Page 41 of If You Love Me

I catered to him.

I loved his daughter.

I made his house a home again. I was everything to him when he needed me to be. He couldn’t just forsake me for a woman that went missing for ten years. Who knew if she’d really been kidnapped? What if she had just run off with another man anddecided to come back when she was tired of him? There were so many different scenarios of what could have happened.

I was in my head for so long that I didn’t hear my mother come into the room. When she called my name, I jumped.

“Iona.”

“Ma, you scared me.”

“You know what your grandmother said about being scared easily. It means you ain’t living right.”

“Ma, I didn’t come over here to hear Granny’s sayings, okay?”

“Well, if you came to talk about Tyrion, I don’t want to hear it, Iona. I told you to give that man grace.”

“How am I supposed to give him grace, Ma? His wife is in the house. By the way, I don’t like her. She should have stayed missing.”

“Iona, don’t say that! If you love Summer Rose, you should be happy she has her mother back. Every little girl needs her mom.”

“And that’s fine. She can be a mother without having to be with Tyrion. I just know she’s gonna try to get him back.”

“If you go over there spiraling, you’re gonna make it that much easier for her.” She sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. “Listen, baby. Every relationship goes through tests. This is yours. If Tyrion is meant to be yours, nothing will stand in the way of that. If he’s not, then you’ll find someone else. You knew what you signed up for, love. The man told you his wife was missing. He told you he didn’t know if she was dead or alive—”

“Mama, he proposed to me. All of that went out the window.”

“No, it didn’t. It didn’t magically erase any of his past. You took the risk when you decided you had to have a man with that type of baggage. There was always a possibility of her coming home. Even if he divorces her and marries you, you still have to deal with her because of Summer Rose. You think she’s gonna give up her husbandandher child? Be for real, Iona. You haveno reason in the world not to like her. I know you. You probably went over there being passive aggressive toward her, didn’t you?”

I crossed my arms and remained silent. Sometimes I hated that she knew me so well.

“I’ll take that as a yes,” she said. She walked over to me and pulled me into her arms. “I know you love him, but maybe you should step back if this is too much for you, baby. I don’t want to see you hurt, and I don’t want you doing something you’ll regret.”

She kissed my cheek and pulled me in for a hug. For a moment, I felt like that little girl who was never anybody’s first pick. I hugged her back as a tear slipped from my eye.

“Come to lunch with me and your sister,” she offered.

I shook my head as I pulled away. “No thanks. I’ll probably end up murdering your oldest child if she says one more thing out of the way to me.”

My mother rolled her eyes. “You both need to grow up and act like sisters. When I’m gone, you’ll be the closest thing each other has. Stop with this imaginary competition you have with each other and love each other.”

I did love my sister… enough to push her off a fucking bridge.

“I hear you, Mama.”

“If you’re not coming, at least stay here. You can climb in my bed and take a nap until I get back. We can watch a movie and sip wine while we talk about how men ain’t shit,” she added with a grin.

I tried not to smile. “Fine. Have fun with your evil spawn.”

She smacked my arm. “Stop it. I love you.”

“I love you too.”

She kissed my cheek again before leaving the family room and heading out the front door. I turned back to the bar andplucked a bottle of wine from the rack before heading up to my mother’s room.

I might as well get started on the pity party without her.

13

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