‘He didn’t deceive me.’
‘It was for your own good,’ she snapped defensively. ‘The affair would have blown over without any pain for you if Laura hadn’t got herself pregnant.’
‘I don’t like your judgement of what is good for me. I’m not going to take it anymore.’
‘You need me, Chloe,’ she bored in. ‘You’ll be lost without me. I’ve handled everything for you for so long…’
‘I’ll learn to do it myself.’
‘You think that can be done in a day?’ she jeered.
‘No. I expect it will take a while.’
‘Making a host of bad judgements. For a start, where do you intend to live?’
Chloe hesitated, not having thought that far yet.
‘You can’t stay in Max’s guest house forever,’ her mother pushed, mocking Chloe’s indecision.
‘No, of course not.’
Maybe her lack of any urgent concern over where to live gave the situation away.
Her mother pounced. ‘He’s invited you to stay on, hasn’t he? How long?’
‘This is none of your business!’ Chloe retorted defensively.
‘Longer than a few days. Longer than a week for you to think you don’t need me. A month? Two months?’ Speculation turned to triumphant certainty. ‘Yes. Two months. Until shooting all the episodes for the show is over. That would suit him very nicely. And you’re so gullible you got sucked right in.’
‘It suits me, too,’ Chloe hotly insisted, hating how her mother twisted everything.
Her claim was dismissed with a derisive snort. ‘Out of the frying pan into the fire!’
‘What’s that supposed to mean?’
Her eyes glittered with contempt for Chloe’s intelligence. ‘Max Hart is worse than Tony, flitting from woman to woman. He’s setting you up for when he gets rid of Shannah Lian. Which will be very soon. Mark my words! You won’t have two months free of him. I’ll bet the bank on that.’
Dangerous…the undertow of physical attraction…impossible to ignore yet she hated her mother’s interpretation of the situation.
‘You’ll end up in a bigger mess than you have now,’ she went on in her disparaging voice. ‘You need me, Chloe. I’m the one who’s always protected you. Max Hart is a shark. He’ll eat you up and when you’ve satisfied his sexual appetite…’
‘That’s enough!’ Chloe cried. ‘I don’t have to listen to this and I won’t! Gerry…’ She turned to him in urgent appeal. ‘I want to go now.’
He immediately hooked one arm around hers, holding the other one out in a warding-off gesture. ‘Excuse us, Mrs Rollins,’ he said politely, starting to move Chloe along the shopping aisle towards the exit.
‘When you know I’m right, come home to me,’ her mother sliced at her. ‘I’ll look after you.’
Chloe maintained a stony face, looking straight ahead, refusing to acknowledge the claim that she couldn’t look after herself.
She would.
As for the rest, Max wouldn’t force her into anything she didn’t want.
All along he had given her choices.
Not like her mother, who dictated what was to be done.
And not like Tony, who cheated on women, playing two at once.