Page 104 of Things We Fake
“I suppose we could do a vineyard theme,” she said. “Oh, and floral arrangements. I know a woman in Warwick who does exquisite bouquets.”
Becky gasped. “Oh my God, this is so exciting!”
My mother was just warming up. She had barely touched her food. All of her attention was focused on Cam and me.
“What about long-term plans?” she asked. “I assume you’ve discussed them.”
I stopped breathing, going into deer-in-headlights mode.
Cam’s jaw tightened. I could see it in the way his thumb tapped nervously against the stem of his glass. Even Mr. Unshakable was cracking a little under pressure.
“Of course, we have,” I said lightly.
Cam reached for my hand under the table, squeezing it reassuringly. “We’re taking it one step at a time, but we both want the same things.”
My mother arched her eyebrows, unsatisfied with this corporate response. “And what are those things?”
I opened my mouth, but before I could craft Cam’s answer into a reply that would shut my mom up, my father interrupted.
“Mybambinais a career woman,” he said. “She loves her job. That’s important.”
There was something in his voice, something protective that made me glance at him in surprise. He knew me. He knew my independence was my lifeline. God, I wanted to go to him and let him wrap me into a bear hug. He was the only one in my family who understood me and cared about my feelings, my wants, and my needs.
Beside me, Cam nodded. “I wouldn’t dream of standing in the way of that.”
My mother, ever the perfectionist, pursed her lips. “But you do want children?”
“Mother.” I nearly dropped my fork in annoyance.
Helen—God bless her—stepped in with practiced ease. “Elaine, I think that’s a conversation for them to have in their own time.”
My mother gave her a tight-lipped smile. “Of course.”
I forced a sip of wine down my throat, praying this interrogation would end soon.
Paul raised a brow. “Sue, are you okay?”
I was anything but okay. The walls were closing in on me—the wedding, the planning, the lies… This was just the beginning. I had faked this engagement for my mother to back off and let me be, but I realized that after tonight she would push her way into my life harder than ever. There was no way out. I was trapped in the web of deception I had created to escape.
Just as I was trying to swallow the lump in my throat, my mother smiled at me, full of warmth and maternal pride.
“Thank God for Cam, Susanne. I have to admit, I was beginning to worry. I wasn’t sure you’d ever find someone—let alone a man like him. After a certain age, one can’t hope for much.”
Silence descended over the room. The impact of her words landed squarely in my chest.
There it was. The thing I had spent my entire life trying to ignore. The unspoken fear I’d carried since I first realized I didn’t fit the mold she had so carefully shaped for me.
I couldn’t even hear the band anymore because of the sharp roaring in my ears.
Cam reached for my hand, at the same time he opened his mouth to say something, but it was too late. I snapped.
I pushed my chair back, stood up, and threw my napkin on the table. Then I looked my mother dead in the eyes.
“You were right, mother. I didn’t find a man. My engagement with Cam isn’t real. None of this is real.”
Everyone gasped, but my eyes were locked onto my mother’s face, which was becoming paler by the second. I looked into the dark pools that were her eyes, eyes I had loved and feared for most of my life, and faced them straight on.
I took off the engagement ring and set it on the table.
