Page 79 of The Masks We Break

I do, keeping to the very end of the chaise, and placing my motorcycle helmet on the floor. While my father is conniving, my mother is unpredictable.

“He watches your games, ensures you don’t lose two games back to back, and sometimes yells at the screen for someone to hit you harder so you’ll quit.”

I huff a humorless laugh from my nose. It doesn’t surprise me. But the irony does. The old man wanted me to have more time for the business not realizing that it meant I would have access to everything. Perhaps he’s thought me too weak to do anything about it.

“You seem a little different, son. Is everything alright?” She takes another sip from her glass, and I wonder vaguely what number she’s on.

“What is love?” It’s not what I had planned to say at all, and why I think my mother would have any idea is beyond me.

Still, I lean over, resting my elbows on my knees and peer at her in my periphery.

She sighs. “Love is blind. Stupid…fleeting. I once loved your father, and you can see plainly how that ended for me.”

My stomach twists with her words, the confirmation I was scared of. The very reason I hadn’t wished to succumb to such an emotion at all. The word is an empty promise that changes with the wind.

And while at first I think I was scared of not loving Remy after some time passed, I now realize that it’s the other way around. She broke something in me this morning. Something so deep and vital, I feel the pain everywhere. I didn’t need to say that word to feel just how deeply she’s embedded herself into me.

“I had something different with a man before your father, though.” My mother rolls the glass between her fingers, her gaze following the olive bouncing in the liquor. “And it felt like my soul was tangled with his. It was beyond love. It was…”

She trails off and for the first time, I want her to finish one of her slurred thoughts.

My mother sighs, downing the rest of her drink. “It was a dangerous cocktail of dedication, devotion, commitment, admiration. With a dash of obsession.” She tilts her head, peering at the empty glass as though it will somehow refill. “I miss him.”

Tears well in her eyes, but she smiles through them. There’s a story she wants to tell me, I can see it in the way her lashes flutter, her mouth opening just slightly before closing. But instead, she does the first motherly thing she’s ever done.

“If you ever find someone who makes you feel things you never thought possible, things you never wanted, but then need, don’t let them go. I know it’s scary, and our first instinct is to run and save ourselves from the possible hurt they can cause. But if you do that, if you let that go, Blaze, you’ll regret it the rest of your life. You’ll drink yourself into nothing so you can go on each day without the pain threatening to break every…”

She loses whatever fight was keeping her tears at bay and hovers her hand over my shoulder. It never connects with my skin, but I tense nonetheless, not sure how it’ll feel. But her hand curls into a fist as she stands, wiping her face with her thumb. “I’m sorry I was never a good mother, son. I’m sorry that I was too weak to love you how you deserve.”

With what feels like a final farewell, she touches the tip of my chin, releasing the breath I was holding. A muscle unwinds in my stomach, and I consider her words.

While I may dominate Remy’s body, she controls something so much deeper in me. The very thing I didn’t know I had in the first place. And if anyone is going to break me to pieces from giving them everything I have—it’s Remy.

But she’s worth the risk.

Heavy steps echo in the hall, snapping me back to where I am and drawing me to pull to my feet as I slide one hand into my pocket. My free hand clenches the file as I walk to the opposite side of his bed.

He enters the room and pauses, his eyes narrowing as he moves toward the footboard.

I toss the contracts on the bed, watching as papers scatter across the dark comforter. But my father doesn’t look down and instead lifts one eyebrow in annoyance.

“What do you need, Blaze? I have things to do.” He places his briefcase down, and undoes his cuff links.

“Resign,” I say it calmly, and matter of fact. His presence, and lack of a reaction doesn’t invoke anything out of me anymore. Not after I’ve felt what real emotions are.

He pauses, rubbing the salt and pepper scruff on his chin, a smirk painting his face. “Boy, whatever you think you’re doing, let me stop you ri—”

“I didn’t ask for you to speak.” I stand straighter, pushing back my shoulders. I’m only two inches taller than the man but made with fifty pounds of extra muscle. It’s time he learns that Ilethim control things before. But that’s over now.

He shifts on his feet, but doesn’t back down. “You’d do best to remember your place.”

“Oh, I do, Father. Blaze M. Bardot, new CEO of Clean Source Energy. Appointed after his father stepped down. Reports of bilking tens of millions from clients through misrepresentation, unclear, unsigned, and changed contracts. Tax evasion with your three offshore accounts. And my personal favorite, money laundering to the Embros family, who’s heavily tied to the west coast mafia.”

I’ve always dreamed of this day—laying waste to the man who’d done it to me since I was a child. I never wanted to use what he’s done to me as blackmail. That would be too meek, too forgivable for someone who still wanted his business. I needed something that could put him away for longer than his life would allow, all while making him watch me take what he’s always denied me—control of my life.

“You think you know how to run my fucking company, pup?” My father is seething now, his face a hot red as his breath quickens.

“That was your first mistake. I’m not a baby shark, father. That would imply I plan to be just like you, a cannibal, if you will.” I take a step closer, reveling in the way he shifts back slightly. “But all along I’ve been the orca, letting you play the role until I grew bored with your antics.”

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