Chapter 13
“I’ve had just about enough of this nonsense. I want you gone,” Linda went on. Usually she wore such a pretty façade, but tonight she didn’t even bother to pretend to like Jessica. She had her claws out and her full fury. Evan had only seen her like this a few times, and usually it was directed at his father. He hated that Linda chose to show her dark side to Jessica. Jessica had already been through enough and was cowering in the chair, her milk getting cold rapidly on the table.
“What are you talking about?” Evan tried to play dumb. He didn’t want his mother to know that she had just interrupted Jessica’s revelation.
“Don’t play dumb with me! You know very well what I’m talking about, and I’m tired of it. You are an imbecile, letting this woman waltz around my company for weeks! I have been waiting for you to put an end to this like a man, but clearly this hussy has taken your balls!”
“I should go,” Jessica muttered hastily, scooping up her coat and making a path for the door.
But Linda intercepted her, with her eyes flashing, and she gnashed her teeth. “No, you don’t. You are staying right here and we are settling this once and for all. You think I don’t see what you’ve been doing to my son? Charming him with your magic. You’re just like your mother. A good-for-nothing whore!”
“Mother!” Evan cried. He moved to shove his mother out of the way. But she was eerily strong when she was angry.
“What did you just say?” Jessica demanded. Now she was strong too. She dropped her coat to the floor and gathered herself up to her full height. “It’s one thing to insult me, but my mother?” Then she wheeled to face Evan. “So you both knew about this? You both knew about my real identity?”
Evan stammered.
“Oh, yes, honey, do you think we’re that stupid? I recognized your face the minute you walked into my son’s conference room. I had Evan do a background check because he was too stupid to think of that before! He just left himself wide open to being scammed. We have known all along, honey.”
“Why didn’t you say anything?” Jessica demanded.
Evan really didn’t know what to say. He felt like he was caught in a dangerous crossfire. The look of betrayal in Jessica’s eyes broke his heart. While she had been trying to betray him, he knew that she’d had the best intentions, really. He was so happy that she had finally broken and tried to come clean. Of course, his mother had to come and mess it all up, as she always did.
“I was trying to get you to tell me,” he said lamely.
“He was trying to seduce you and enjoy having sex with you every day. He liked the fantasy,” his mother spat. “He was supposed to handle it but he didn’t. So eventually I figured out why. I knew when you two took off to my vacation house.”
“That’s the family’s, not just yours,” Evan argued. He felt the muscles in his jaw jumping and his blood pressure soaring. He was furious but didn’t know how to handle the situation.
Linda chose to ignore him. “Well, I’ll be damned if I let you come in and swindle my son and steal my money. I’m going to do to you what I gladly did to your mother. I’m going to throw you out on your ass. And you are not welcome back in my life or my company again.”
“No problem,” Jessica said, her voice taut with holding back tears.
“No, Jess, wait,” Evan tried to catch her arm as she pushed past Linda to exit the apartment.
“You know what?” Jessica wheeled around to face Linda and flung away Evan’s hand. “Do you know what my mother said in her journal? She said you broke her heart. And she had no feelings for your husband. She thought you were a psychotic and cruel bitch.” Jessica spat the last word.
Linda merely looked satisfied. “I still am, dear. That hasn’t changed. But now you get to deal with me. And I don’t like having my kingdom messed with. You can go now.”
Jessica was quaking with fury. She turned on Evan. “And you! You knew all along. What kind of sick game were you playing? I thought you actually cared!”
“For your body,” Linda snorted. “He liked the thrill of dating a criminal, a bad girl from the seamier side of town. Did he tell you that his last girlfriend left him because someone had left a pair of earrings in his room? Don’t let his sweet words fool you, Jess. He’s just like his father. Untrustworthy and weak when it comes to women. I thought I had raised him better, but I suppose not. At least I’m here to keep order in the company or everything would have gone to crap by now.” She let out a haughty laugh.
Jessica just stared at Evan beseechingly, tears streaming down her face. Then she turned on her heel and stormed out. The door swung shut behind her with striking finality, severing the cords in Evan’s heart as well as their relationship. He wanted nothing more than to catch her in his arms and kiss her again, and convince her that he really did love her.
“You might want to be careful,” Linda called after her. “I am calling the police.”
Evan shot his mother one furious look, then ran after Jessica. But she was already sliding into the back of the cab. He tried to chase after it, but the driver floored it and left him far behind in a cloud of tire smoke. He dropped to his knees, his heart stinging and his eyes overflowing with burning tears. Never before had he felt such pain. This was the ultimate, anguishing loss.
“You’re welcome,” his mother said snidely as she walked past him on her stiletto heels and slid into her Jaguar.
Evan just sat there on the side of the street for a while in the cold. A drizzle began to fall, matching his deep misery. And then he wiped the tears and rain from his face, and went inside to call Jessica.
Evan could not get a hold of her, trying all night. He wished more than anything that he knew her address. The fact that she had come clean had meant everything to him. The fear and shame in her eyes as she revealed the truth told him that she really did not want him to hate her. She actually did love him and his mother was wrong. His plan had worked; his sense about her had been correct from the beginning. It was sad that his mother had no faith in him.
As he replayed the cruel things his mother had said, his anger began to mount. How dare she paint him in such a horrid light? How dare she plant the idea in Jessica’s head that he had only pursued her out of some sick perversion, some bad girl fantasy? Linda was very astute and great at finding how to hurt people. She had known how sensitive and afraid of love Jessica was, and she had hurt her own son just to barb that. But Evan was tired of it. He was tired of his mother’s cruelty and her manipulation and control. Maybe she thought she had been doing him a favor, but she knew, in some part of her, that she was hurting him.
He thought about her words and felt emptier and emptier. His life was full of nothing but bitterness. For years, he had buried his unhappiness in cooking and CrossFit and everything else that could distract him. But he couldn’t deny the truth anymore. The last time he had felt truly happy was when Jessica had had him lean out of his car on the drive down from the mountains. Jessica had showed him what it meant to be free, to be an adult, to live without his mother’s rules and restraints. And he wanted that more.
He was tied down by his mother and his job. Really, he didn’t like his job, as much as he loved his workers and his money. He wanted to help people. He was tired of the corporate grind, and he was tired of feeling that he was betraying his values for the sake of his company’s success. Buying Christmas presents for orphans and playing Santa (which he hadn’t been invited to do yet that year, much to his chagrin) was not enough. He needed to get more active in those causes if he wanted to make a true difference.
And he wanted Jessica in his life. This wasn’t a sick fantasy. He loved her for who she was. He had believed in her and had not been disappointed. But now maybe she was gone forever, though he wouldn’t give up until he got her back.