Best I Ever Had

She goes on to say, “He will come around. I promise you.” Those Haywoods love to make promises. They’re just words to them with no meaning.

“In the meantime?” Camille asks.

“In the meantime, we continue to encourage him. It’s been a rough week. For all of us. He needs time to heal, but we’ll get through this as a family.” Get through what? They won.

Oh, his heartbreak?

Is it wrong to hope?

The sound of the heels clicking across the floors has me standing and grasping my hands in front of me nervously. I want to see him, not them. I have nothing to say to either of them ever again.

The topic of their conversation turns into gardening advice as they round the corner. His mother says, “You must plant that double heirloom in your garden, Camille. It has the most fragrant—” Their eyes meet mine at the same time.

Camille gasps, so I feel like I’m one-love at this stage in the match. Stopped and staring at me with mouths gaping open, his mother yanks on the hem of her jacket and stands up straighter. “What are you doing here? Who let you in?”

I look behind them, but I haven’t seen him since he left to supposedly tell them of my arrival. “Some man did. I’m here to see Cooper.”

“Well, you can’t,” she snaps. “He’s resting.”

“I can wait. I drove all this—”

“I don’t care how far you drove. We’re not allowing any visitors.” Camille is smart enough to make an exit.

I ask, “You’re not allowing?”

“You’re not allowed. He doesn’t want to see you.” She raises her chin, her snobbish air infiltrating the foyer and filling it with tension. “I don’t blame him. He now understands the kind of person in which he commingled.” His mom goes quiet, her lips as terse as her words.

“Commingled? Like mingling?” I ask stupidly when I know I shouldn’t have. It just gives her the advantage.

“No, dear,” she says condescendingly. “The legal term used in regard to money.” She leans back and peeks out the window. “Have you been enjoying his car?”

Everything comes down to money with these people. “I’d rather have him.”

“I’m sure you would, but as you’ll not be getting him, maybe we can cut a deal for the vehicle. How about you hold it in exchange for never contacting my son again.”

Stunned that anyone even thinks to make an offer like that . . . she’s pure evil.

I start for the stairs, refusing to sit here and make a deal with the devil herself as she insults me every chance she gets. “Ms. Salenger?” I keep walking. I’ll find his room in this mansion somehow. She says, “If you take one more step, Story, I’ll have you arrested.”

I stop because I believe her. What was I thinking? How did I imagine this playing out? Not going to jail would be a good start.

My head catches up to the moment, and swirls, making me feel light-headed. I’m quick to grab the railing, worried I’ll take a fall if I don’t. I rub my temple in an attempt to assuage the rush that keeps me off-balance and try to make this nightmare go away. But when I open my eyes, I’m still in the middle of it.

I turn back to his mother, and our eyes lock together. For a moment, I believe I see sympathy softening the faint lines beside her eyes and the darkness that hovers in her brow. It disappears just as my better senses return. I reply, “Cooper and I had become one. Commingling is when there’s a breach of trust. That wasn’t the case with us.”

“Are you sure?”

I’m sensing there’s a bigger picture I’m not privy to. I can only imagine the brainwashing they’ve performed this week with me not around. The file . . . I can assume it was provided by them since it was first seen in Camille’s hand. They orchestrated everything. Cooper set it in motion, but they took advantage of the crisis. “Despite what you think you know, Cooper loves me.” I know that. He does. We just aren’t in a place to be like we were once before. “No matter how hard you try to deny it, we will always feel that love inside, even if we’re not together.”

The last thing I want is an arrest record, so feeling steady on my feet again, I carefully walk down the stairs.

When I reach the tiled floor, she’s there to see me out. “I’m sorry you’re disappointed. I imagine it’s a great loss to lose Cooper. But did you really think it would work out?” She raises a finely plucked brow. “What could you possibly have in common? You, the girl from the wrong side of town with no mother to speak of and no clue who your father is. You’ve done better than expected by all standards of society. You’ll continue that journey without my son because he deserves someone with the same pedigree standing by his side.”