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I lived in constant fear of the woman, and avoiding her altogether became my survival strategy. But if Dom and I had any chance of a future together, facing her head-on for once was an absolute necessity.
Despite the constant trauma this woman caused me, the way Dom loved me made me keep trying. She’d been beating me down for years anyway, so I didn’t figure another hour would kill me.
When I answered the phone that morning, and her voice was on the other end, I just about had a heart attack. Walking up the front steps to her door, anxiety flooded my entire body.
No matter how many deep breaths I took, I couldn’t calm my racing heart or rub the iciness away from my hands. Nausea turned my stomach over, and I struggled to catch my breath under the weight of her eyes on me through the picture window.
My trembling finger collapsed into the doorbell, and I checked myself again in the storm door until the lock clicked. As soon as I came face-to-face with her judgmental bitchy eyebrow, though, I understood the girls’ day brunch she invited me to was only some trick to get me alone.
The glass door swung open, and she gestured inside with her hand, holding the door with her backside. “Well, isn’t that an interesting little dress?”
Forcing a smile, I peeked down over the nicest thing I ever owned, even if her snooty tone told me she thought the only thing trashier than the dress was me. “Thank you. It’s Carolyn’s final project for her fashion class, and she got a perfect score. I’m sure she’ll be over the moon you liked it.”
Like a model on a game show, she flipped her hand over to motion to the fancy floral sofa in the living room she never let anyone sit on, to my knowledge. “I thought we should clear the air about a few things.”
Everything that came next was a spiderweb of manipulation I thought I prepared myself not to end up tangled in. I was facing a woman who’d spent eighteen years honing her skills in eliminating any other potential female competitors for her son’s affection, though.
In comparison, I was totally out of my league. “So, what are your plans after graduation, Faith? I don’t think Dominic mentioned it.”
Dom had our entire lives mapped out already. From him putting me up in an apartment near his college with his extra scholarship money to our children’s names, he’d put every detail to pen and paper over the last few years. But I kept those secrets to myself no matter how much I wanted to rub it in her face.
Revealing Dom’s plans to Missus Vasser would only send her on a rampage, and I wouldn’t risk any of her craziness falling on him — and I sure as hell wasn’t interested in it blowing up on me, either. “Nothing exciting. Just working.”
Picking up the tea she’d been sipping, she brought it to her lips as her drawn-on brow arched at me. “No college, then?”
I shifted back a bit more into the couch to brace myself. “Um.” Not that I ever wanted to spend another second in a classroom anyway, but Dom had already planned for me to be a housewife, and that was fine with me. “No. I don’t see that in my future.”
“Mmm-hmm,” she hummed, placing her cup back on the saucer. “I didn’t think you would.” Flicking imaginary fuzz off her skirt, she shrugged and cleared her throat. “Let me come to the point.” Turning away from me, she pulled a large envelope from the side table. “My husband’s old firm offered him a very prestigious position back home. So I took the liberty of applying to some schools for Dominic closer to where we’ll be moving.”
We were so close to the finish line, and I should’ve seen her sneak attack coming.
The envelope slid across the sofa to me. “Of course, they offered him the same full ride he got here.” Flipping her pale blonde hair off her shoulder, she snorted a laugh from her nose and smiled. “But with a far superior program at one of the best universities in the country. He’ll be able to write his own ticket career-wise.”
The rest of her speech was a blur. She blew me out of the water, my heart sinking more with each word she said.
Except for the occasional snide remarks cutting the haze of my shock, I couldn’t hear anything. I completely shut down in defeat. “When Dominic meets other girls like him,” and “I know you don’t want to make him have to choose between you and his family,” echoed in my mind, each word piercing through my defenses as she hoped they would.
It was like Missus Vasser saw straight through me, targeting my deepest insecurities with deadly accuracy.
Before I understood what was happening, she had me at the front door with her hand pushing into the center of my back. “I understand you care for my son,” — the amusement in her voice dripped with her signature arrogance — “but let’s be real for a second. Shall we?”
With a quick glance over my body, she critiqued me from head to toe until she found the best weapon to annihilate me with. “Dominic is destined for great things, and you’ll be working some dead-end job here like everyone else you know. He deserves more than you can give him, and I’m sure you’re aware of that.”
Triumphantly wrinkling her nose when she recognized she’d hit her target dead on, she reached out to pinch my cheek. “So, I’m confident you’ll do what’s best for everyone. Won’t you?”
The door closed in my face, and I only stood there for I’m not sure how long, everything she said still catching up with me.
What she told me was true, though. She was always ready with another painful reminder of the different worlds Dom and I belonged to. From the moment he handed me that pencil in geometry, I’d been dreading this day, but I always expected it to come.
Dom had always been a believer in endless possibilities and miracles waiting to happen. His magical approach to getting what he wanted with his rituals and putting good thoughts into the universe didn’t work for people like me, though.
I didn’t live in a fantasyland of wealthy parents and an opportunity around every corner. I was only a girl from the wrong side of town, and that’s all I’d ever be.
Dom was the man of my dreams, but Missus Vasser would never accept me and would stop at nothing to tear us apart. Her mission to drive a wedge between us would never end, and I just gave up the fight altogether.
She was his mother, after all. What chance did I stand against her? And what right did I have to ask him to choose?
So I turned around and dragged my broken heart to the little beige car Dad, Dom, and Jason fixed up for my birthday as the answer to all our problems became obvious.
