Page 70 of Cry Madness

“Of course, she’ll be fine. I’m her mother, for Christ’s sake,” Katherine snaps, as if she hasn’t spent my entire life belittling me.

Maddox ignores her, kissing me. With a bob of his chin, he gestures to the far side of the room. “I’ll be at the bar. Love you.”

I don’t think I’ll ever get used to how easily those two words flow from him. “Love you, too.” Then my mother wraps her clawed hand around my biceps and yanks me toward the patio. “Stop pulling at me.”

But she doesn’t, and it’s only once we clear the patio and march down the five steps that lead to the garden that she says, “I won’t tolerate this insolent behavior from you.”

“Hate to break it to you, but I’m a whole adult now. The days when you could dictate my behavior are long gone.” My temper quickly on the rise, I add, “Especially after you were fucking another man the night my dad died.”

There.

I said it.

That ugly truth is finally out in the open.

So was I, but Katherine was Luther’s wife, and loyalty, faithfulness, and all that good stuff are—if I recall correctly—a giant part of the whole marriage thing. Butthiswife…? The second the going got tough, she got going. I can never—ever—forgive her for making a fool of my dad, then abandoning him when he needed her most.

My mother freezes and drops her grip on my arm. She lifts her chin with indignation, and God, how I hate her habit of glaring down her nose at me. “How dare you judge me!”

“That was my dad you cheated on!”

“And I’m your mother,” she hisses.

“You never once acted like it. All my life, you treated me like a burden.” I let out an almost hysterical laugh. “Do you know, when I was little, how I’d pray to God—like actually get on my knees and say a prayer each night—that one day, you’d love me?”

“There you go, always with the drama. Poor you. Poor Alice.” She rolls her eyes, then singsongs, “My mommy never loved me.” Sneering, she adds the final nail in the coffin of our relationship. “Grow the fuck up, Alice.”

Wow.

Just…

Wow.

“Fuck you,” I bite out between clenched teeth.

Katherine’s critical glare scorches me from head to foot. “Youarea disappointment, Alice, ineveryway.”

I don’t know how I keep my voice level, how I don’t clutch my chest at the agony squeezing my heart. Nor do I know how I even manage to speak past the pain, but somehow, I do, barely recognizing my hoarse voice. “I can’t do this with you anymore. I’m leaving. Tonight. Because after this shit? Mocking me like that?” I gesture between us. “I’m done.”

This vicious cycle finally has to end. It’s toxic—has alwaysbeentoxic—and honestly, I deserve better than to be treated like shit by a mother whose love I spent my life trying to earn. And the proof that I’d been fighting a losing battle is there in her eyes. There isn’t a drop of regret—not a hint of warmth in those indifferent brown eyes.

She lifts her chin, scorn oozing from her like poison. “You say that like it’s a threat.”

Screw it, let the tears flow. I’m laid bare anyway, my dignity splintered into shards of glass at my feet. “Why did you even have me?”

But I instantly regret the question the second it falls from my lips.

The moonlight gleams off her gigantic diamond engagement ring when she presses a hand to her surgically tucked tummy. “It was a simple exchange, Alice. A business transaction, if you will. Your father wanted a child, and I needed to keep your father.”

Needed.

Not wanted.

“Why? Make it make sense, because you never loved him, and you made it crystal clear you don’t love me.”

She lifts one impeccably arched brow. “Luther and I had an agreement. He gave me wealth and status, asking for only one thing in return.You. A child.” Do I imagine the shudder that runs through her? “All that man ever wanted was to be a father. So, I gave him that, and he”—she waves her hand, those blood-red nails slicing the humid air—“gave me this.”

“I hate you,” I whisper brokenly.