Page 185 of As They Are
“Shit,” I muttered.
“What?” Wren asked as she walked up to me. The second she saw the woman, her whole body tensed.
“Please tell me that’s not your mother.”
Wren took in every inch of the woman. “That’s exactly who it is.” All of the excitement was gone from her face and her cheeks were turning a deep red. “I can’t ... I never thought I’d see her again. Why is she here? Is it for the show?”
“This might be the finale. Something to get people talking.”
“No,” she said. “No,they wouldn’t.”
The disbelief in her only added to my anger. This was her day to celebrate, to feel nothing but happiness after all the work she’d put into this.
“I think they would.” My voice was low.
“I can’t. I need tothink.I need to get out of here.”
“Go to the quiet rooms. Lock the door.”
She nodded before darting off. I watched her go, wondering if I should follow. Noises were blending together. I was angrier than I had been in a long time. In any other situation, I would have cooled off. Walked away and thought it through.
But they were actively hurting Wren.That was just unacceptable.
I hadn’t been in town yet when Cain had let his anger get the best of him, but when people told me about it, I had always wondered what could make someone lose their cool in such a way.
Now I knew.
“What the hell?” I asked as I stormed out of the library. “Her mother, really?”
A hand landed on my shoulder. “Come on, man. It’s just?—”
“Don’t touch me, Jude.” My voice was low and deeper than I’d usually let myself be. “This is what you people do, huh? Whatever’s good for the cameras? If you knew a single thing about her, you’d know this is fucking unacceptable.”
All the voices quieted down. In the back of my mind, I knew that I shouldn’t do this so publicly. I didn’t need the town to see me like this.
Butfuckanything I was afraid of. Wren had run like her life depended on it. Whatever happened, I would deal with it later.
Madison rolled her eyes, unfazed. “We needed a good finale. When I did research on Wren, I saw that she never talked about her mother. What better way to end a show than to have Jude find her?”
Judewas going to take the credit for this? “What, so you could paint him as a caring boyfriend when he’s never cared about her at all?”
“Hey, I care—” he tried to interject.
“What’s her favorite color then?” I asked.
His face went blank.
“I thought so,” I muttered. “You never cared to knowshitabout her. You never cared about anything. None of you have! Despite the fact that she worked herassoff, you’d make her face the woman who left her.”
“That’s an interesting way to refer to me,” a smooth voice said. “But I suppose I can’t complain too much. You seem to care about her very much. It’s ... interesting.”
I slowly turned. She sounded like Wren but ... wrong. Like she was colder. “It’s easy to.”
I didn’t have anything to say to the woman who’d left her. I didn’t care about her excuses or whatever she’d used to defend herself.
She gave me none of that. “You’re not what I imagined for her.”
“You’d have to know her to have a good idea of what’s good for her.”
