She glances away unable to look me in the eye. “A while.”
“That’s not an answer Mom. How long?”
“Five years.” she whispers, turning back to face me.
I glare at her. “Five years? You made out as though Dad was the one that ended your marriage. You played the innocent victim, when you were the one that was cheating.” Disgust laces each and every word I say.
“No, your father was an asshole. He didn’t care about me, he drove me into Martin’s arms.”
“Into the arms of his son?”
Her eyes flash with anger. “I love him.”
I laugh. “You’ve given him everything he could have needed to bring me down. Tell me something, who shot you?”
She narrows her eyes at me. “Martin did.”
“So you love him but he obviously doesn’t love you.” Her eyes are almost slits now. “You don’t shoot the woman you love.”
“If he wanted to kill me, he could have done it.”
I ignore her stupid fucking comment. “You went to him willingly today?”
“Yes,” she bites out.
“Where is he now?” She glances away, fuck, she knows exactly where he is. “Mom, what the fuck is wrong with you? He’s hurt Mia, he fucking raped her and you’re helping him? You’re still fucking him?” I’m utterly disgusted, this is not the woman that raised me.
“He said he didn’t, that it wasn’t him.”
“Are you for fucking real? Mom, the asshole gave her a gift when he found out she was pregnant. He thought my son was his.” I walk up to her. “What the fuck happened to you? My mom would never allow someone to manipulate her the way he is doing.”
She looks me dead in the eye. “Your father broke me.”
“Bullshit,” I fire back. “You gave Dad as good as you got. Yes, he was an asshole and he did things he shouldn’t have, but you never once backed down. If it were dad doing this, there’s no way you’d be sticking up for him the way you are for Martin.”
Her lip trembles, I’ve hit a nerve. “What do you want, Hudson?”
I glance at David, he’s shaking his head, when I turn to Aaron he looks as though he wants to kill her. “Mom, take a look around this room.” She lifts her head and looks at them both. “Martin has killed innocent women, he has killed my men, he burned Aaron. You sit there and act as though Martin is a fucking saint. You’re crazy.”
“You want me to give him up so that you can kill him.”
“It’s either kill him or him kill us. So yeah, when I get my hands on him I’m going to kill him, I’m going to make sure that he’s out of our lives forever. So that he won’t be able to hurt my child.”
“He’s at….”
She’s cut off with my phone beeping like crazy. My blood runs cold. That beep tells me that someone’s at my house. Taking my cell out of my pocket, I tap on the alarm. It instantly brings up footage from my house. My feet are moving as I see Coby lying on the ground outside the house. Fuck. Swiping to the right, it changes to the feed inside of the house. Martin has his gun pointed at Dad.
Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!
Where’s Mia?
Fifteen
Mia
“You’ve never told me what your favorite memory was.” I pull the blanket up over my legs and settle in to hear his story. He always has a story to tell me, something that’s bound to make me smile.
His eyes light up, “The day we got married. Your mom looked amazing. She shone with happiness. While we married alone, you and Hudson weren’t far from our thoughts. She was a true vision as she walked down the aisle toward me. I knew in that moment that I was going to spend the rest of my life with her.”
“I saw the pictures, she really looked amazing. I don’t think I ever saw her as happy as those few weeks I spent with the two of you.” Even when she felt as though she was losing me, she was still happy with Harrison.
“Your mom wanted the best for you and she knew you were happy with Hudson, that he was the man to make you happy and love you like no other. She also knew that being with him would put you in grave danger, and it has.” He reaches for his bottle of beer, he brings it to his lips and takes a long sip. “But what your mom soon realized once we got you back was it wasn’t Hudson that put you in that danger, it was me. Who I am, what I did. She understood that no matter what happened, Hudson would do anything in his power to ensure your safety. It was then she realized that she was only hurting herself by trying to separate the two of you.”
“By then it was too late.”
He nods. “Yes, she never got to talk to you properly, but you heard her words and I know that they meant a lot to you. That would have been her biggest regret not apologizing to you both.”
“I knew she loved me, I just couldn’t understand the hatred.”
His eyes fill with sadness “It wasn’t hatred, it was confusion and jealousy. She couldn’t understand why you wouldn’t listen to her. You had grown up so much and she was jealous that you no longer needed her. It hurt her that she had lost so much time with you.”
I blink back my tears, “We both messed up. I have so many regrets when it comes to her and our relationship.”
“We all do, Mia, it’s what happens when someone is taken from us too early. We look back on things and see what we should have done differently. We use those mistakes to ensure we never make them with another loved one.” I guess that’s why he’s so determined to make amends with Hudson.
“What do you think is happening with Marline?” I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it since Hudson’s left.
Harrison’s jaw clenches. “If it were up to me, I’d have her killed.” I suck in a sharp breath, he wouldn’t really kill his mom, would he? “But it’s not, it’s up to Hudson. There’s no way he’d do that to her. He’ll buy her stupid sob story.”
I knew that they hated each other, but his attitude is so cold toward her. “Don’t you believe that she was led on? Used to gain information?”
He laughs. “Marline led on? Used? No, Mia, I don’t believe it. Marline is the manipulator, she can turn every single situation around so that she looks like a victim. I laid my hands on her in anger twice. It was wrong and it was the reason why I left her, not your mom, but because together we were toxic.”
“That’s exactly how Hudson described your marriage.”
His smile is a sad one, he closes his eyes as if he’s in pain. “No child should ever see their parents as toxic. Marline turned my boy against me from a young age, I should have nipped that shit in the bud but I didn’t and that’s on me. She learned how to manipulate people from the get-go and hasn’t stopped.”
I’m shocked, Marline doesn’t come across that way.
“Mia, don’t be surprised if she’s been pulling his strings,” Harrison tells me, his eyes dark with rage.
I gasp, there’s absolutely no way that Hudson’s mom would ever hurt him like that. She knows everything that Hudson’s been through. “She wouldn’t do that to Hudson.”