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She sighed loudly. “Financially? No. No he did not. But I’ll tell you this, he did more for us on an emotional level, made us feel loved, more than you ever did when we were little. Listening to you casually bad-mouth him was nothing but projecting your feelings about him onto us and I’m ashamed at all the years I was angry with him.”
Rolling her eyes, Marie stood. “Do you even hear yourself? Do you not see how you should have been angry with him for putting me, putting all of us, in that situation?” She huffed with annoyance. “You’re a grown woman, Ashlynn! Think about this logically!”
It would have been easy to keep fighting with her, but it wasn’t going to get them anywhere. This had been going on for months and it appeared like it was going to keep going on because they still didn’t agree on it. “I have thought about it. And believe it or not, I don’t have to agree with you. You may not like it, but…there it is. I lost a lot of respect for you and maybe, just maybe, instead of telling me how I should feel, maybe you should try putting yourself in my shoes—in all of your kids’ shoes. It seems to me that you want to play the victim without taking any responsibility, Mom. Dad’s not blameless. I know that. And neither are you. So unless you can stand here and admit that, we don’t have anything else to talk about.”
Marie walked to the kitchen and grabbed a bottle of water for each of them before sitting back down on the sofa. “I don’t want this ruining our relationship,” she said after a moment.
“It won’t, but until you admit that ripping our family apart was selfish and apologize for it, I don’t see things as getting better. It’s always going to be between us.”
The silence that followed was awkward.
“Let me just say one more thing and then we can either change the subject or I can go,” her mother said solemnly. “I hope you never have to find out what it’s like to give your life and love to a man—to someone you genuinely love—and find out that they’re not there for you. Whether it’s emotionally or financially, Ashlynn, it’s devastating. I wouldn’t wish that kind of disappointment on anyone.”
Well damn.
It took her a minute to wrap her head around everything her mom was saying. “I get what you’re saying, and I’m sure in time I’ll feel better or at least more settled with all of this, but…I’m kind of going through my own shit right now and…”
“What’s going on?”
Stepped right into that one, didn’t I?
“I thought things were going well,” Marie went on. “You and Billie got the loan for the salon and…oh.” Reaching over, she took one of Ashlynn’s hands into her own. “Are you upset because your sister horned in on this with you and you wanted to do it yourself?”
“Well…kind of? But…no. No,” she said more firmly. “I was at first, but then I realized with Billie’s help, I’m going to be able to make the salon exactly what I want it to be.” Pausing, she considered how much to share and then figured she might as well just blurt it out. “Becky told the fire department that I started the fire at Lavish Locks.”
“Is that right?” her mother queried in a tone that said she was about to break out in full-on Mama Bear mode. “That no good, lazy little bitch. How dare she?”
Ashlynn’s eyes went a little wide, but all she did was nod.
“What proof does she have?” Marie demanded. “Have you spoken to the police? Or a lawyer?”
“Um…”
“I mean, really, how dare she! You’re the only reason that damn salon has customers and she wants to pin this on you rather than dealing with the fact that she owned one of the oldest buildings in Sweetbriar Ridge and refused to bring it into this century!”
“I know, right?’
Standing, her mother grabbed her purse off the coffee table and pulled out her phone. “The Donovan name holds a lot of weight in this town right now, and there’s no way I’m allowing her to get away with this!”
“Mom, stop!” Ashlynn said as she stood. “Who exactly are you going to call? And so far, no one’s come to talk to me or charge me, so…I’m just sort of okay with waiting and seeing what’s going to happen.”
“I think that’s a mistake. You need to go down to the fire station and put those guys in their place! Hell, you’re dating a firefighter! Why isn’t Reid shutting all this down?”
It was stupid to ask how her mother even knew about Reid. Her siblings were a bunch of gossips.
“He just…he can’t, okay? It’s not that simple.”
The look Marie gave her spoke volumes. “The truth is always simple, Ashlynn. If he’s not standing up for you at work and telling everyone who’ll listen that they have this wrong, then he may not be the one for you.”
And while that thought had flitted in and out of her brain more than once, they hadn’t been dating that long, which was what she explained to her mother.
“It doesn’t matter,” Marie argued. “He should be defending you, and for that matter, the people of this town should be defending you!”
“I’m not sure how many people even know about this. I mean…it’s just Becky spewing lies, and how many friends does she actually have?”
“Honestly, Ash, you’re being far too blasé about all of this. I would think you’d want your name cleared immediately!”
“Believe me, I do! But it’s just…” With a groan, she paused. “I’m kind of afraid that I’ll go down to the firehouse or police station or whatever and be my usual hotheaded self and end up saying something incriminating! We all know I have no filter when I’m upset.”
