?”
I glanced at my mother. She was smiling, a smile that went all the way to her eyes.
I’d never felt so dirty in my whole life.
“Yes,” I told him, “everything’s fine.”
Before returning to his meetings, Rhodes made sure my mother was settled. As promised, he bought her a first-class plane ticket back to Nashville. He also had one of his guards escort her to the airport gate, ensuring that Tammy didn’t somehow find her way back to Barrington Manor.
I’d say I was relieved, but that was hardly the case.
I paced the bedroom restlessly, my mind whirling.
I felt out of control, a feeling I detested.
I had promised my mother money, and I was going to have to deliver.
Otherwise, she was going to blow this entire arrangement up.
Rhodes would lose everything—Luke, the company, his dignity, and his reputation with the board.
But I had backed myself into a corner, because now I needed the money more than ever. I needed to walk down the aisle with Rhodes, to marry him, and I needed everyone to believe it was real. But Miranda’s threats were still hanging over us, just waiting to rain down.
Even if I could convince my mother to stay quiet, Miranda was just going to find another way to undo me. To undo us.
I never should have come here. More than that, I never should have let myself fall for Rhodes Barrington.
I had known all along that it was a recipe for disaster.
And now, on the edge of paying the price, I couldn’t bear it.
Was it just yesterday that I had dreamed of us all being one happy family?
Having Josie and Bo come live with us at Barrington Manor, playing with Luke in the pool, summer barbecues, and family holidays?
I should have known that was never going to happen for a girl like me. I was, after all, my mother’s daughter.
She had called me a prostitute, and she wasn’t wrong.
But the worst part was my heart. I could live without the money, and I could live with my own personal shame. But what was going to break me was Rhodes—knowing that I was responsible for his ruin. Because in spite of everything, I had fallen for him.
It was ridiculous. I felt like an idiot. I’d fallen for my billionaire fake fiancé, a rookie move if there ever was one.
The near-miss with my mother and the fact that Miranda was inches away from unraveling our lies were just driving the truth home.
I would never be anything more than a poor girl who never finished high school, who stripped for strangers on the internet, who came from nothing.
I was no one. I had no right to be at Barrington Manor.
I could play a role, and I could pretend, but I would never belong to Rhodes.
I would never belong in his world.