“No. You’re going to listen. You’re old enough to deal with it, so deal.”
He blinked and nodded, knowing when his mother used that tone he had no choice but to listen. Besides, she held him captive on the dance floor.
She had his ear, and nobody else could hear. “I’m listening.”
“We fell in love, but you know the world I lived in. Your grandparents would never have let me be with him, so we snuck around. Then my father was diagnosed with leukemia. He was terminal and needed someone to take over his hotels. My father and your father’s father had been friendly competitors for years. They agreed to merge their businesses and groom Robert to ultimately run both. Our marriage was a part of that deal.”
Ian winced at the cold bargain two men had struck at the expense of their children. Of course, Robert had benefited greatly from the merger. He’d become a hotel magnate.
“Did you ever think to say no?” Ian asked.
She shook her head, her eyes filled with unshed tears. “I loved my father very much, and he was dying. He didn’t have a son, and I wasn’t the kind of woman to take over and run a business.”
Her heartfelt sigh broke Ian’s heart.
“I had to let Jonathan go.”
Ian swallowed hard. To him, it was unimaginable. Could he let Riley go?
Damn, he was in so deep with her he didn’t know how he’d ever get out.
“Do you know what happened to him?” Ian asked his mother.
“We agreed it was better if we said good-bye for good.”
“So you gave up the man you loved to marry Robert Dare, and he betrayed you.” Ian shook his head, his father’s behavior suddenly that much more reprehensible in light of what his mother had given up.
She sighed. “Your father and I had what I thought was a traditional marriage, much like many in our social circles. He was away often, and if he cheated on me, I didn’t want to know. But when he came to us about Sienna’s illness and revealed a whole other family?” She shook her head. “I think I was numb. I stayed that way for years. The only light, the only feelings I let in were for you and your brothers and sisters.”
“God, Mom.”
“Life isn’t always fair. We both know that. But I got five beautiful children out of the deal. I can live with myself because I was faithful. His behavior is on him. I just wish I could have protected you from the pain. And I hate that you’re still so angry and you expect the world to let you down.”
He tightened his grip on her hand as he led her around the dance floor. “I idolized him. I had him on a pedestal so high…” He shook his head, hating the memories.
“Your father was—is—just a man. And a flawed one, at that. But he loved Savannah, and he hasn’t, to my knowledge, cheated on her. Which tells me we were both at fault for agreeing to a loveless marriage to begin with.”
He blinked. “You made the same commitment. You were already in love with someone else, and you didn’t cheat on him. There’s no way to justify it.”
“I agree. I’m just saying, people have faults. You have to find a way to accept them and move on. You haven’t. And it’s eating away at you every single day.”
He couldn’t argue that point.
“And Sienna’s illness wasn’t something I’d wish on anyone, especially an innocent child,” his mother went on.
Ian nodded. “I haven’t exactly been fair to her. Or the rest of them,” he admitted, embarrassed in light of his mother’s forgiving nature.
“At least you realize it.”
“It’s too late.” Alex had made that clear when none of them had showed up at his invitation.
His mother shook her head. “It’s never too late while you’re all still here. So let the past go,” she said, her words hitting him with deadly accuracy and devastating impact.
Ian inclined his head. He didn’t know if he could, but with everything his mother revealed, and for all she’d given up, he promised himself that, for her sake,
he’d try.
* * *