Page 57 of Should Have Been Me

“You can do this, Jo. Just be honest and real. He cares about you. He’s said so himself. This is all going to work out.”

Closing my eyes, I sent up a little prayer and lifted my hand to knock.

The moment it opened I launched right in. “Vaughn, I love yo—oh...” I started at the sight of the woman standing across the threshold. “You’re not Vaughn,” I stated lamely, my tongue suddenly feeling thick as I took in the woman whose features closely resembled Vaughn’s. She appeared to be around my parents’ age, her expression was cold and flat, and her emotionless eyes sent a shiver down my spine. I knew without having to ask, this had to be his mother. “I’m so sorry. I was expecting someone else.”

“Yes, I’m aware,” she said in a frigid monotone.

My stomach sank down to my feet at the judgmental once-over she gave me, crossing her arms as she stood in the middle of the doorway like she was trying to bar my access. “Let me try that again. I’m Jolie.” I held my hand out to her. “You must be Vaughn’s mother.”

“And you must be the reason my son has recently started throwing away his life and everything he’s worked for.”

My chin jerked back in shock at her callous words and the ugly tone she used to say them. “I-I’m sorry?”

She huffed out a breath like she was frustrated at having to deal with someone like me. “Might as well come in. I think the two of us should have a talk.”

I disagreed wholeheartedly, but the manners my mother instilled in me kicked in, making my feet carry me into the house without any input from my brain.

The click of the front door latching into place echoed through the house like a shotgun blast, giving me a jolt. I followed the ice queen into Vaughn’s living room, and I couldn’t shake the sense that I’d just walked into a situation I was absolutely not prepared for. At that very moment, I would have given every dime in my bank account to be anywhere else. “Um, is... is Vaughn here?”

Estelle took a seat at the end of the sofa facing the front of the house. She waved an elegant hand for me to take a seat on the love seat across from her. She was perched on the very edge, giving off an air that she ruled whatever house she stepped into, including this one. She clasped her hands together and rested them in her lap, crossing her ankles demurely, but there wasn’t a single demure thing about this woman. I could sense it, feel it in the air. She was a viper, waiting for her moment to strike.

“He isn’t. My son is currently off on some errand he thought was more important than being here and running the company he built.”

My brain worked overtime to try and remember what Vaughn told me he had to do today. Then it hit me. My mouth fell open on a sputter and I let out a bewildered laugh. “I’m sorry, did you just refer to Hershel’s final round of chemotherapy as some errand?” The nerves I’d been experiencing since the moment this woman opened Vaughn’s front door quickly dried up in the wake of her unbelievable heartlessness.

Suddenly I could understand why Vaughn was the way he was, and it broke my heart for him that he’d had to grow up with such a vile, insensitive woman.

“My son was raised to keep his priorities straight. Something I see he’s slacked off on since returning to this retched place. I’m here to remind him of what’s important.”

I was right when I told Vaughn I didn’t like his mother. And that had been without meeting her. Now that I had, however, I could finally say there was a person on this planet that I hate. And she was sitting right in front of me.

“I think your son has done a fine job at prioritizing what’s important and what isn’t.”

“Of course you would,” she said with a scoff, rolling her eyes like I was being ridiculous. “You strike me as the type of woman who’d get her hooks into someone as successful as my son and dig in deep. I read that on you the moment I opened the door. Well I’ve got news for you, I wouldn’t get too comfortable if I were you. As soon as Vaughn is finished with this little rebellion of his, he’ll have no use for you. He’s better than this nothing town full of a bunch of people who couldn’t manage to find anything better. Your time with my son is coming to an end. I’ll see to that; I know what’s best for him.”

“Wow,” I breathed, the anger inside me churning like a pasta pot full of boiling water. “You’re a terrible person.”

“Excuse me?” she said in affront.

“You heard me.” I pushed to my feet, my indignation making it impossible to remain sitting. “You are a terrible person. And you’re an even worse mother. You don’t have the first clue what’s best for him, and you don’t care enough to try and find out. The only thing you care about is turning him into a carbon copy of you. A miserable, lonely, insensitive robot who doesn’t care about anything but yourself.”

Estelle rose to her feet as well, taking what she probably thought was a menacing step toward me, but I was too pissed to be cowed. This woman had insulted me, my town, and Vaughn, and I wasn’t going to tolerate it. “And you’re nothing more than small-town trash my son is using to fill his time while he’s stuck in this backwater hole of a town. He’ll see you for what you really are and return to where he belongs.”

Her words might have been a direct hit to the uncertainty I’d been battling, but I would be damned if I let her see she had any effect on me. This woman wanted a fight? I was here for it, and I would go toe-to-toe with her without blinking.

“Maybe you’re right. Maybe what we have won’t last, and he’ll end up going back to Denver, but at least I’ll be able to tell myself that everything I did was for him. Vaughn is so much more than you give him credit for. He’s more than his money or his job or whatever clout he’s able to provide for you. He’s the best man I’ve ever known. He thinks he’s this cold, emotionless asshole, but that’s only because it’s what you’ve drilled into his head all these years. The Vaughn I got to know has the biggest heart. There isn’t anything he wouldn’t do for the people he cares about, and that includes uprooting his entire life to come here and take care of his father. That part of him managed to survive in spite of having you as a mother. Whether or not I get to be with him for the long run, I’ll be happy knowing I made sure he knows he’s a good man who deserves happiness. Because that’s what you do when you love someone.”

“What the hell is going on here?”

I whipped around at the snap of Vaughn’s hard, gravelly voice, my heart threatening to beat out of my chest when I saw him just outside the living room. I’d been so lost in my anger at his mother I hadn’t heard him come in. And by the flare in Estelle’s eyes, I could tell he’d caught her off guard as well.

“Vaughn, I?—”

His mother cut in before I could finish. “I was just telling your little plaything here that she’s been wasting her time, trying to sink her claws into you. Honestly, Vaughn. Who in the world have you been associating with while you’ve been shacking up here? It’s time for you to come home where you belong.”

“That’s enough,” Vaughn said on a growl so vicious it made me shiver.

He took two steps in our direction, the energy pouring off him filling the room and making the air thick. His rage vibrated, making the atmosphere feel static. Whatever Estelle saw in her son must not have been something she was used to, because she quickly snapped her mouth shut.

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