Page 86 of Love Me Not

Nothing I ever did had been enough for her.

I did everything right.I got straight A’s.I never skipped school.I graduated at the top of my class.I went to an Ivy League college.And I owned my own fucking company.

But none of it was good enough because she never wanted me.

Maybe I was a constant reminder of a man she had loved and lost.One who had wanted nothing to do with her.And every single day she saw me, it reminded her that she’d lost him.She’d let him slip out of her grasp.

When my sister died, she was devastated, but she knew that if she could have Bella, she could still keep a little bit of my sister with her.

Her reaction when she found out that I was named the guardian had been nothing short of explosive.I never heard her cuss so loudly.

At first, I had tried to keep their relationship strong.I thought Bella would need her grandmother.But after she’d shown up back home, looking broken-hearted and asking never to see her again, I changed my mind.Bella’s mental health and feelings were more important than any blood ties.I vowed to never have her near Bella ever again.

But she keeps fucking showing up.

“If you keep interfering like this, I'm going to call the cops,” I warned, the threat clear in my voice.

“You wouldn’t dar?—”

“I will,” I promised.“I'm not playing around anymore, Mom.You want to keep crossing these boundaries?Then I'm going to enforce them.And you don't want me to get a fucking restraining order.Leave Bella alone.”

“I was just walking around the park and I happened to see her,” she huffed.“What are you saying?If I see her outside, I can't even say hi to my own granddaughter?”

“No,” I said simply.

She clicked her tongue and crossed her arms over her chest, looking around as if to see if anyone was watching.A few moms were, and they were holding their children far away, clearly looking like they were not going to take her side, a mix of pity and morbid curiosity in their gazes.

If there was one thing my mom hated, it was looking bad in front of a crowd, so I leaned into this, speaking a little louder than necessary.

“I'm serious.This is your last warning.I have custody, I don't need to remind you of that.And if you keep trying to take her, you'll be charged with kidnapping.”

She still had her arms crossed, and she had an exasperated look on her face, but I should've known that she was up to something because instead of stomping away, she stood her ground, and her eyes went straight to Juliette.

“You know, I heard something really funny recently,” she started, ignoring what I said about the kidnapping entirely.“Did you know that your Aunt Kathy and I go to the same floristry class?”

When Juliette’s hand grasped the back of my shirt, my heart sank into my stomach.

I knew exactly where she was fucking going with this.Again, my mother never showed up unprepared.It has been quiet recently—a little bit too quiet—and now I realized it was because she was scheming in the background instead of licking her wounds.

Not only did I not want to have Juliette go through this again with my own mother, but I also could not bear to have Bella hear the words that were going to come out of her mouth.

She will ruinusif she has the chance.

“You better watch what you say,” I warned.“Not only is Bella here, but Juliette is important to me, and I will not have you disrespecting her again.I don't care what you heard.I don't care what her aunt said.Youwill notrepeat it here.”

“Come on, Bella,” Juliette whispered, starting to pull her away.But my mom, being the bitch that she was, decided she needed to speak up.

“So it's OK for you to hire yourwhoreas your nanny?”she asked loudly, drawing attention.Onlookers’ faces started to shift.They started to look at Juliette and her flower dress and hat.Criticizing her.I could feel it in their gaze.I grabbed her hand, squeezing it.“Should we talk about how yournannyrecently came into some money?”

“Juliette… My chest feels tight.”

I looked down to see Bella gripping Juliette’s dress, her face buried in it.We had to stop this.I wanted nothing more than to make my mother pay, but doing it in a park full of children was not the way.And neither was exposing Bella to all of it.

“You're going to be hearing from my lawyer,” I said to my mom before quickly scooping up Bella, grabbing Juliette’s hand, and rushing to our car.

“Don’t you listen to her,” I said to both Juliette and Bella.“I promise she's not going to do that again.I'll fix this, okay?”

Bella had her nose buried in my shirt and was inhaling deeply.

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