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I bolted after her, clinging to her like she was my lifeline as we made our way inside the kitchen, it was like we could finally breathe.
“Go on.” She handed me a glass and then added a heavy pour of champagne into the glass with a drop of orange juice. “Drink, your dad’s still angry, mostly at himself for the loophole Ivan more than cheerfully jumped through, though I think he would have tried to take you regardless.”
I rolled my eyes and leaned my hip against the counter, staring outside at the huge breakfast table, the fountain behind it in the pool, and the green leading out to the golf course. “No, he never wanted me, he never will. So, cheers to a loveless arranged marriage with a killer, we do have more champagne, right?”
Mom grabbed her glass and joined me against the counter. She looked so refined in her white pantsuit, with her matching vest and gold jewelry. “Hate and love are very fine lines that most idiots tend to play with, take a look at your dad.”
I snorted into my drink.
She shrugged. “Shall we call him exhibit A?”
“Mommmm, he loved you since he was a teenager. I’ve heard the story a million times.”
“Your dad was a complete asshole, ask Uncle Chase.”
I scrunched up my nose. “Don’t need to hear that sordid love triangle story ever again, my ears still bleed.”
She took a small sip. “Chase will always be one of our best friends, it was a phase brought on by pain, and your dad, well, still an ass.”
“Cheers.” I clinked my glass against hers.
“So…” Mom’s voice changed to the serious voice, the one moms get when they’re ready to say something like, I have to talk to you about something. “Did he?”
I finished my mimosa and reached for the champagne bottle. “What?”
“Touch you? Break the rules?”
I was always honest with my mom; I could literally tell her that I had a body in the back of my car, and she’d just grab my keys and ask me to bring something flammable while searching for matches.
“Nobody asked me”—I sighed, taking another drink from the cold glass.—“what I wanted, he did.”
Mom’s eyebrows rose. “Oh? And what was your answer?”
My cheeks burned red-hot; I could feel the flush. “I told him I wanted ten minutes, and I begged him to break the rules.”
“And did he? Break the rules for you?”
“I’m still a virgin, regardless of what you both think, I’ll probably die that way.” I set my glass down. “But yeah, he did touch me, he touched me because I wanted something for me on my wedding night, something that was taken from me.”
Mom wrapped an arm around me and pulled me in close. She smelled like Dior perfume and was so warm. “It’s going to work out, you know before all of this, I thought he had a crush on you.”
I laughed. “Yeah, that’s why we had laminated the rules and made copies for everyone’s houses, because we had crushes.”
Mom kissed me on the forehead. “This family is strange, but we like to fight and fighting more often than not means something else entirely. Think of it as our love language.”
“Wow.” I laughed. “Healthy.”
She pointed her glass at me. “I didn’t say it was healthy, or that we were mentally stable.”
The sound of fighting broke out from the outside. I didn’t waste any time and ran out just in time to see Ash throw a punch across Ivan’s face.
Seriously? Already?
Ivan crumpled to the ground.
Why wasn’t he fighting back?
“Fucking Trojan Horse.” Ivan rubbed his jaw as blood dripped down his chin. “You could have broken a molar!”
