Page 5 of Pulse
She grimaced. “I’m-”
“I know who you are and I’m not interested. I can have a pretty good guess what your opinion of me is.” She wished I didn’t exist, that’s what her opinion was.
“I should’ve come here a long time ago,” she said.
“I don’t really want to see the woman my dad left my sick mum for.”
“Look...I...” Sharon Miller was lost for words and if I wasn’t in a downward spiral, I would’ve been happy about that, but right now I was just annoyed.
“What do you want?” I asked.
“Your dad’s been happier since you’ve started training with him,” she said, just coming out with it. “He’s been unhappy for a long time.”
I snorted. What, was she afraid he’d leave her too?
“Have you ever been in love Ren?”
I narrowed my eyes.
“Because that’s what happened with your Dad. I didn’t know your mother had cancer. Not until a few years after he left her. We never met...” She hesitated. “I didn’t know he already had a daughter when I fell pregnant. I am sorry for what happened-”
“But you were in love with him,” I interrupted. “Like that’s an excuse.”
“It’s not an excuse. An explanation maybe. People do crazy things when they’re in love.”
Like beating a guy half to death because they looked at me the wrong way? Like murder? Ash was a beast. If that was his way of showing how he felt, then it was a bloody lousy way of doing it. Crazy in love? Unlikely.
Turning to Sharon, I snapped, “You ruined our lives.”
“I can’t change the past, but I can do something about the future.”
I didn’t want their future. I didn’t want to play house with a bunch of backstabbing, jealous bitches. I didn’t want to live under the same roof as Monica Miller and her fancy upper class mother.
“I’ve come to accept Dad as being my father and coach, but I will never see you or your daughter as family. I don’t want to be any part of it.”
Sharon fidgeted, her feelings obviously hurt. Well, as far as I was concerned, she didn’t have the right.
“You’re welcome to come stay with us,” she said after a moment. “You don’t have to stay here anymore.”
“No thanks.”
“Ren...”
“I like it at Beat.” Because I did. Living at Beat was no longer something I felt ashamed of. Sure, everywhere I looked something reminded me of Ash, but this place was mine long before it was ours.
“Look,” I said, trying to remain diplomatic. “I appreciate that you tried, but I’m just not interested.”
Sharon grimaced, but didn’t say anything. There was no way she could’ve thought that coming in here and saying a few things about love would change my mind about her. It was the first time I’d laid eyes on the woman and I could already see where Monica got her everything from. No. Just…no.
Turning, I stalked off, but not before Josie caught my arm.
“Where are you going?” she asked. “You’re almost up.”
“Damn,” I muttered. “I was hoping to make a clean getaway.”
Josie glanced over my shoulder. “Who was that?”
“The woman my Dad ditched my Mum for.”
