Chapter Twenty-One
COOPER
That horrified look in Alice’s eyes flashed in my mind again. Yeah, thin fucking ice. The last thing I needed was to make Alice think I was an out-of-control stalker who couldn't let her have a few days to herself when she was pissed at me.
Some women might find it romantic to be chased all over town. Alice would not be one of them. The last thing I needed was to give her another reason to push me away.
I forced myself through a semi-normal Sunday. Nothing like the Sundays I'd had since Alice had been with me. Spending the day alone only reminded me how much I needed her back. My place was too quiet without Alice. Empty. Everything was empty.
I put in a punishing workout when the quiet got to be too much, stopping only to take a quick call from Axel. “She turn up yet?”
“No. Left her purse and phone.”
“Doesn't want to be found, then,” he commented. Axel might work in Vegas, but he knew Alice almost as well as I did.
“Yeah.”
“Everyone is still here, hanging at the pool. No one but Emma knows what happened. Didn't want to fuck up the wedding. Maybe she'll turn up at work tomorrow.”
I could only hope.
The only other interruption in my miserable Sunday came in the form of my mother, who showed up in the early evening, banging on my door.
I ignored her for a while, tuning out the relentless pounding until my phone rang with call after call.
When she hit the limit of my tolerance, I strode to my door and yanked it open, looking down into bloodshot, tear-filled eyes.
“Cooper. Finally.” She pushed in past me and headed for the small wet bar at the end of the kitchen.
After pouring herself a hefty slosh of gin, she took a sip and turned to face me.
The sight of the glass in her hand, the red streaking her eyes, her mere presence in my house after everything she'd done to Alice—all of it was enough to freeze me in place.
I reminded myself that this woman was my mother.
No matter what she'd done, she was still my mother. I couldn’t throw her out of my home. I owed her that much.
“What are you doing here, Mom?”
“I came to make sure you're all right,” she said as if it were obvious. “You and that woman left the wedding early. Everyone noticed you were gone, and then you never came back. I was afraid she was here with you, but I can see that she's not.”
“Don't call her that woman. Her name is Alice.”
“I know what her name is,” she snapped at me. “And it's time this ridiculous farce was over. The scene at your brother's engagement party was bad enough. If I'd known you were going to bring her to Jacob Winters' wedding… Everyone saw you together. Everyone! How could you be so cruel to me?”
“I wasn't aware that my personal life had anything to do with you,” I said evenly, knowing it was a lie. When she bothered to pay attention to her sons, my mother took everything about our lives personally.
She waved her hand in the air as if wiping my words away. “Cooper, don't be a fool. Everyone knows who that woman is. You look like an idiot parading her around on your arm.”
“What do you mean, ‘Everyone knows who that woman is?’ What lies are you spreading?”
My mother took another sip of gin and lifted her nose in the air, ignoring my question. “Tell me it's over with her. Tell me you're done and you fired her.”
“I won't tell you that. I won't fire her, and I won't ever be done with her.” She refused to meet my eyes and I officially hit my limit. I’d never be done with Alice, but I was more than done humoring my mother. “You know she never slept with Dad, right?”
“Oh, Cooper, don't tell me you're that na?ve. Of course, she slept with your father.”
“Why are you so sure? Because you caught them? Or because he told you?”
“He told me. He tells me everything. I know you've never understood our marriage, but your father doesn’t lie to me.”
I choked on the laugh that tore from my throat. The alcohol had pickled her brain.
“If that’s the case,” I said dryly, “then you’re an accessory to a number of felonies. Should I call Agent Holley so you can make a statement?”
My mother refused to acknowledge my comment. Typical. If it didn’t fit her world-view, it didn’t exist. I pressed on.
“You never caught him with Alice. You only have Dad’s word for it.”
“I don't need anyone else’s word for it. He's my husband, and you should have more respect for your father.”
Talking in circles with her was going to make me lose my mind. With Alice missing I was hanging on by a thread as it was. I didn’t need a trip to crazy-town.
“I honestly don't know what to say to you, Mom. I love you, but you're delusional. What I really don't get is how Dad cheated and you’re blaming Alice. He’s the one who made vows to you. He’s the one who broke them. But she’s the only guilty party? It’s her name you’re smearing all over town?”
“Don’t be such a child, Cooper. Your father strays.
So what? Men stray. He didn’t marry any of those women, did he?
He's married to me. He's given me a good life and I've tried to be a good wife. You’re the one who’s delusional.
You think marriage is fairytales and true love.
You need to get your head out of a storybook and into the real world.
I hope you're not considering anything serious with that woman.”
I stared at my mother, at her arms crossed over her chest, fingers gripping the crystal glass, now almost empty of gin.
She was never going to change.
She was never going to listen to reason.
She would cling to the reality she wanted to believe until her last breath and nothing I could say would make a difference.
I could play along, or I could make a stand. Thinking of the horror in Alice’s eyes, put there by my parents’ lies and my trust in them, I did the only thing I could.
“Mom, I need to make something clear to you,” I said, a piece of my heart crumbling at the words leaving my mouth. “If you ever speak disrespectfully about Alice again, I will cut you off. Alice has earned my loyalty. My trust. I will choose her over you. Every single time.”
My mother drew back in shock, her mouth falling open before she rallied and shrieked, “How could you pick that woman over your own mother?”
“You've been picking Dad over us for years. Always, you choose him. He’s a liar and a criminal, and still, you choose him. We’re busting our asses to build up Sinclair Security—which, by the way, pays for the lifestyle you like so much—and when he puts the company at risk, you still choose him.
“I’m just learning from your example. I found someone who deserves my loyalty.
I'm not going to throw that away because you and Dad want to drag us all down with you.
We're doing what we can to help Dad and keep you safe, but don’t push me.
Don't make me choose between you and Alice. You won't win.”
My mother’s stare stretched into eternity, her eyes icing over until they carried no trace of affection for me, her oldest son.
Turning in a neat pivot, barely wobbling despite the alcohol, she pitched the crystal glass into the sink with all the furious power in her thin arm, watching with a satisfied glint in her eye as it exploded into glittering shards.
In the silence that fell, she speared me with a cold look before she stormed to the door and let herself out. Numb, I went to my laptop and pulled up the security cameras, tracking her progress from my door to her safe house a floor below.
I half expected her to pack her bags and leave, but she didn't, instead filling a wine glass to the brim and settling in front of the television as if nothing had happened.
Maybe, in her mind, nothing had. I couldn’t underestimate her ability to rewrite history.
Closing the cameras, I cleaned up the shattered glass and put my mother out of my mind. She’d made her choices. And I’d made mine.
Alice. Alice was my choice. Every time.