The nurse who showed me into my dad’s room is typing on one of the computers at the nurses’ station. “Excuse me, ma’am.” I get her attention. I know she told me her name, and while I’m normally great at remembering them, I have no idea what it is. “This woman is not to be alone with my father.”
I don’t turn to look at my mom, but I hear her quick inhale of breath and I can imagine what she looks like. The nurse in front of me, however, looks like I’ve put her in a terribly uncomfortable situation. Well, join the club, lady.
“I’m sorry, Miss Sterling,” she says to me, but her eyes flicker between me and my mom. “But Mrs. Sterling is on your father’s insurance and listed as his wife. We can’t ban her.”
If it wasn’t for the woman a little bit younger than me with a baby bump and a tearstained face passing us, I might’ve lost my cool. But I keep it together. Getting kicked out for attacking my mom won’t do anyone any good. So instead, I take a deep breath and make a mental note to schedule an emergency session with a therapist.
“It’s okay,” my mom, forever the actress, says to the nurse. “I’ll let my daughter have some alone time with her dad and be back later.”
“I’ll walk you out then,” I say through gritted teeth.
It takes exactly thirty-seven steps to reach the hallway.
“You are unbelievable!” I shout, unable to hold back any longer. “I haven’t so much as gotten a Christmas text from you in fifteen years and you want to show up now? Now with this bullshit? What is wrong with you?”
“Well what did you suppose I would do when the hospital called me and told me they couldn’t get in touch with you? Huh? Do you propose I just let him lie there all alone while you’re off doing god knows what?” She steps forward and wraps her bony, manicured finger around her purse strap, pulling it off my shoulder. “Not everything is about you, Brynn. You’d do well to learn that.”
“How could it be when literally everything is about you?” I’m still yelling and I know I need to stop, but she’s brought forth a lifetime of resentment and anger, and I’m not sure I can push it back down.
“You have no idea what happened all of those years ago, and don’t you dare start acting like you do.” She snarls, and looking at her face is like looking in a mirror. And for some reason, the resentment I feel is reflecting back at me.
“How could I know? You left and never looked back! I was fifteen and you abandoned me!” I’m only a few inches taller than her, but it might as well be twenty with how I’m towering over her.
Her face turns bright red, and I know I’ve hit the hot button. “You never loved me like you loved your father,” she screams in my face. “You abandoned me first!”
She couldn’t have struck me harder if she physically slapped me.
I rake my chewed-down fingernails over my face and cover my mouth with both hands, trying to come up with words . . . any words at all. But only three come to mind. “Are you insane?!”
“No, you—” she starts but is immediately cut off.
“What in the world is going on?” Poppy appears between me and my mom.
Maxwell doesn’t have to say anything for me to know he’s here. The look on my mom’s pathetic face says it all.
“Are you okay? Do you need me to get security up here?” Maxwell whispers into my ear, his strong, confident hands on my hips the exact balm I needed to deal with my mom. “Who is this woman?” he asks when I relax against him.
I spin to face him. “Seriously?” He can’t be serious. There’s no mistaking Holly Sara Sterling for anybody other than my mom.
“Seriously.” He raises a single eyebrow like I’m the confusing one here. “I’ve never seen this woman before. Am I supposed to know her?”
I step to the side and gesture to my mom, who’s still staring at Maxwell with her jaw on the floor. “Maxwell, Poppy, this is Holly Sterling, my mom. Now”—I don’t wait for their mouths to close before moving on—“will one of you call Vonnie? I need a lawyer.”
“Oh cheese and crackers.” Poppy pulls her phone out of her purse. “Of all the times for this to happen, it happens when I can’t drink. Selfish,” she mutters before lifting her phone to her ear. “Vonnie? Hey, I’m at Saint Joe’s—no, I’m fine. It’s Mr. Sterling . . . I know. I’ll tell you later. Wait, no, that’s not why I’m calling. Brynn’s mom is here and Brynn needs a lawyer—yeah. Super crazy. Bring Eloise. From the sound of their yelling, she’s gonna need a cavalry.”
I fucking love the Lady Mustangs. I nearly crack a smile for the first time in hours. But then I remember that my mom is here and that squashes it.
“Why are you still here?” I look down my nose, giving her my iciest glare.
“Lawyers, Brynn? This seems very unnecessary.” She adjusts her purse on her shoulder and does her best attempt at sounding bored, but I can still hear the tremble of fear beneath her words.
Good.
“I disagree.” I look at my unpolished nails like they’re the most interesting thing in the world. “Plus, they’re two of the top lawyers in the state, and it seems like a shame to ignore this opportunity to see them in action. Or you could”—I shrug my shoulders—“go back to doing whatever you were doing, wherever you were doing it, and forget about us like you did all those years ago.”
Color starts to rise up her porcelain cheeks, and I know I’m getting somewhere. “I was just worried about your father.” She purses her lips, and the wrinkles that point to a smoking habit she must’ve picked up become more pronounced. “Maybe you should spend less time acting like some desperate Mustang groupie and prioritize.”
If my mom was someone I had even an ounce of respect for, that might’ve stung. But considering she knows nothing about me or my life, her attempt at a dig doesn’t faze me. The same cannot be said for the people around me however.
Maxwell’s fingers flinch against my hip as his entire body tenses behind me, but it’s Poppy who really loses it.
“What did you just say?” She turns back to my mom with her phone still at her ear. “Because I know I must’ve misheard you, right?”
My mom, not a genius that one, doesn’t back down. She mistakes Poppy’s small size, bubbly smile, and growing baby bump for someone who’d be an easy target. “This is a family matter, honey, why don’t you move along.”
Poppy keeps her eyes glued to my mom as she talks into her phone. “Maybe bring another lawyer for me.” She touches her screen and drops her phone back into her oversized bag that I know for a fact has Tums, Sour Patch Kids, wet wipes, and ChapStick. “Here’s the thing, Molly.”