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“I would have done the same thing,” she said. “You just never know.”
“She was playing me again.”
“How so?” she asked.
He seemed to hesitate and then said, “She told me that Blaze needed help with tuition this semester.”
“Your half brother?” she asked. “You help with his college?”
“No,” he said. “I don’t. I said that is her job and Zach’s. That is Blaze’s father. By the way, Blaze and Zach have a good relationship. And Zach has always helped Blaze. Or at least my mother said she is annoyed because she knows Zach gives Blaze money.”
“It’s his son. There isn’t anything wrong with that.”
“There isn’t,” he said. “But my mother did the same thing when I turned eighteen. Her child support ended at that age. My father paid for my schooling. Whatever it was going to be, he’d pay for it.”
“That’s great,” she said. “My parents helped, but it’s not like they could afford to cover it all. I’ve got some loans, but they are almost paid for. It’s been hard living on Staten Island.”
The cost of living was high there and she hadn’t been making a ton to do much more than pay a little extra on her loans. It was that or forfeit a savings. She found a happy medium and living here she was able to chip away a lot more.
“Blaze is smart. Smarter than I realized because it’s not something we ever talked about. He gets a lot of aid and scholarships, but room and board aren’t covered. He has some loans. After I got into it with my mother on a number of things we don’t need to talk about, I felt guilty and sent a text to Blaze to see if there was an issue. I mean, I don’t want him dropping out of anything. He only has this year and next at this point.”
“That was nice of you,” she said. She wasn’t surprised either.
“He texted me back an hour later and I called him. It’s five thousand. Not a ton. His loan is being processed now, but it was held up. He never even said a word to our mother about it. He doesn’t know how she found out other than she must have checked on the parent portal. My guess is she does that to see if large amounts are put in there from Zach.”
“Which is none of her business if Zach does that.”
“My mother just feels slighted by anything she didn’t end up with even if she is the one that ruined all the relationships she’s been in.”
“Oh,” she said. “Can I ask why she is always to blame?”
“Cheating. Always cheating and with cheating comes lying. Two things I detest. When someone is in a relationship you don’t go find another person. Half the time my mother was sleeping with guys who were married or in relationships too. She didn’t care other than she wanted the attention and someone to take care of her.”
Sage nodded. It was all she could do. And all the more reason why she’d had to keep what she told him about her relationship with Henry to a minimum.
She was the idiot and had no one to blame but herself for what happened, but it was in her past.And though she agreed with Knox’s opinion on cheaters, it was still not something she wanted to put to the test.
No, she wasn’t going to blame herself for everything. Just that she had her eyes closed when she shouldn’t have. Maybe she should have questioned things more, but most of it made sense at the time.
“So because money from Zach ended a few years ago, she is mad if her son gets something from his father now? That sounds pretty selfish to me.”
“That’s my mother,” he said. “She’s always felt that way. My guess is my mother thought maybe she could get me to give her the money for Blaze.”
“If Blaze didn’t tell her then he wouldn’t have needed it,” she said. “Does that mean she would have kept the money?”
“No clue,” he said. “I’m not that stupid. If I had agreed, I would have paid it directly. Not even given it to Blaze. Not that I think he’d go blow it, but I don’t know him well enough to know if he had any hidden things going on. People always have secrets.”
Nothing she could say to that either. “Good point.”
“Blaze said he didn’t need the money. He was good. We joked about our mother a bit and how she is. I don’t know if he had it as badly as I did.”
“Because he had a relationship with his father and you didn’t? Are you a little jealous over that? Not to be mean, but just talking.”
“It’s not mean. I am jealous. Blaze is really friendly and outgoing. Zach was decent enough, but I was so upset over the move and everything going on in my life back then. Zach knew my mother was married and he still had an affair with her. He said he loved her. He wanted to marry her, but my mother didn’t want to get married again.”
“Sounds like a lot of men got hurt by your mother,” she said.
“More than I can count I’m sure. But again, Zach knew she was married so he’s not blameless.”
