Page 48 of Now & Forever
Chapter 12
James
“Dad!”
James met his father’s eyes the moment he burst into the office. He should’ve known. His father. Sarah Welsh.
Gwen.
Together, that was a toxic combination. Meeting in a closed room like this,andJames wasn’t invited? Toxicity leveled up to ground-zero termination.
Naturally, all three responded to his sudden presence with a myriad of reactions. Lady Welsh nearly leaped out of her seat in shock, hand smacked over her heart and a gasp echoing in the large home office her lover had called hishideaway from the Mrs.for thirty years. Albert? His countenance burned with an unappreciation for his son the world had yet to see.
Gwen… her face flashed between relief that she didn’t have to face this alone… and frustration that her partner dared to sweep in withherbehind him.
Because James had apparently not come by himself.
Although he did not ask Cassandra to join him on this misadventure, she was soon in the doorway with him, a chastising look bestowed upon her own mother. It was the most active James had seen her in years. Gone was the sweet dormouse that grew onhisnerves when he simply wanted a straight answer about their son. Now, he was in the presence of the vibrant woman he had once called his closest friend.
Cassandra slammed her foot down and barked at her own mother. “This really has to be the biggest slap in the face you could give our family, Mother.” Cassandra brushed off the maid attempting to draw her away from the office threshold. “Conspiring with a man you’re not even related to so you can break up his son with his girlfriend? That’s low, even for you.”
Sarah jumped out of her seat. A vintage Louis Vuitton bag fell from her lap and plopped onto the plush carpet of the office. Gwen glanced at it, but did not move to pick it up.It’s a miracle she’s not taking the opportunity to step all over it.James wouldn’t blame her. That bag had probably been bought as an “anniversary” present from Albert.
That man opened his mouth, but like James had interrupted Gwen from saying something, Sarah now came to her own defense when she saw such shame in her child’s face.
“Everything I haveeverdone has been for you!”
Gasping, Cassandra turned on her heels and stumbled into the foyer of James’s childhood home.It wouldn’t be the first time she’s tripped and fallen in this room.Cassandra still had a scar on her knee from that time she scraped it when she and James were children, playing tag and getting into all sorts of rambunctious trouble.How many injuries have you sustained because your mother forced us together?James caught Cassandra before she twisted her ankles. Still, he could not stop the pained sound escaping her lips.
She wasn’t in pain because of almost falling to the floor. Cassandra cried out because her mother was theworst.
“How could you?” Once she had regained her footing, Cassandra shoved James off her and rounded on the woman in the doorway. Sarah did her damnedest to stand her ground, but one of her crow’s feet threatened to fly away at the tone of her daughter’s words. Even the distinguished Lady Welsh couldn’t handle a woman like Cassandra when she finally put her emotions to use.
Outside of seducing men, anyway.
“Don’t claim to do things for me!” Cassandra pulled her bangs out of her face, teeth bared and cheeks puffing in righteous indignation. “Not when you’re really doing them for yourself!”
Sarah squared her shoulders, yet that lump traveling down her throat did not inspire confidence. “Watch your mouth, you ungrateful…”
“Ungrateful what?Child?Mother, I stopped being a childyearsago! I have a child of my own now!” Cassandra balled one of her fists. James wondered if he would have to intervene on the least likely physical confrontation to ever hit New England. The thought of Cassandra hittinganyonewas absurd. Watching her lash out at her own mother would have sent them into an alternate dimension. “The only reason you still see me as a child is because I let you for so long. But don’t delude yourself into thinking that any of your plans are truly for my well-being. They’re all because of whatyouwant.”
Cassandra turned to James.
“Do you know what’s going on here?” she asked him. “Our parents won’t ever stop trying to get us married because oftheirspineless fuckups.”
“How dare you!” Sarah stormed toward her daughter. It took James crossing his arms in consternation and Albert leaping around his desk to make Lady Welsh halt her approach.
“I’m not sure what you’ve heard on the grapevine, Cassandra,” Albert said, both feet now in the foyer. “But I can assure you that your mother and I are far fromspineless.”
Gwen was the last to raise from her seat and join the rest of them in the foyer. James beheld the clarity in his partner’s eyes and instantly felt that mixture of excitement and dread that so often came from being in Gwen’s presence during heated confrontations.Why wouldn’t I feel this way? Look at her.Gwen was brains and beauty rolled into one deadly combination. With a snap of her fingers, she could convince James to prostrate himself on the tiled floors of his childhood home. Why not? If any woman was qualified to take his mother’s place as lady of this household, it was the only woman who could fell him with one cold look.
“It’s true,” she said with an even voice. “These two have balls so big that they were offering me whatever sum I wanted to get the hell out of town.”
She said that while maintaining eye contact with her partner, who now dropped his jaw and shot his father an exasperated look. “Youwhat?” James had heard of a hundred terrifying stories in the world of patriarchs who did not approve of their sons’ girlfriends, but the thought of Albert Merange offering Gwen millions of dollars to dump her beloved and get the hell out of town was… preposterous.My own father? Daring to do something so stupid?Oh, who was James kidding? His father had always proven to be an ass.I thought he was a harmless one!
Albert had never approved of Gwen, and he made that known from the day James first brought her home. But he had kept his disproval to himself. A knowing look here and there. A pertinent question that raised suspicions. Then, only three years ago, he had dropped the purpose of Gwen’s existence entirely. James had foolishly assumed that his father had finally accepted that Gwen wasforever.That he had, oh, perhaps accepted his son’s love for a commoner? Like it mattered anymore! Who were they trying to impress? Friends at the country club? Half the men who made up James’s peers married commoners. The others scooped up the few heiresses who weren’t utter train wrecks.Like Cassandra.James hated to think that, but that was her reputation in the circles he frequented.
“Well,” Albert said with a snort of disdain, “you’ll be pleased to know that your woman could not be swayed.”
