Jilted (34 page)

Ashley glared at his mother. He shouldn’t have expected anything more from her. All his life she’d been a self-centered attention hungry monster. He balled his fists at his sides, willing himself not to do bodily harm to this woman. “So this appointment was more important to you than your daughter who could have died?”

“By her own hand. Do you realize how embarrassing that would be for me to explain at the club? That girl continues to disappoint.”

“Maybe she’s a disappointment because she had a poor excuse for a mother like you.”

“You know, I’ve had enough of your talking back to me. I don’t want to hear from or see you until you can learn a little respect. Your father would be turning in his grave if he knew how shamefully you talk to me. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go see Colleen and ask her what the hell she was thinking.”

That was it. He’d had enough. “Don’t take another step,” Ashley growled.

Katherine kept walking.

“I said don’t take another step, Rhonda!”

His mother halted. She pivoted around. Her face was as pale as a sheet. “Excuse me?”

“You heard me. That is your name, isn’t it? Or should I call you Rhonda Sue? As in Rhonda Sue Beckett, daughter of Billy Rae and Daisy Beckett. You know what’s funny, Mother? I always thought my grandparents were dead because that’s what you told us. Remember when I was in middle school and I had to do a family genealogy project? It was odd that the only daughter of Stephen and Georgina Barnes of the Massachusetts Barnes died in the fire with them. Katherine Barnes died an infant. So it’s odd this same dead infant would grow up to marry my father almost 40 years ago. ”

His mother’s face was bright red and she began to tremble. “Shut up,” she said through clenched teeth.

“Or what? There’s absolutely nothing you can do to me that you haven’t already done, Rhonda. But there’s plenty I can do to you, like maybe tell one of your country club cronies that you stole a dead baby’s identity and pretended to be from this wealthy family when in truth, you’re from some poor mining town in Kentucky. Good job getting rid of the southern accent, by the way. No one would suspect that you came from a broken home where your father was in and out of jail for a laundry list of crimes. I think armed robbery and assault with a firearm were among them. You know what I find funny? You objected to the fact that Skylar’s father is in prison, when your own father was no stranger to a jail cell.”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about. These are all lies and no one would believe you.”

“Maybe not, but they might believe my grandmother Daisy, who’s very much still alive. She’s also no stranger to the wrong side of the law. According to my sources, she just got out of prison for running a meth lab. Wow. That would be really embarrassing if I invited her to a country club event. I’m sure she’d have lots of tales to tell about a young Rhonda who apparently worked as a stripper under the name of Candy Caine. But sweet Rhonda packed up and left town just before her 21st birthday and hasn’t been heard from since. You see Mother, after what you did, I realized that you’d never change so I had to do something. But I pondered over what I could do to hurt someone who doesn’t have a heart? And then I remembered that project I did and thought I’d hire someone to look into that. Imagine my surprise when I got the report back and discovered my mother, the dame of society, a woman who cares more about her social standing and appearance than her own family, was the very same poor white trash you took glee in mocking. Maybe it’s time I got to know my grandmother and invite her up for a visit. I think it’s time for a little family reunion. We can throw a dinner at the country club.”

His mother glared at him. “You wouldn’t dare. What would your father say? He wouldn’t want you to embarrass the family name like this.”

Angered by her constantly evoking his father’s death Ashley got in his mother’s face until they were nose to nose. “You will not bring my father into this again. You didn’t even love him. You used him and cheated on him until he couldn’t take it anymore. He killed himself because of you!”

Katherine pushed him away. “It was an accident. You’re not going to lay that on my doorstep.”

“That’s right,” he scoffed, “because nothing is ever your fault: the affairs, the mental and verbal abuse, or the neglect of your children.”

“I did the best that I could. You have no complaints. Look at you, you’re successful with plenty of money and you come from a family with a good name. I don’t think I did too bad a job of raising you.”

“You mean my nannies raised me. You were too busy being Queen Bee at the country club or sleeping with other women’s husbands. I guess it’s true what they say, you can take the tramp out of the hovel, but you can’t take the hovel out of the tramp.”

“How dare you!” She smacked him across the face. Hard.

Ashley smirked. “That’s the last time you ever get to do that to me. Do you understand, Rhonda?”

She glared at him. “Don’t call me by that name.”

“But it is your name. Your legal name which you never changed. You’ve been living as someone else all these years, so do you know what that means, Mother?”

“I’ll sure you’ll tell me,” she snarled, her face twisting into something ugly. He didn’t think it was possible for her face to move so much considering all of the injections she’d had.

“It means that any legal documents you signed as Katherine Barnes, or Hollingsworth for that matter, are null and void. And I’m sure you’ve signed plenty, like your marriage license for instance. And let’s not forget the will. What if the executor found out that you’re a fraud? The will could be contested.”

“You’re the executor.”

He smiled. “I am aren’t I? And it would be my absolute pleasure to strip you of everything you value. The house, the cars, the money and your reputation. You’ll be the same piece of trash you were before you duped my father into marrying you.”

She paled. “You wouldn’t. I’m your mother!”

“And a lousy one at that.”

“I’ll hire a lawyer. I’ll talk to William.”

“You could, but with what money? I could tie things up in court so much so that you won’t see a dime. Or I could also overlook your error in judgement.”

“What do you want from me?”

“Nothing. Not a damn thing, because anything from you is poison. But for some reason, my brother and sister still actually care about you. So you’re going to go inside and tell Colleen that you wish her a speedy recovery. You won’t say anything disparaging to her and then you say goodbye. I’m going to see to it that they move out of the house and away from your influence. You will not put either one of them down again. Do you understand me?”

“I don’t see—”

“I said do you understand!”

“Yes. I understand,” she sniffed.

“Good. Now that we understand each other I want you to know that what you tried to do to me and Skylar may have worked temporarily but I will win her back and I will have my family. And I had better not hear you say one unkind word about Skylar or my children or I will follow through on every promise I made. If you see us on the street, turn and go the other way. When you need someone’s help, don’t call me because I’m all out of fucks to give.”

“So you’re doing this all because of that ni— that
woman
? Disgusting.”

That was it! “You just couldn’t help yourself, could you? No matter what I say or do you’ll always be a nasty, bitter, miserable battle-axe. The only thing that’s saving you right now from not getting punched in the mouth is that you’re a woman. If you ever even form that word, your life will change faster than your head can spin. As a matter of fact…I’m being far too generous. You robbed me of happiness for five years so I think it’s time for me to return the favor. I want you to move far away. Don’t come back. You can say goodbye to the twins but pack your shit and leave the state. I don’t care where you go or who you go to as long as you leave.” He knew the one thing that would hurt his mother more than anything was losing her social status. She’d enjoyed terrorizing the women in her circle for years and being the reigning leader in upper crust society that to lose that was worse than death for her.

“But….what will I do for money?”

“Whatever my father left you is yours to keep, as long as you leave within two weeks.”

“But what will I tell my friends at the country club? The committees I chair?”

“I don’t give a shit.”

“But…I only have a couple million left in the bank. That’s not enough to start over with.”

“Again, Rhonda. Not my problem. I just want you to know that I will be happy with my family despite of you. And if I never see you again it will be too soon. And when you die, I’m going to break open a bottle of champagne and celebrate. Goodbye.”

Ashley turned his back on her without waiting for a response and walked away. He released a big sigh of relief because that chapter was finally closed.

Now it was time to write a new one. With Skylar and the triplets.

<><><><><>

It was a huge relief to Skylar that Brady Solomon had been killed. Everything had gone back to normal. She was back in her office and her regular routine had fallen back into place. The only difference was that Ashley now called every night to wish the kids goodnight. He had even come by to dinner one night. To Skylar’s surprise her mother had actually been warm toward him. Even Izzy had seemed to relax around Ashley.

Skylar was slightly annoyed that he didn’t bring up their weekend visitation arrangements; after all he did mention that it would only take him a week to get his house together. Beyond that one visit and the calls to the kids she hadn’t heard from him otherwise. She wasn’t sure why she felt conflicted about that. Part of her was glad that he was keeping his distance but then another half of her was disappointed. She wasn’t supposed to miss him like this but those two days he’d stayed with them it felt nice, even though she’d never admit it out loud to anyone else.

That was two weeks ago and she couldn’t shake off this sadness that seemed to weigh on her heart. She dared not attribute it to Ashley. That line of thinking was far too dangerous.

After a long day in court, Skylar wanted nothing more than to take a long hot bath and curl up with a good book. Thankfully it was Friday so once the kids were in bed, she intended to do just that. After picking the kids up from school, she stopped at a local Italian restaurant to get a couple of pizzas for dinner. The triplets were chattering away and Skylar tried her best to muster up enthusiasm for the conversation, but after a while even they could sense something was the matter so they quieted down.

When they arrived home, the kids rushed into the house. “You guys put your book bags where they belong and wash your hands for dinner.”

Izzy appeared and took the pizza out of Skylar’s hand. “Thanks sis, I’ll take it from here.”

Skylar raised a brow. “Hello to you too. Exactly what will you take from here?”

“I’m going to watch the kids tonight.”

“You are?”

“You deserve a break.”

“Well, thanks.”

“Mom will be ready in a second.”

“Izzy, you’re speaking in riddles. What will Mom be ready for?”

Just then Priscilla appeared. “Don’t take your jacket off honey. Let’s go.”

“Go where?” Skylar asked. “I just got here.”

“I know and now we’re going out again.”

Skylar pouted. It didn’t seem like she’d get to that hot bath any time soon. “I wasn’t planning on going anywhere tonight, Mom, and I’m really tired.”

“Indulge an old lady who wants to spend some quality time with her daughter.”

“Mom’s you’re not even 50 yet, cut that out.”

“Okay. Would you just do this favor for me and come for a drive?”

“Can I grab a slice of pizza first?”

“We can get something while we’re out, let’s go.”

Skylar wasn’t sure why her mother was so insistent but she saw no point in arguing. “Okay, but you’re driving.”

“Of course. Let’s go.”

When she got into her mother’s car and they pulled off it occurred to Skylar that she didn’t know where they were going. Her mother plugged in the address to their destination in her GPS but it still gave Skylar no indication where they’d end up.
“So where is this place that you insist on going tonight?”

“Oh, I thought we’d just go for a drive,” Priscilla said mysteriously. She flipped on the radio to a top 40 station.

“If we’re just going for a drive, why did you punch a specific address into your GPS?”

“There’s a place I wanted to drive by, but other than that I just wanted to have a chat with my daughter. Is that okay with you?”

Skylar sighed, slouching in her seat. Yep, no hot bath and book for her tonight. “Sure Mom. What did you want to talk about?”

“I noticed you’ve been out of sorts lately and thought you might want to talk about it.”

“Out of sorts? What do you mean?”

“Skylar, let’s not pretend. You’ve been moping around the house for the past couple weeks. And when the kids are talking you answer them but they don’t have your full attention. I noticed how absentminded you’ve been and this morning, you poured orange juice into the kids’ cereal bowls. It seems like you’ve just been going through the motions. Dare I ask if it has anything to do with Ashley?”

Her mother was too perceptive for her own good but Skylar refused to admit it. “I think you’re imagining things.”

“Oh, so I don’t imagine that you perk up every night when Ashley calls? Admit it, you miss him.”

“The kids miss him. They liked having him around.”

“Skylar, I’m your mother and I know you. You’re not fooling anyone but yourself, but I suspect that even you know that’s not true. Why is it so hard to admit that you still have feelings for him?”

Had she known that her mother wanted to go for a drive just to talk about Ashley; Skylar would have dug her heels in and stayed home. “Mom, I don’t want to talk about Ashley.”

“Why not? He is after all going to be a big part in the kids’ lives.”

Skylar snorted. “Yeah, and since I agreed that he could have them every other weekend, he’s made no attempt to set anything up. But then again, his track record for making lifetime commitments isn’t that great.”