Page 196 of Damaged Mogul
Several beats pass.
I don’t rush him.
“It took Sara a long time to calm Mom down. When our mother wasn’t as frantic, she told her to drive to her place and stay the rest of the weekend.” He pauses. “My sister lives in Rancho Palos Verdes?—”
“Where’s that?”
“Sara needs to live right by the ocean. It’s in her DNA, which is why she lives in a coastal city atop the bluffs of the Palos Verdes Peninsula. It’s located an hour away withouttraffic from Brentwood—where Mom lived. Since this is LA, there’s no such thing as notraffic.”
“Traffic must’ve been brutal on a Saturday night.”
“It was,” he says. “Mom called Sara at eight p.m., so she figured it would be a solid ninety minutes before she got to her place. By eleven p.m., Sara was getting worried. She texted Mom to find out if she was close. No answer. Her phone rang, but it wasn’t our mother. It was Judson. The police had called him to inform him Mom had been in a fatal accident.”
“Dear God.” Tears prickle my eyes.
“Mom was trying to change lanes on the freeway, probably to exit, when she got hit from the back, full force by a thief who was trying to evade the police in a stolen car. From the footage, Mom was trapped in a horrific scene right out of the showCops.” He takes a deep breath. “She lost control of her vehicle and veered into the path of a cargo truck. She had zero chance of survival. Mom died on impact.”
His revelation slays me, his pain becoming mine.
I close my eyes, as tears roll down my cheeks.
Gage wipes them with his thumb.
When I open my eyes, he’s crying.
Not giving a fuck who’s around us, I jump into his arms. He embraces me close to his body, his chest heaving.
There’s no comparison in size.
I want to hold and protect this strong man who’s been hurting for too long.
I hug the hell out of him for several breaths before I’m willing to break the embrace. When I do, he rummages through the bags for some paper napkins to wipe his face before handing me a wad of them.
I’m crying so much, I need a towel, but this will have to do.
“And you were in Australia when all this happened?” My voice cracks when I manage to speak. “You were so far way.”
“Yes. I was oblivious on the other side of the planet. Withmy heart broken into a million pieces, I managed to get myself back to LA.”
“Did you confront Judson and Hartley?”
He shakes his head. “I couldn’t deal with them.”
“Was Judson at the funeral?”
“We made it clear he wasn’t welcome.”
“Oh, wow.”
“It was either that or he would’ve ended up six feet under, and I would’ve ended up wearing an orange jumpsuit for the rest of my life.”
“I understand.”
“It took me a week after the funeral to confront Judson. I showed up at my mom’s house with my lawyer and the police?—”
“They were going to arrest Judson for your mom’s death? I thought she was killed by a thief who was trying to evade the police?”
“No, Judson was squatting.”
