“Honey, really, you’re too young to be losing your hearing. I left your father. He told me what he did to you, cutting you out of the family like that and leaving you high and dry.”
If you can call several million high and dry. I groan. My family has no concept of money. “Mom, I’m fine really. I’m more worried about you. What are you going to do?”
A laugh crackles in through the phone. “Sweetie, you forget our marriage was a business arrangement. My father ensured that half of the company would always belong to me. So I’m taking my half and moving on. You’re entitled to your share of it, as well.”
All this time, my mother could have left whenever she wanted? All this time, I’d been worried she’d be left destitute without any money to her name if she left my father. But she could have left at any time.
“Why now? Why after all these years of dealing with him are you just now leaving him?”
Silence.
Then, “So many things, Zach. I’ll admit I should have left him a long time ago. You and I missed out on a lot of good years there, collecting terrible memories we both would rather forget. But at the time, I thought it was the right thing to keep the family together. I didn’t know what it would do to you. And part of me was scared to be alone.”
Alone. Yes, what a terrifying concept.
“But now, after what he’s done to you, it’s unforgivable. He even had the nerve to tell me I was banned from seeing you.” Another haughty laugh leaps through the phone’s receiver. “Well, I wasn’t about to let that happen. Plus Paolo has been my one true friend throughout all of this. He’s always been there for me, never expecting anything in return. I owe it to him to finally give our relationship a chance.”
I clamp down on my jaw.
Paolo the groundskeeper. I should have seen this coming years ago. There could not have been a kinder soul for my mother to fall for, however.
“I owe it to myself to be happy,” my mother adds. “And so do you. So whoever that girl is you’re protecting, you need to hold onto her. But don’t forget to send me the information for getting into the apartment, either.”
I laugh.
This is why I have mixed responses to emotions. “Fine. I’ll let the staff in the lobby know you’re coming. Just give them your name, and they’ll let you in.”
I finish the conversation with my mother. So she did stand up to my father. I completely underestimated her. Maybe I have to stop trying to control every aspect of my life and everyone in it. Things seemed to have worked out better by letting go than they did when I was trying to hold it all together. I was doing the same thing I’d accused Aly of doing, wanting to micromanage every detail of my life until it was perfect, pristine. Pain-free.
Unrealistic.
Life isn’t like that. Love certainly isn’t.
And I’m ready to prove I can handle life without the need to control every little thing that goes wrong.
I’m ready for a messy, roller-coaster kind of love story with the woman I want to spend the rest of my life with.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Aly
“What do you mean it’s all been paid for?”
I ask the receptionist behind the counter. I check her name tag.Dolores.
Dolores is making about as much sense as a woman speaking Greek, and I’m pretty sure she has the wrong account open if she says we don’t owe anything. These were thousands upon thousands of back-bills to pay. My parents both had insurance, but there were simply some things their health care plans didn’t cover. We had years of my dad’s medical payments to pay down still and whatever additional this recent trip to the hospital cost us.
How could all that simply be gone?
“It’s what I’ve said,” Dolores explains. “Your bills were paid off a few days ago.”
A few days ago? I look at Lyndsey, who only shrugs as if she had nothing to do with it. She may not have had anything to do with it, but I’m pretty sure I know who did. I inhale one, long steadying breath. He was just trying to do the right thing. He wasn’t trying to pay me off or buy my affections. He didn’t know how things were going to turn out. There was no way he could have known I’d be this angry with him when he made this payment.
Still, it was just one more piece of evidence that he rarely consulted me when it came to what was best in my life. He didn’t ask if this gesture was too much. He just paid for it without telling me.
Because you would have said“no”.You would have said you can handle it.
The truth is that I can’t. With all the doctor’s visits and my anxiety about leaving my mother alone, I’ve had to take off a couple of weeks from work. She can’t work. How are we supposed to pay for anything, let alone medical bills we’ve been struggling with for years?