Chapter 31

Mason

I paid my lawyers and pretty much everyone else extra to work with me for the entire weekend. We were trying to get the business license pushed through and everything else in order for my new company. It was more important than ever that I got everything up and running the way I wanted it to be. We had worked through everything beautifully, and I was starting to get excited about everything again. John and I had barely spoken, so it was a good thing I was locked away in my bedroom taking conference call after conference call, trying to get everything accomplished. At the rate we were going, I would have my business open and ready to go by the end of the next week. I could start bringing the furnishing into the building since we got the contract signed and everything from there would flow right together.

I leaned back in my chair and tapped my pen on the table, smiling. It was really exciting to be making so much headway, but I felt like something was missing. I didn’t have the one person with me who I wanted to share my excitement with. I picked up my cell and called Ava.

“I have some good news,” I said when she answered.

“Oh, good,” she said. “I like good news.”

“We got the license pushed through and the contract signed for my company, and I should be up and running by the end of next week,” I said. “We worked all weekend on it.”

“Congratulations,” she said before clearing her throat. “I’m sure that’s really exciting for you.”

She was congratulating me, and her tone of voice was cheery, but I could tell it was forced. There was something going on with Ava. She wasn’t acting like herself. I had been around her long enough to know when she was faking her way through a conversation, and this was one of those times. I could only assume it was everything going on with us and with our families. I didn’t want to call her out, but I also didn’t want this conversation to be an awkward waste.

“I’m very excited,” I said. “How are you?”

“I’m doing okay. Had a good conversation last week with Blair and just relaxed this weekend,” she said. “Doesn’t feel like Monday since I don’t have anywhere to be.”

“Good. You need some good rest and relaxation,” I said. “So, I was wondering if you wanted to sit down this week and really talk about stuff. I know it’s all a bit confusing, and I’m trying to give you your space, but I don’t want to go too long without hashing all of this out.”

“Yeah,” she said, sighing. “I don’t know. You’re right about the confusion part. My head has been spinning from all this. There are so many complex angles to it, and so many things to think about, you know?”

“I understand,” I said. “My head has been spinning too. I just can’t stop thinking about you.”

“I can’t stop thinking about you either,” she said. “But I still don’t know if I’m ready to talk about everything. I think I need more time to process and figure out what’s most important right now.”

“I get it,” I said, trying to be supportive. “I want you to ultimately make the best decision for you. I care about you, and I want you to be happy, even if it isn’t exactly what I was hoping for. Just know that I’m here if you need me, even if it’s to shoot the shit about something completely unrelated. We could take a trip to the Statue of Liberty again and try to kill pigeons with a slingshot.”

“Ha, that was a fun day. I think you got three, and I got negative one since I hit myself in the face with the rock I was trying to shoot.”

I laughed. “I counted that as one. You hit something, right?”

“I guess you’re right, but I had that mark on my face for three weeks.” She giggled.

“It was a battle scar,” I said. “It made you look tough.”

“Great. Anyway, I’m gonna get back to this movie. I appreciate you being supportive about time, and I’ll call you if I need you.”

“All right,” I said. “Try to relax and have a good day.”

“You too,” she said.

We hung up, and I sat there trying to decide whether to file that conversation under the win category or the loss. It wasn’t a terrible discussion. She just wasn’t ready to take it any further than that. I wanted to be supportive of whatever she needed. I put down my phone and looked around my room, deciding that maybe it was time I went to talk to my mother. She had been calling me nonstop, and I needed to give her the information about my father and what he’d done to the Spencer family, especially since I was pretty much set up and ready to go with my own company.

I got up and got dressed, making sure to put on a nice polo and slacks so my mother wouldn’t dislike my beard so much. My father would be in business meetings all day since it was Monday, which was good because he was the last person I wanted to talk to. I would be able to sit down and really talk to my mother without him being there to alter her reaction to things. She was always softer and more willing to listen when it was the two of us. I hailed a cab, and we made our way out of the city to the outskirts of town where their giant house sat behind locked gates. The guard at the front let me through, and I got out and walked slowly toward the front door. I was more nervous than ever to talk to my own mother.

When I went inside, I found my mother in the kitchen making a cup of coffee. She looked up at me and then back down at her cup with no change in her expression. I waited to see if she would talk, but nothing but silence came from her.

“Mom, I’d really like for us to sit down and talk,” I said. “I’m tired of fighting with you. I love you too much, and I have something I want to talk to you about.”

“I suppose,” she said, giving me the cold shoulder. “In the living room. I don’t want to give the housekeeping staff any more gossip than they already have to work with from this house.”

I followed her into the living room and sat down in the chair across from her. She sipped her coffee and stared up at me. I pulled out the file I had brought and handed it to her.

“What is this?” she asked.

“Just look at it,” I said. “You know what those government-signed documents should look like.”

“All right.” She sighed, putting down her coffee and opening the file.

It wasn’t easy to be patient as she went through each page in the file until she came to the forged paperwork. She pulled it out and held it up to the light and then set it back down, looking off into space. I could tell she was inside her own thoughts, trying to reconcile what she was looking at with what she knew.

“That is a forged document giving my father, your husband, the right to sell off pieces of Spencer Hotels without Mr. Spencer’s permission,” I said. “Did you know anything about that?”

She snapped her head back at me angrily and then looked down at the paper. She was in complete shock. It wasn’t often that my mother didn’t have something to say about just about anything, but in that moment, nothing came from her lips. I could barely even recognize the look on her face.

“Mother,” I said, grabbing her attention. “Did you know about that?”

“Are you nuts?” she said. “Of course I didn’t know about this. This is beyond anything I have ever seen your father do. God, how did I miss this? I knew when he started selling pieces of the hotel that something was going on. I could just sense it, but I never thought he would stoop to this level. This is a mess, a complete and total mess. Do the Spencers know about this?”

“Yes. Ava figured it out before I even found the document,” I said.

“God,” she replied. “Don’t you understand what is at stake here if the press gets ahold of this? Our family name is at stake. Our reputation both in the business and outside it would be completely ruined.”

“Wait. Your concern is not that Dad destroyed a man’s company and put his family in harm’s way? Your concern is your reputation?” I said. “What about the fact that they struggle to put food on the table or that Ava has to model at mattress stores to pay her way through college? Doesn’t any of that matter to you?”

“Of course it does,” she said. “But I have to think like your father so I’m prepared for what he will say to me.”

“Who gives a damn what he says? Mom, open your eyes,” I said, leaning forward and taking her hand. “You deserve so much better than my asshole father. If you would just take a real look around you and finally leave him, you would realize how much you’re really worth. I know it; everyone around you knows it except Dad, but you can’t recognize it.”

She put her hands to her face and let out a deep breath, shaking her head. When she pulled her hands away, tears were streaming down her face. I stood up and walked over to her, bending down beside her.

“I know,” she sobbed. “I know how much I have lost myself over the years. I don’t even recognize myself in the mirror anymore. Your father has drained me of any human decency I had. I just don’t know if I can live on my own. I’m getting older. I’m used to this house and taking care of your father.”

“Mom, you would be so much better off on your own,” I said, “taking care of yourself for a change, doing what you want to do, and not being dragged into shit like this. This file represents exactly what kind of man my father is. We are only as good as our worst trait, and this is pretty low, even for him. On top of that, he tried to make Ava look like a stalker and ruin her life even more because he didn’t want the truth to come out.”

“I don’t know what to do,” she said.

“I’ll give you some time to yourself,” I said, standing up. “But I want you to take a good long look in the mirror and think about what kind of woman you are. I’m going to take Dad down for this and every other shitty thing he’s done. You need to decide which side of the fence you want to be standing on when it’s all said and done.”

I kissed her on the top of the head and walked out of the house to the cab waiting outside for me. As we drove away, I couldn’t help feeling guilty for leaving her there like that, but I couldn’t sugarcoat it anymore. She had a decision to make. I had already made mine.