Chapter 33

Mason

It took me a little bit—a lot of talking, and a lot of my mother wavering back and forth—but I had convinced her to come to dinner with me, Ava, and her parents. I didn’t know if it was a good idea, to be honest, but I had to give it a try. It was all great and grand to have Ava’s parents accept us as a couple, but the family feud had to end. It had to stop ruling everyone’s lives. I understood the anger, but if I could get my mom back into the Spencers’ lives, I could get her the life she deserved.

I had been calling her a lot, checking on her, keeping her mind on the things that she and I had talked about. She was warming up to me again, realizing I wasn’t the bad guy trying to ruin everything she had. I was trying to help her make what she had better. She was also warming up to the idea of leaving my father, something that was a hard decision for her. Divorcing my father would be a huge move and a painful one, that was for sure. He wouldn’t lie down and take it easily. Then again, my father had never taken anything easily. He made everything into a fight, even if it was clear and obvious that he was at fault.

I grew up watching my father treat my mother like shit. I watched her cower as he screamed and yelled, taking things out on her that had nothing to do with her. Most times when a boy grew up in a situation like that, he was likely to become the man he had learned from, but not me. I knew at a very young age that I would never treat a woman like my father did. I hadn’t always been the most respectful—being a major player in the game for a long time—but I never raised my voice or took my anger out on a woman. I never asserted dominance and forced someone to do something out of fear. It wasn’t right, and I was hoping my mother was starting to see that.

When I arrived at her house to pick her up, I walked in and found her standing in the living room, looking more beautiful than I could remember for a long time. She was wearing an ivory pantsuit with a pretty black satin blouse underneath. She had done her hair perfectly and pulled out some of her favorite jewelry to wear. She looked nervous as she sipped a glass of whiskey and stared out into the garden. I cleared my throat to get her attention.

“You look beautiful, Mom.”

“You think this is the right idea?” she asked nervously. “What if your father finds out?”

“This is the next step forward for me and for you,” I said. “We aren’t going to worry about my father tonight. Okay?”

She shook her head and put down her glass, following me out to the car waiting for us. We headed out, keeping silent in the car for most of the ride. I thought about Ava, wondering what she was feeling, wishing she was there with me. I had told her I wanted to bring my mother, and she was apprehensive about it at first but soon came to understand why it was a good idea. We wanted everyone to understand that we were all innocent in the whole thing. I wanted the Spencer family to understand that my mother was a good woman even though she didn’t always act like one. I was really hoping things would go smoothly when we all sat down together. It had been ten years, and it was time to stop all this ridiculousness before we wasted our lives on it. I didn’t want to spend my life in turmoil with our parents hating each other.

When we got out of the car, we walked toward the restaurant. Ava and her parents sat by the window at the side of the restaurant. They didn’t see us, and my mother stopped as soon as she saw Ava’s mother. Her jaw clenched, and her fists curled up and she clasped her purse in front of her. She looked really angry, angrier than I had ever seen my mom with someone other than me. I stepped in front of her view and rubbed her arms, looking down at her.

“You have to let that anger go, Mom,” I said. “Remember that Father fueled that anger to keep you away from the real reason the feud started.”

“I don’t know if this is a good idea,” she said, shaking her head nervously. “She dragged my name through the mud.”

“Ten years ago,” I said, looking in her eyes. “A decade is a really long time. It’s time to let that anger go and work this out in a nice and civil way. And if you can’t do it for yourself, do it for me. If you love me, do it for me, knowing I’m going to have a beautiful life with Ava. You owe both of us that, and so does Dad.”

“All right,” she said, taking a deep breath and shaking her head. “For you, I will try.”

“Thank you, Mom,” I said, kissing her cheek. “Let’s go inside.”

She nodded her head and took my arm, walking into the restaurant. The hostess showed us to the table, and Ava stood up, smiling at me. Ava’s father, Denis, stood up and reached for my mother’s hand.

“Liz, it’s so good to see you,” he said, turning to me. “And Mason, you’ve turned into a very handsome man.”

“Thank you, Mr. Spencer, and thank you for having us for dinner,” I said, pulling my mom’s chair out and sitting down next to Ava.

“Hey,” Ava said, winking at me and grabbing my hand. “Everything okay?”

“We will see,” I whispered.

I looked over at my mom, who was sitting upright in her chair, trying not to make eye contact with Ava’s mother, Caitlyn. The two were silently sitting next to each other, and the tension in the air was thick. Ava glanced over at me and nudged me with her arm.

“So, Mr. Spencer, Ava tells me you got a promotion at your job. Congratulations,” I said, smiling. “Though it doesn’t surprise me. I remember watching you work when I was little and knew you were excellent at everything you did.”

“Thank you, Mason,” he said, glancing at Caitlyn. “It’s definitely something I worked for, and I am excited about the opportunities it will award Ava’s mother and me.”

The conversation was awkward, especially since my father was the one who had put him in that position in the first place. My mother moved the silverware on the table and glanced around, not adding to the conversation. I was about to open my mouth and talk about the new company when Caitlyn spoke up.

“I wish you would have warned me she was coming,” Caitlyn said, putting her napkin on her plate.

“Why?” my mother said, finally speaking. “So you could call your friend in the tabloids and have the morning scoop?”

“I see you haven’t changed. Still pigheaded enough not to realize the truth,” Caitlyn said.

“Mom, really, please let this go,” Ava whispered as people started to look over.

“Let it go? Her husband is a tyrant who ruined her life, and all she’s worried about is a little bit of bad press from ten years ago,” Caitlyn said. “Bad press that I did not leak to the press. It just happened. Besides, it’s not like it was a lie.”

“You were supposed to be my friend,” my mother hissed.

“Friend?” Caitlyn chuckled. “That’s rich coming from someone who stood by while her husband dismantled my husband’s company and ruined our lives.”

“I didn’t know anything about that,” she yelled.

“Oh, come on, Liz. You didn’t know about it because you didn’t want to know about it,” Caitlyn said.

“You’re an insufferable bitch,” my mother said.

“Mother,” I whispered. “Stop it.”

“You have spent ten years feeling sorry for yourself instead of picking yourself up by the bootstraps and making something out of the situation,” my mother growled. “You want to blame all your problems on other people.”

“Enough,” Ava’s father growled, slamming his hands on the table and clearing his throat. “Enough of this damn foolishness.”

“You know, I think I made a mistake,” Ava said, pulling her hand away from me. “I was trying to mend bridges, but I can see that’s not possible here. I think you need to take your mother and leave.”

“Ava,” I said, reaching for her hand. “It takes time.”

“No time in the world will make me sit here and listen to this,” Ava said. “I’m sorry, Mason. Please just go.”

“All right,” I said, looking around at all the people staring. “Come on, Mother.”

I pulled my mother out of her chair and took her by the hand, leading her out of the restaurant. I couldn’t believe dinner had turned out that way. I glanced back at the window and saw Ava trying to talk to her mother. Her father was sitting there staring down at the empty plate in front of him. All I wanted was for everything to work out, for things to get better for everyone, and our mothers couldn’t let things go.

We got in the car and pulled away from the restaurant, heading back toward my parents’ house. I glanced over at my mother, who was looking out the window, her hands still shaking. One thing she had learned after all her years in high society was how to keep her decorum after a bad situation. She was stone cold, and I hated to see her like that.

“You couldn’t just let it go, could you?” I said. “Then you had to resort to name-calling and making a scene in the restaurant.”

“I was not the only one,” she said.

“And that makes it okay?” I asked. She looked at me for a moment and then back out the window. “For the first time in my life, I’m disappointed in you. I don’t even recognize the woman sitting in front of me. You aren’t my mother. You’re a woman twisted by hate and revenge. Your anger runs so deep, you couldn’t even do this for me. You couldn’t put on a brave face for five seconds just make it through dinner and try to be the bigger person. Ava’s mother was in the wrong, but that is not my concern. My concern is how you embarrassed me and how you might have ruined something that was very precious and very important to me because of your spiteful and petty feud. Both of you deserve to be miserable.”

She didn’t even look up at me when I was talking. I shook my head and looked out the window, watching the city pass by. My thoughts turned to Ava and how it had felt for her to snatch her hand out of mine and tell me to leave. I wanted a future with her. It was all I could think about. Because of this damn feud, I could see everything, my whole future, slipping right out of my hands. I was so angry, and I felt completely helpless to stop it. My parents had been ruining my life for so long, but I was still not used to. As we drove through the city, people passing quickly by my window, my heart began to break, for my mother and for me and Ava.