Stepbrother Bestie (A Stepbrother Romance Novel) (23 page)

“She just got here,” I answered flatly.
“You haven’t been home.” I wasn’t surprised that my mother noticed this right
away though. After all, she had a knack for finding women’s clothes that didn’t
belong to her. With the company that she kept most of the time, she had to know
whether her boyfriend was sleeping around, or if she was the only woman in his
life.

It was sad that I even knew that about my
mother, but it was a fact that was common knowledge.

Instead of acknowledging my comment, she
looked directly at Valerie. “Why are you here?”

Valerie looked at me as though she was
slightly ashamed, or perhaps just confused, considering the situation that we
found ourselves in and was unable to accurately explain the reason for her
being here.

I stepped in and answered immediately,
“She got kicked out.”

At first, my mother looked surprised, but
then that expression faded and she shrugged before she grumbled, “Paul is really
cleaning house, isn’t he?”

“Paul?” Valerie asked and then looked at
me apologetically as though she had not meant to say anything.
  

I was curious too though. “What are you
talking about? Why would you think that Paul had anything to do with this?”

“Because he was the one who kicked me out
of the house,” my mother answered, as though she was revealing something that I
should have known a long time ago, as though just a casual reminder. Staring at
my blank expression, she must have either realized that I didn’t know for the
first time, or decided that perhaps the way she told me wasn’t the best,
because she moved toward me. “Shawn…Honey, I didn’t leave you. Not like your
father told you I did.”

“What?” I demanded, not sure if I should
believe the woman who had never been there for me throughout my entire life
over the man who had at least raised me and gave me a good life for the
majority of it.

“Yes,” she answered, now slightly upset by
the rush of emotions that seemed to be spiraling back to her. She took it upon
herself to sit down before she continued. “You see, right after you were born,
your father and I were having some marital problems. I had a touch of
post-partum depression and he was using it to his advantage. He was egging me
on, telling me that I was an unfit mother and wife. One night, I was so upset,
I demanded to know what I should do and he told me to leave. Afterward,
whenever I would try to make it back into your life, he would tell me that it
would be worse for you if I just randomly showed up. He told me that you didn’t
need me in your life and for a long time I believed him.” She shrugged. “Then,
you came to live with me.”

Skeptical, I answered harshly, “Yeah and
you never actually even tried to work with me. You just came in and out of my
life randomly, even though I wanted you there.”

Seeming upset by this, my mother’s face
fell before she answered, “I’m sorry, Shawn. I could hardly get past your
father. He was the one who made everything so difficult for us. He was the one
who told me that you didn’t want to see me. He was the one who kept us apart
all of these years.”

At first I didn’t respond. It was a lot to
take in and I was very nervous that she was just trying to make things worse.
After all, she had never even tried before now. She would always cancel and my
father would always be there, telling me how much she loved me and how much she
wished she could be there. I had always thought he was just lying to make me
feel better, but the thought that he was actually the mastermind behind my
ultimately motherless childhood was a far more intimidating option.

When I didn’t respond right away, she
sighed and shrugged. “Look, I know this isn’t a conversation that we should
have in front of anyone and I understand that it is a lot to take in, but I am
telling you the truth when I insist that your father is the reason that I was
such an absent parent. I never wanted to be this way.”

I narrowed my eyes at her before I finally
got up the courage to ask, “Then why are you this way? Why now? After all this
time…After all of this time that I have been living in your house and you were
still absent, why would I believe you?”

My mother was quiet for a moment before
she answered, “Honestly, I was afraid that you would leave. I was terrified to
upset you.” She shrugged. “I’ve had a very long life. I have gotten into some
situations that I am not proud of and I have some habits that I wish I could
denounce, but right now, all I want you to do is to worry about your father and
what he is capable of. He is a master manipulator and I do not want you to get
caught up in it.” She shook her head. “It just isn’t worth it.”

Chapter
37

Valerie

I had watched the scene unfold before me
and I wasn’t quite sure what to make of it. I certainly didn’t want to say
anything, because I knew that it wasn’t my place.

In all of the time that I had known
Shawn’s family, I had never seen his mother act like this. While I couldn’t say
it was a welcomed change, since it muddled everything up and brought more
questions out of the situation than answers, it was something that I just
couldn’t shake. There seemed to be something going on that was too strange to
comprehend.

Much like I am sure Shawn was feeling, I
had the sense that my entire world was being turned upside down and I wasn’t
sure who I could or even really wanted to trust.

As Shawn’s mother walked into her room,
Shawn stared after her with an odd expression. I couldn’t help but wonder if
this was what was supposed to come to pass.

If what Shawn’s mother was saying was
true, then my mother needed to get as far away from Shawn’s father as possible.
Instead of taking care of her, he was tricking and manipulating her; to what
end, I had no idea, but I knew that it couldn’t be good.

After all, if the hurt I saw in Shawn’s
mother’s eyes was genuine, then his father had taken everything from her, every
single time she had ever tried to retrieve it; and now, it seemed like he was
trying to do the same to my mom.

Therefore, when Shawn decided to leave the
room without another word, after his mother did the same, I figured that I
should call my mother and see how quickly she could get over here.

I waited a few minutes until I was alone
and pulled out my cellphone. I called my mother to tell her to be right over
and she said that she would have no problem with that.

The few minutes it took for her to make it
to Shawn’s mother’s house was agonizing. With the new, increasingly plausible
idea that Paul was behind everything bad that was going on inside the family, I
could not help but think that there was something very strange going on. With
that thought came a whole slew of possibilities circulating around inside my
head that made me fearful about what exactly was taking my mother so long.

But I didn’t want to seem paranoid, so I
refrained from calling her phone.

However, finally, I heard a knock on the
door and I ran to answer it. My mother seemed slightly nervous and asked if I
was all right.

I hugged her and told her I was, but that
we really needed to talk.

Once we were settled in the living room, I
told her everything that I knew about Paul and what Shawn’s mom had told us.
Overhearing us, Shawn also came out of wherever he was and seconded my fears. “I
think that it was Paul who messed with your phone and wrote the note to
Valerie.”

My mother stared at him for a long moment
before she shook her head. “I don’t think so…Not Paul.” She breathed in deeply
and let a ragged breath loose before she added, “I just can’t imagine…I know
you’re angry with him, but I just can’t see why he would do that to me…and to
you both.”

I shrugged, trying to be diplomatic in the
idea that both of them were having a discussion that I still had not taken a
side of. True, the more I thought about it and the more that I thought about
the way that Shawn’s mother had acted, the more it seemed as though there could
be a sneaky side to Paul that none of us could have predicted. But then again,
that sounded so absurd.

Paul was such a nice, mild-mannered man,
except when it came to his son and the few times that his ex-wife was
mentioned.

That was when I had seen a whole new side
to him. I had always thought that he was just frustrated with Shawn and angry
with his ex-wife, but right now, I was contemplating the idea that there was
far more to my stepfather than ever met my eye.

My mother still looked skeptical, but in
the silence that ensued between the three of us, she seemed less sure of her
original conviction.

“Well, he was the only one who had access
to my phone…and none of the other contacts were tampered with…” She shrugged.
“I called a few of them, just to make sure and everyone answered.” After a few
more moments of quiet thought, she looked between Shawn. “But why would he do
that? What purpose would it hold?”

Shawn offered a consoling shrug. “If it’s
anything like the reason my mother gave, it’s so that he could take total
control. I don’t know what his end game is, but if any of this is true, and it
is looking like it is, then it can’t be good for any of us.”

My mother sighed and shook her head. “I
just don’t understand. Everything was going so well. We were finally a family
after all these years…why would he take it from me?” She passed her eyes
between Shawn and I before she amended, “From us?”

I didn’t want to believe it either and so,
I carefully placed my hand on my mother’s shoulder, unable to imagine what she
was going through. “Well, do you think that anyone else could have done it?”

At first, she shrugged before she answered
carefully, “I don’t know, but I do think that our next stop should be to ask
Paul a few questions.”

After a few seconds of thought, I nodded. “I
think that is a very good idea.”

Chapter
38

Shawn

“What are they doing here?” my father
asked as he eyed the two of us coming in behind Valerie’s mother. He was watching
the news, his nightly ritual.

“They have come home for a chat,”
Valerie’s mother answered, almost cautiously. Even though she had tried to make
it abundantly clear that this had nothing to do with Paul and that we must be
mistaken, regardless of the mounting evidence against him, there was still a
sense of distrust in her voice.

He spat out a bitter laugh. “Well, I think
that my son said quite enough when he moved out and apparently, Valerie decided
to follow.”

I watched as Valerie’s mother drew in a
long breath and then pulled the note that Valerie had given her for proof. She
brought it over toward him and pushed it into his hand. “Did you do this?” she
asked, obviously trying to keep her composure.

He glared at it for a long time, before
his lips curved into a smile. “No. I didn’t write this. Why?”

“Because I couldn’t imagine who else
would. I didn’t…And no one else lives here.”

Casually, my father shrugged and ushered
toward me before he answered, “Maybe he did it. You never can tell. He’s
sneaky.”

I felt my blood pressure begin to rise as
my fist clenched. I have been taking this kind of abuse from my father for too
long. I certainly wasn’t about to take any more of it. He wasn’t going to make
me out to be the bad guy this time. I was trying to help. I narrowed my eyes at
him and stepped closer, but before I could say anything, Valerie’s mother
answered him.

“He didn’t do it,” she replied solidly.
This made me feel better about the situation. I figured that even if she was
upset with me, she was still willing to help me figure out what was going on
and that was important. She believed me and right now, she seemed to be the
only person on the planet, besides Valerie, who had any kind of faith in me.

I calmed, feeling that at least someone
had my back and sunk back a little to watch the scene unfold.

At this, my father turned off the
television and stood up, now facing the three of us. Valerie had just come
along to bear witness, because she really didn’t want to get involved, but she
did want confirmation that what my mother said was correct.

I wanted the same validation, but I was a
little more willing to participate, if I needed to, in order to have the truth
come out.

However, I did realize that since my
father had cut literally everyone else off, it was ultimately between him and
Valerie’s mother. She needed him to tell her what happened. We tried to
convince her already, but she wanted to hear it for herself.

Therefore, for as much as I could stand, I
wanted to remain in the background. There was no reason for me to butt in when
I didn’t have to. I remained quiet.

“How can you be so sure?” he demanded,
after a condescending laugh.

“Because I know him. And right now, I’m
thinking that I might know him even better than you do,” Valerie’s mother
replied. “But this isn’t about him. This isn’t really even about Valerie.”

“Of course it is!” he hissed bitterly.
“Everything is always about her.”