Page 98 of Guarding My Love

“I don’t care about either of those things for me,” he said.

He was more worried it’d bring shame on the family.

“Don’t get worked up over it,” West said. “Braylon is going to take care of it, right?”

“I am,” Braylon said. “Do you want to know what I’m doing or do you trust me?”

“I trust you,” he said.

“Leave it to me,” Braylon said and got up and left him there with West.

“How does Charlotte feel about what happened?”

“She’s fine with it now. I scared her for a minute.”

“I’m sure it was more than a minute. You can hear her shouting at you to stop. You listened when you never did as a kid.”

“I’ve matured,” he said.

“You did it because it came from her,” West said. “You love her, don’t you?”

“I do,” he said.

“Have you told her?”

“No,” he said. “But she knows I feel the same as her. She’s said the words.”

West laughed. “And you didn’t say them back? You’re lucky you aren’t in the dog house for that alone.”

33

HARD TO IGNORE

Charlotte jumped when she heard her ringtone going off playing an electronic version of “Ding-dong! The Witch is Dead.”

She picked up her phone to see her mother was calling. Not that she needed to see the name because that was the only person with that ringtone.

Cruel on her part?

Probably. But it was a reminder to her that she was on her own and she was fine with it. The mother she once wanted or had was dead in her eyes.

What was left was a woman who was a blood relation and not much more.

But since she hadn’t talked to her mother in over a year, she did answer. Maybe it was important.

“Hi,” she said.

“Charlotte. It’s your mother.”

“I know,” she said. “How are you?”

“I’d be better if my children didn’t shut me out of their lives,” her mother said.

She rolled her eyes and wished she’d let this go to voicemail. “I believe you took that first step.”

“What Amanda did has no reflection on our relationship,” her mother said. “It’s in the past and she can’t let it go.”

Something in her snapped. “She was seventeen and pregnant and you were embarrassed for the family. You begged her to get an abortion and she wouldn’t. And when she found out the baby had no heartbeat and still had to deliver, you showed no compassion for her at all. You berated her as she went through childbirth and had to look at her stillborn child. Your granddaughter. It’s no wonder she left days later.”

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