Chapter 11 #2
“Yeah, not their business, I got it.” Jonas just shook his head, looked to Cindy.
She took it to mean that he was ready to shut this down, but was following her lead.
“Right, so it sounds like my summary was accurate. And I’ll go further.
It sounds to me like Brenda walked you into both of these investments, when she was supposed to be advising you on your insurance needs.
She failed you, and probably scammed you, and instead of acknowledging and dealing with your failures—and hers—you are here badgering me.
Because she’s threatening you to do so. Isn’t that extortion? ”
Tom stood. “We don’t need to be insulted like this.”
Cindy and Jonas stood as well. “No, you don’t. You can remove yourself from this situation and spend some time dealing with the one you’ve already landed yourself in, instead,” Jonas suggested. “I would highly recommend a chat with your alpha, as well.”
Dana rose. “I don’t know why we thought that you would step up and do the right thing.”
“What you don’t understand is that I am doing the right thing. But you’re so mired in yourselves and looking to blame anyone else, that you don’t have a hope of seeing it.” She gestured to the front door.
Dana looked like she was going to start ranting, but Tom put his hand on her arm. “It’s late and we’re out in the middle of nowhere,” he said, and gestured out the window. “Are you going to throw us out?”
Jonas finally snapped. A little. Cindy felt how tightly he was holding back. “You can’t possibly have expected to stay here.”
“This is our daughter’s home,” Dana snapped.
“Can they stay at the pack house?” Cindy asked Jonas.
He winced. “The paint smell is probably gone by now, but everything’s still covered in plastic. Probably wouldn’t take too long to get the beds cleaned off and made up—about as much time as it would take them to drive to the motel.”
She liked to think she’d come a long way in cutting her parents’ negativity from her life in the last half hour, but she still couldn’t stand the idea of sending them out this late at night.
“Cindy, I’m asking you if we can please stay the night,” Tom said. “We’ll leave in the morning and not bother you.”
“Tell me what you’re proud of her for,” Jonas said.
Cindy jerked. She felt a pulse of reassurance down their link.
“You can stay…if you can tell me how she makes you proud to be your daughter.”
“That’s ridiculous,” Dana said.
“And you both have to have an answer, if you both want to stay,” he added. “There are motels forty-five minutes away. It’s not a bad drive.”
“She’s our daughter,” Tom said.
“Which means what?” Cindy asked.
“Of course we’re proud of you.”
Cindy just waited. She wasn’t sure what had led Jonas to this path, but she trusted that he thought it would help. It certainly couldn’t make things worse, at this point.
Tom pulled in a deep breath. Cindy couldn’t tell if he had finally realized he’d made a mistake, or if he was considering his options.
As Jonas had said, it wouldn’t be that difficult for them to drive to the city and get a motel.
But Tom seemed hesitant to do that…so maybe there was some chance he was sorry for how things had gone.
“Your brother tells me that the business you’ve built is impressive. I don’t know much about that kind of website, but I know that building something like that from scratch takes a lot of hard work and skill. I’m proud of you.”
It shouldn’t still matter. Not when she’d just convinced herself that their opinions of her didn’t. And she wasn’t even sure how sincere he was. But, it did. Her throat tightened, but she managed to nod. “Thank you.” She wouldn’t give him more than that. He didn’t deserve it.
“This is just silly,” Dana said. She almost sounded like she might cry. “You’re our daughter, of course we’re proud of you. Why would you think otherwise?”
Cindy laughed. Actually laughed out loud, to the clear displeasure of her mother.
“Probably because you’ve done nothing in word or action to show her?” Jonas suggested. “Or, more likely, because your actions have actually shown her the opposite.”
“That’s not true at all. We’ve never told you we weren’t proud of you.”
“In a hundred different ways,” Cindy said.
“Of course we’re proud of you. You’re our daughter,” she repeated.
“You were a good child, got good grades, and our alpha has mentioned more than once what a boon you are to your pack. I just don’t understand why you had to go away and do these things for another pack, instead of helping the pack that raised and supported you. ”
Cindy couldn’t formulate an answer fast enough, and Dana kept going.
“You’ve always been too independent, even from a young age.
You didn’t want or need our approval to do anything.
You decided you were moving out of the pack and had all the arrangements made before you ever even said a word.
You sent post cards from Europe before we ever heard you were going to go traveling. ”
She could have mentioned that she’d stopped asking for advice or permission early on because she’d only received warnings about how her messing up would reflect poorly on the family.
It was late, her parents had done as Jonas asked, and they all had a lot to process.
She wasn’t going to try to fix their relationship standing in the living room right now.
“Why don’t you get your bags? We’ll make sure the guest room is ready,” she said.
They left without another word.
Jonas wrapped his arms around her and held on tight.
“I’m okay. Now, I’m okay. Better, even, because now I can finally just give them up as lost to me.
Their opinion of me is no longer relevant to my life.
Even if they manage to come back from this, I will never need their approval again.
But it was nice to hear what they said, and sort of believe that they meant it. ”
“I hate that you ever tried to make them proud of you. They’re disgusting.”
She smiled into his shoulder. “I don’t know if having you is helping me let go, or if I was just ready for it, but either way, this hug makes it all easier.”
The door opened again, but she wasn’t worried.
She knew damn well the room was ready for guests.
She showed them to it and bid them goodnight.
It took her actually biting her lip, but she didn’t ask them if they wanted anything to eat or drink before she met Jonas in the hall and walked back to their bedroom.