Page 66 of Almost Paradise

“Please,” I tell her.

“I never thought Scarlett was right for you.” That takes me by surprise. She’s never voiced any objections about me and Scarlett, but now that I think about it, there was no excitement either. At least not from Mom. Dad was happy about us though. “I believe she cared about you and wanted you, but it was not mutual. You were not happy with her, and it showed. There was no chemistry. No zing. After you got engaged, I was coming to talk to you about it, but your father got sick, and everything went to hell.”

“Mom, I’d rather not talk about Scarlett.” The last thing I need is for Nia to come home and overhear talk about my ex.

“Fair enough. I didn’t come here to talk about her, but I just had to say it. I do want to talk about Nia.” She whispers her name. She looks around the kitchen as if we’re not the only two people here.

“What about her?”

“You care about her. It’s plain to see. You couldn’t keep your eyes off her on Sunday, but she wouldn’t look at you. She didn’t eat or drink a single thing, and she barely interacted with us. I don’t understand that. It’s as if she’s angry at us, but from where I’m sitting, she’s the one who never told you or us about Carter. We lost out on three years because of her, so why is she acting like we did her some grave injustice?”

“Mom, she didn’t do that,” I say in Nia’s defense. “She did everything in her power to let me know she was pregnant with my baby.”

That shocks her. She lets out a little gasp of surprise. “Really?” she asks.

“Yes, really,” I tell her, but I don’t say more. She’s still too fragile and I don’t want her to return to the darkness that’s held her for so long.

“Then why am I just now finding out about him? I’ve missed all this time, Drake. His birthdays and Christmases. We’re his family too, and we love him. We could have loved him all this time. He’s all Langley and Hannah’s talked about. Your father would have loved—”

I don’t mean to, but I slam my hand down on the counter, shocking her. “Don’t talk about him,” I whisper. I turn away from her, the hurt and confusion more intense now than ever before. I stand and pour her another glass of wine.

“I’m not going to avoid talking about your father. What’s gotten into you? You shut me down about him on Sunday too.”

“Mom, enough,” I tell her. She gets up and stands next to me. She puts a hand on my back like she used to when I was upset as a little kid.

“Okay,” she says. I know that tone. She’s not going to leave it alone. She’s going to come at it from a different angle. “Why does Nia seem to have an ax to grind with us? And by us, I mean you too.”

I step away from her, and she drops her hand. “Mom, I said enough. Drop it. Do you want to see pictures of Carter I took this morning.” I pull out my phone from my pocket and open the camera. That gets her attention. She looks through the pictures with tears welling in her eyes. She even traces her finger along his face. She takes my phone, texts them to herself, and hands the device back to me.

“I want to talk, Drake,” she says. “I know I haven’t been present, but I’m here now. I’m not retreating again. I’m the only parent you have left, and I want to be here for you. I know you’ve always been closer to your dad, but I’m your mom. You need me now.” She takes my hands again. “We’ve put a lot on you. We can all fall apart because we know you’ll be there, so let me be here for you now.”

I try to pull my hands from hers, but she tightens her hold on me. “Tell me why my daughter-in-law hates me.”

“She doesn’t hate you,” I say in her defense. If she hates anyone, it’s me and my father, but I won’t say that to my mother.

“You said she didn’t keep Carter away from us. Does that mean you did? Did you think I or your father would be upset about it? You know that’s not the case—”

“Mom, stop! Do you think I’d ever be ashamed of that little boy? Never. And stop speaking for Dad. Maybe you don’t know him as well as you think.”

“Don’t be ridiculous. He was my husband. We talked about everything. I knew him better than he knew himself,” she says.

“Oh, really? The reason why no one, including me, knew about Carter is because of him!”

I stun her into silence. When I see the color creep up her neck, I immediately regret my words, but there’s no taking them back. They’re out in the world now, spreading like a virus.

“What the hell did you just say?” That’s the tone she used when I was a teenager sneaking into the house past curfew on a Saturday night. “Tell me what you’re talking about.” She puts her hands on her hips and looks into my eyes. “Right now, because there’s no possible way I heard that right.”

I squeeze the bridge of my nose. I’d rather be fighting with Nia right now instead of dealing with this. I don’t know how I’ll ever forgive myself if Mother goes back to that dark place again, but this is something she needs to know. I would have told her eventually.

“Fine,” I concede. “Come into my office.” In case Nia and Carter come home, I don’t want them to walk in on this. I’ve noticed that Carter is very sensitive, and if someone is upset, he too becomes upset.

She follows me to the other side of the first floor and into my home office. If I’m going to tell her, I’m going to tell her everything. For the next twenty minutes, I detail it all. I tell her about my relationship with Nia all the way until the day I saw her and Carter at the arcade. I tell her about confronting Nia and her allegations. I tell her about Wyatt’s investigation. I even pull out the lawsuit my father had drafted in my name, the text message exchanges between him and Nia, the cease-and-desist letter, and the monthly child support payments. We were able to trace it back to an account he opened a few weeks before Carter’s birth.

She doesn’t say a word the entire time. I watch her face, but it is expressionless. She reads every piece of paper in front of her, but she doesn’t react. I don’t know what to make of that, so I sit back and wait for her to finish. When she’s done, she pushes the papers away as if they’re contaminated.

“I refuse to believe this. Your father would never—”

“He did,” I say, cutting her off. “I’ve been where you’re at. I couldn’t bring myself to accept it for weeks, but it’s right here.” I gesture at the papers. “Howard has confirmed it and filled in some blanks. My father did this.”

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