“I think it’s delicious.” I shrugged and took a huge bite, visibly savoring it. “Sean’s the best cook I know.”
That had the desired effect of making her wince. “How can you say that? When your own mother is sitting right across you?”
“Fine, if it’s all bothering you so much, you can just take over the kitchen while you’re here and I’ll send Sean on a paid vacation. He deserves it.”
She gasped. “What is wrong with you, Zay? Why do you insist of treating the help as though they are equals?”
“Because they are,” I snapped. “I have my job of running the bank and Sean has his of cooking for us. I don’t see how one is any less than the other.”
“You know, your father used to have the same attitude and that was his eventual downfall—”
“Right, he got a stroke because he was too nice.” I rolled my eyes.
“He was careless and trusting of everybody. It made him weak.”
“He wasn’t very trusting of you, now was he?” I spat.
Her face went completely red. We had never really discussed what had happened between her and my dad. After I had found out, I’d simply started distancing myself from her, without any kind of confrontation. She must have figured it out, in any case, but it was something neither of us ever brought up. The fact that I had just said that was akin to slapping her across the face. Her eyes were burning with tears and she was completely speechless for a long time.
She eventually said, “You don’t know anything about what was between your father and me.”
“I know enough. I know why you are not in his will and why you guys were having trouble before he passed away. I know what you did.”
She began to cry, and it gave me an odd sort of sinister pleasure. “It’s not like that. I made some mistakes, and I am still paying for it.”
“Hardly,” I scoffed. “I have provided you with everything you need. You’re still living on dad’s money, and a pretty damn leisurely life at that, I might add.”
Wiping her eyes with the napkin, she added, “There are other ways to pay for your mistakes than financially. Not a day goes by when I don’t regret my actions and wrongdoings to your father. He was an incredible man and deserved better. I realize this now.”
“Well too bad, it’s about six years too late. Longer, but God knows by how much. I bet you were never faithful to him.”
Another burst of tears followed. “That isn’t true, Zay. I cared about your father very deeply, and loved him a lot more than you’ll ever realize. But I was lonely. His life was completely devoted to working, and I’d barely see him most days. I felt like I had married an empty bed. That was no excuse at all, but at the time, I couldn’t think clearly. A lonely woman is capable of stuff like this.”
“I’m aware of that,” I snorted.
“Which is why you need to give Gina another chance.”
“Here we go again.” I rolled my eyes.
“I invited her to come back here and live with us,” she said without looking me in the eye.
“What the fuck did you do that for? This is my house and you don’t get to make these calls in my house.”
“Oh alright then, I’ll tell her not to come if that makes you feel better. You haven’t seen my pills by any chance, have you?”
Holy shit. Had she just threatened another suicide attempt? I couldn’t take it anymore, I was trapped. A part of me wanted to let her do whatever she wanted. But the other part of me just could not bear the thought of losing another parent, as manipulative and cunning as she was. She probably would never go through with it anywa
y, but that was the power this woman held over me. Logically, I knew she wouldn’t, yet her threats were enough to raise concern and bend me to her will.
I considered the idea of Gina moving back here. It couldn’t really be that bad. I had plenty of spare bedrooms in the house, she could pick the one she liked, farthest away from mine, and it would have the added benefit of keeping my mother entertained. They could spend all their time with each other and I could spend all my time at the office, with Aria.
The thought of Aria made me feel uncomfortable. She was already upset with me and it would take a lot for me to get out of this situation alone, I didn’t doubt it. But I didn’t even want to think of her reaction when she found out about Gina. I wondered what would be the best way to explain it to her, and whether she would even give me a chance to explain. From the outside it must look bad; I was technically still married, and trying to fake an attempt of reconciliation with my wife to keep my mother from offing herself, yet I had made her sign a contract to be my girlfriend and then slept with her. And so many women before her that she knew of. She would think I was a complete asshole, if she didn’t already. Aria could never know about any of this, under any circumstances.
“Okay, mother, Gina can move back into the house. But she’ll have to stay out of my bedroom.”
She flashed a smirk of victory. “For now, that sounds like a good idea. She’ll have to eventually move into your room, you know. But we will wait until you guys have better results from couples therapy. That’s fair enough.”
What part of this was fair? I didn’t love Gina, I never would. She was wasting my time and her time and quite frankly, setting the woman up for quite a bit of disappointment and hurt feelings. But until I figured out a better way to stop the suicide threats, I’d just have to go along with it.