Page 42 of The Wrong Ride Home (Wildflower Canyon #1)

There were tears in her eyes. She could do that on command? Fuck! She should’ve gone to Hollywood, I thought caustically.

“You had an affair with Silas Hawthorne, Mama; that’s what it means.”

She pressed a delicate hand to her chest, her breath hitching. “I can’t believe you would say that to me, Duke.”

She didn’t deny it or argue the facts. She just went straight for the wound she knew best how to press on—my guilt.

“After everything I’ve been through. After everything I sacrificed for you.” She shook her head, blinking rapidly as if she were holding back tears. “How could you throw such hateful words at your own mother?”

I let out a slow breath, feeling something shift in my chest—not anger, not hurt, but understanding.

For the first time in my life, I saw her.

Not as my mother or the fragile woman I had spent a lifetime protecting, but as Gloria Wilder—the woman who spun lies into silk, who cried when it served her, who knew how to twist a knife without ever getting blood on her hands.

“You had an affair is a statement of fact, Mama. You deny it?”

She sniffled. “Silas…he forced me…and?—”

“Stop with the lies,” I cut her off, frustrated. “Just stop. You had an affair, and when Nash found out he didn’t ask you to leave, you wanted to leave.”

She wiped her tears. “I made a mistake. Haven’t you made mistakes?’

I arched an eyebrow. “What was the mistake? The affair or leaving Nash?”

“Now you’re just being mean.” She looked away and, like a movie heroine, fell on the couch’s armrest close to her and sobbed.

Christ!

“Mama, you left Nash, not the other way around. You took pills not because he asked for a divorce…not the first time; it was because he told you no way in hell would he let you take me away. Just give me the fuckin’ truth for once.”

She raised her head, and her wet eyes flashed anger. “I couldn’t lose you, Duke. You were all I had, and he was…I was distraught. I was so desperate. My life felt like it was over.”

For the first time, I wondered, what if she had died? Would life for me have been better? Would I already be with Elena, being happy instead of dying a little every day? But no way Mama would’ve died. She’d have planned it so she would be saved.

“And the second time was because he asked for a divorce,” I continued.

“I couldn’t be a divorcee, Duke.”

“Why the hell not? You didn’t live with him, you saw other men…so why the hell couldn’t you be a divorcee?”

She licked her lips. “Your father would stop taking care of us.”

“Not us , Mama, just you . He’d give you alimony, you knew?—”

“He said he’d give me twenty thousand dollars a month, that’s it!”

“That was on top of paying for everything else,” I remarked. I was getting my head out of my ass finally and seeing things as they were. “But that wasn’t just it, was it, Mama? You didn’t want him happy.”

The mask fell. “How could he insult me like that? Marrying that… maid ? What would people think?”

“But you were okay with him having Maria as a mistress?”

She shrugged. “Men like your father always have a side piece that wives ignore.”

“And how about your side pieces?”

She rolled her eyes. The mask had indeed fallen. “I was very discreet.”

“ I knew.”

“Well…yes, but that’s because”—her face softened, and she put a hand on my shoulder—“we’re a team, and I have no secrets from you. ”

I shrugged away from her touch and ran a hand over my face, feeling like the biggest fucking fool in the world.

“Mama, all we’ve had between us is secrets and lies and manipulation.”

“No, baby. I love you. You’re my only son, my child, and…Nash was going to take you away. I couldn’t stay there . You saw the ranch. It’s horrible. There is no culture there.” She sat back and pouted like she was a teenager.

“You’re not talking about culture, Mama; you’re talking about your vapid social life.”

“It’s not vapid,” she choked out. “Everyone is out to hurt me. Even my own flesh and blood. I don’t know why.”

I was losing my patience. “Can it, Mama. You’re not the victim here.”

She let out a sharp breath, her fingers curling against the silk of her robe. “I am your mother, Duke. Everything I have done, I have done for you.”

The warmth of the sunroom felt suffocating now; being with her felt like being deprived of oxygen. “For me? Is that what you tell yourself?”

She sniffed, shaking her head. “This is about that awful woman filling your head with lies, isn’t it? Tansy was always like that. Turning Nash and Silas against me. You always were so easily influenced.”

“And you should know since you did it so damn well,” I muttered.

“I love you. I’m your mother,” she said sternly. “Everything I did, I did to keep you safe and away from that horrible place. ”

“Christ, Mama, you don’t even try to lie well.” And how was it that I had not seen it before? “You did all this so you could live the way you do, have access to Nash’s money, and fuck with his life.”

Her face twisted. Then she inhaled sharply like she was pulling herself together, gathering her pieces, ready to change tactics.

"I just don't understand why you're doing this to me." Her voice wobbled convincingly.

And the Oscar for acting like she’s human and not a complete sociopath goes to….

“I’m doing nothing to you. I’m here asking you to tell me the truth.”

“I have given you everything. A good life. A future. And now, you’re turning against me.”

I stared at her in bewilderment. She was a piece of work.

“When did you find out about Elena and me?” I asked.

Her eyes went nasty again. “That mother and daughter were seducing the men in my life— whores .”

“When did you find out, Mama?”

“Why does it?—”

“Mama, don’t test my fuckin’ patience,” I snapped coldly.

She swallowed. Manipulative as she was, she wasn’t stupid.

She knew exactly how far she could push—how to strike just hard enough to get what she wanted without breaking the illusion.

That was her gift. She could guide a conversation like a horse on a lead, steering it where she wanted, when she wanted.

And she knew, just as clearly, when someone wasn’t ready to be led.

“I knew before you came back,” she revealed. “Mindy heard some rumors and let me know. And when you wanted to talk to me about meeting someone, I knew for sure.”

“And that’s why you told me about Maria? Said that you wanted to die because of her?”

“I did want to die,” Mama claimed. “How can you…Duke, you were there when it happened?”

“No doubt you made sure I was.” I marveled at how well she’d hidden this side of her, or maybe she hadn’t; I had just wanted to be blind to it, not wanting to believe my mother was a devious bitch.

“I knew this would happen,” she wailed. “You went there, and now you’ve become him . Sleeping with that slut, breaking up with Fiona, and?—"

"You used me." The words settled between us like a stone dropping into water, causing ripple after ripple. “You used my love for you, my anger at Nash, my pain over Elena—all of it. You twisted everything so I would be exactly what you needed me to be.”

She gasped, a hand flying to her chest. “That is a horrible thing to say.”

“It’s the truth.”

Her breath quickened. “You think I manipulated you? That I used you? My own son?”

Yes .

But I didn’t say it because I didn’t have to. She could see it in my face, and that’s when she began to cry again .

Tears welled in her eyes, her lip trembling. "I just... I don’t know why you want to hurt me like this, Duke.” She covered her face, shoulders shaking, voice breaking like glass.

I didn’t try to comfort her because I finally knew that she wasn’t really upset. Instead, I rose.

She peeked up at me through her fingers. I realized she was waiting for me to soften, to crumble, to play my part like I always had.

“You’re on your own from now on,” I announced.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” She wiped her tears.

“Nash left you money and?—”

“Not enough.”

“For what?” I demanded. “The house is paid for. Your insurance, cars, and everything is paid for from the account Nash set up for you.” It wouldn’t be enough to buy designer duds every season, but she would be very comfortable.

The facade vanished! She got up and charged me, “I deserve a cut from the sale of the ranch.”

“I’m not selling.” Satisfaction raced through me when I saw her face fall. “Read my lips, Mama. I’m not selling the ranch . In fact, I’m moving to Wildflower Canyon. I’m going to work from there from now on.”

Her breath hitched. “No. You can’t do that to me.”

“And I’m not giving you a fuckin’ cent ever again, so don’t ask. ”

“Nash told you to take care of me.”

“He’s dead, Mama, I don’t think he gives two fucks what I do.” My breath spilled out like a deflating tire. “It means I’m not playing this game anymore. I’m not going to be your lifeline, your excuse, your audience. I’m not going to be your Goddamn parent.”

She slapped me with force. I let her. "I raised you!"

“No.” I looked her dead in the eye. " I raised you and not very well ‘cause you’re one spoiled little… bitch ." Never had I spoken to my mother like this. Never had I imagined I would.

Her lips parted, but no words came. She didn’t know how to handle me—the Duke that other people got but not her.

I tipped my head. “Goodbye, Gloria.”

I stopped calling Nash Dad when I found out about Maria, and now I’d just lost my mother. I was an orphan, and maybe that was a better place to be than having her as a parent.

I turned, moving toward the door.

“You’ll regret this,” she called after me, her voice cracking.

I paused, glancing back at her. "I doubt it.”

Then I walked out, leaving Gloria Wilder in the house Dad bought, in the life she built on broken pieces, with no one left to hold her together.