"I know," she says. "That was the plan all along."
I look to her. She has more surprises for me than I did for her.
"Oh, Magnus was the perfect man for any woman," Mom says out loud, walking to the window to her office overlooking the hustle and bustle of Times Square. "But I never liked men. I never liked the man who was your father. I only married Magnus for his wealth and connections. I honestly don't know why he stayed with me."
And then the part that shocks me the most.
"We never even consummated the marriage. He never once stuck that fabulous cock that he must be pleasing you with inside of me. I never let him," Mom says.
That can't be.
Mom looks at me and I notice something for the first time.
A complete lack of emotion. A lack of morals. Or compassion.
It’s like staring into a soulless pit of darkness.
“Yes, girl, I lied to you the entire time. Magnus never once cheated on me. But you can figure that out by now that something didn’t add up, I’m betting,” she says to me with a cruel smile. “He was a fool to stay with me as long as he did once we married.”
"But why did he marry me?" Mom asks, turning around. "Magnus, for all his good qualities is a simple soul. He fell in love with me."
My heart catches.
"Well at least he thought it was love. It was unrequited lust. He was young and I was scheming. I got him to marry me and I kept him at bay. We were only married for a very short time, as you remember, but he was kind and patient. He didn't want to rush me into the first time we had sex. What he didn't realize was that I was sleeping with Laurel every day and every night," Mom says, telling me with a smile. "He'd leave for the day and Laurel would come over at lunch and we would fuck in our bed. Maybe I wouldn't have done that if I liked men, but I was always about the women."
I sigh deeply. It's frustrating and sad.
But also very, very scared.
This person who is in front of me is finally the true nature of my mother.
There was always flashes of her cold, calculating visage that’s on display for me now. Times that it came out only to be shrouded again as she put on her facade.
But this is the most dangerous form of psychopath. She knows exactly what she’s doing. She has no compunction against right or wrong. She knows on a rational level that she’s in the wrong - but it doesn’t affect her at all.
Perhaps the most dangerous form of evil ever. I need to get the hell out of here.
"At first, Magnus tried to work through it,” Mom recollects to herself as well as me. “He tried to save what he didn't realize was a sham of a marriage," Mom continues. "I think he liked the idea of a family, Penny."
Who wouldn't?
Right, don't answer that.
"But eventually he saw the light and realized he had to get rid of me. Laurel and I always knew it was a gamble and that we couldn't ensnare Magnus forever, but we were surprised by how cleanly and without emotion he was able to move past me," Mom replies. "And how neatly he removed me from the money that Laurel and I were expecting from the divorce settlement."
So that was it. Could this whole thing come down to something so tawdry and evil as trying to siphon money through a divorce?
"I mean, Laurel was supposed to run for Governor with that money," Mom explains matter-of-factly, as if this justifies her behavior.
"But Magnus didn't want to play ball, so we have to destroy him instead," Mom finishes. Then she adds as an aside, "It's too bad, really. But that's the way the world works."
How can one woman be so fucking evil?
Don't answer that. You won't be able to, hun. This is literally the most bored I've ever seen my mother, you know?
Like she doesn't care that she's about to destroy this man's life.
That she's about to destroy the life of my baby by taking away his father;