Page 36 of Pour Decisions (Stryker Family #3)

KATRINA

I should text JD before I call my mother—to have him as my moral support—but I decide against it. I need to call her and rip off the bandage so the questions will stop swirling in my head. I’m in the car, parked outside of the house, while JD is out running errands.

She hasn’t texted me since Thanksgiving where she was “disappointed” in me. Such bullshit.

I take a deep breath to tamp down my anger and dial her up.

“Trina?” Mom says.

“Hi.” I swallow.

“Oh my god, I was so worried,” she says. “I hadn’t heard from you!”

Her tone rings so hollow to me that it makes my stomach turn.

“Did you suggest that JD’s father pay off Raymond?” I ask her rather than wading through more small talk. “And tell him he could use it as leverage to get something he wanted out of JD? Which happened to be dumping me?”

Mom goes quiet for a beat too long, and it says everything.

“I told you I didn’t know about all that,” she says. Her tone is more serious, all the sugar sweetness gone.

“Then why did JD’s father tell us that? Why would he bring you into it at all?” I ask, forcing myself to speak slowly so I don’t flip out already. “I didn’t even know he knew you.”

She sighs heavily and I get out of the car. I can’t sit still any longer.

“Listen, I didn’t want to tell you because I knew you’d react like this,” she says with a huff. “But you don’t understand what I was going through.”

“What you were going through?”

“Of course! Raymond was awful to me too.”

For a second, a pang of guilt stops me from throwing my phone into the backyard. He was truly awful. And if my hunch that she’s a little jealous of me is right, Raymond being awful would make her actions make even more sense.

I had JD, a man who loved me, come to my rescue, while the man she “loved” was the one causing all the problems. And for whatever sick reason, she wanted me to lose that.

Mom has never been the most mature, but this is so unbelievably awful that I can hardly believe she gave birth to me at all.

“So you did do it,” I say, pacing. Saying it clears my head, finally. No more wondering—hoping—JD’s dad randomly lied about my mom having anything to do with this.

My heart was already broken, so the ache the final revelation leaves is dull.

“It’s just that I had loaned Raymond a ton of money for one of his businesses, and things were so tight.

I needed an influx of cash and Raymond could pay me back with that,” she says, her voice sounding distant even though I didn’t move the phone.

“It wasn’t right. Can you forgive me, honey? I made a mistake.”

I laugh. I can’t help it.

Her actions were so deliberate and selfish that they couldn’t qualify as a mistake in any way, shape, or form.

Sure, she does sound somewhat sorry. But being forgiven doesn’t mean the person extending the forgiveness forgets and moves on completely. They have to change too.

JD did, but Mom didn’t. And I don’t think Mom ever will.

“I’m done, Mom,” I say. “Please don’t try to contact me again.”

“That’s it? You’re just done with me?” she asks. “After all this, you’re not going to let me explain?—“

I end the call, then block her number, sinking down into a squat. I’m all cried out, so I wait until JD gets back. He seems to understand what happened and pulls me to my feet, wrapping me in a hug without saying a word.