Chapter 23

Joelle

From the moment I saw my mother and Thomas in MacKellar Cove Inn, I knew everything I’d started to build was going to blow up. A future with Andre would be the most significant casualty.

Why did I think I would be able to navigate this? Why did I expect it to be no big deal?

When he burst into the dining room, the relief I felt at seeing him paralyzed me. His immediate defense of me was refreshing after the way my mother and Thomas spoke to me, as if I was their property, a piece of furniture to use and dispose of as they saw fit.

Not Andre. He saw me. He knew me. And he was there for me.

But I couldn’t let him fight my battles. I had to stand up to my mother alone.

“Andre, it’s fine,” I said. I didn’t want them to attack him. To make him feel unworthy. He was the most worthy one in the room, but I knew how they were. I knew they would sense something and send him running. And if they did, he wouldn’t come back.

“What? You can’t be serious.” His tone told me he was not going to back down. I loved him that much more for it, but he had to go. For his own good.

“Thomas and my mother have come to take me home.” Maybe that would work. Maybe it would be enough for him to leave. I could explain later. But only if I had the chance to. I couldn’t let them speak for me. Not to him.

“You’re going back to DC with them? Why? I thought…”

He trailed off, but what he didn’t say hung heavy in the room. Heavy enough that there was no way it would go unnoticed.

And it didn’t.

“Joelle, how could you? You engaged in an affair with this…” Mother glared at him, the same look I’d seen her give employees who did something she found inexcusable. “With him? When you had Thomas waiting for you? Joelle, this is unacceptable! You risked everything for someone unworthy to be in my presence.”

“I’ll go,” Andre said, sounding defeated.

I wanted to cry. To chase after him. To beg him to stay by my side. All the things I ached to say to him, the words I’d been dying to confess, were right there on my tongue, but until I sent my mother away, I wouldn’t be free. She wouldn’t give up. She would threaten Andre to get to me. Probably pay him off to end things with me. If she was willing to pay my bridesmaids, I knew she would pay off Andre.

I couldn’t make him choose between her money and me. Not when he didn’t know how I felt about him. I knew her money would help him, and I knew she had enough that she could make him consider taking her money in exchange for leaving me alone.

But I knew he wouldn’t make that choice if I told him how I felt. Love wasn’t a bargaining chip. And I would never use it as one. Andre deserved to know I loved him without the rest of the drama thrown in his face.

He eased out of the room, facing my mother as she shouted at me. I wasn’t listening to her, but I watched him. I watched as he pushed the door open and met my gaze around Thomas.

The defeat in his eyes broke my heart. I’d never seen that look from him. I didn’t blame him for it, but fuck, it hurt.

I would make it right with him. I would fix it. I would explain the whole situation to him, tell him I loved him. After I got rid of my mother and Thomas. After I was free to love Andre the way I did. The way he allowed me to love him.

“You owe Thomas an apology. And me,” my mother growled.

I yanked my gaze from Andre and gawked at my mother. How dare she say that to me? How dare she even think it? “I what?”

She backed up half a step at the vehemence in my voice. “Don’t you take that tone with me.”

“I will take whatever tone I want to with you. You are not someone I’m going to bow down to ever again. You are horrible. You have done nothing to support me my entire life.”

“I have given you everything. I gave up my body for you, my future, I stayed with your father for you. And I made sure your fiancé was willing to stick around until you were married.”

“You’re unbelievable,” I snapped. “You didn’t do any of those things for me. You did all of them for you! You got pregnant because it meant my father would take care of you. You stuck around because it meant you could have the life you wanted. You built the life you chose, running his company and ignoring me for most of my life. You didn’t even let me choose my college major or my career or anything about my life. You’ve never cared about anything I wanted, so don’t stand there and tell me you’ve given me a damn thing.”

“How dare you—”

“No, how dare you! You fucked the man you wanted me to marry. I don’t even know how long you were with him, but I’d guess it was more than once. And you wanted me to marry him. To spend my life in a loveless marriage like you had. Why would you want that for me? What mother would do that to her child?”

“What are you implying, Joelle?” she seethed.

“I’m not implying, Mother. I’m saying you’re a horrible parent. My father was never around, but he never pretended to be on my side. I never questioned if he cared. I knew he didn’t. But you? I thought you wanted the best for me. You only ever cared about yourself.”

Mother gasped. Her face transformed to show the way she really felt. “You ungrateful little bitch. Pack your things. We’re leaving.”

“I’m not going anywhere with you.”

“Do you think that gardener is going to take care of you?”

“How do you…?”

“Did you think we didn’t know where you were or what you were doing this whole time? You had your little rebellion with the help, and now it’s time to go back to your life. Marry Thomas and merge the two stations.”

I couldn’t think. Or move. She knew where I was. She knew I was with Andre. She expected all this. “Why did you wait until now to come if you knew I was here?”

“We were busy.” She looked at Thomas, a small smile playing on her lips.

“Did you go on my honeymoon?”

“Well, you didn’t go. We weren’t going to let the reservations go to waste.”

“Are you fucking kidding me?”

“Language!”

“No. No. You don’t get to say anything about my language or anything else ever again. I didn’t want to marry Thomas before, and I sure as fuck am not going to marry him now.”

“You will do as I say.”

“Or what? Why would I do anything you say?”

“Who do you think pays for those credits cards you’ve been using? Who covered the cost of this little trip you’ve been on? You think you’re so high and mighty, but you haven’t thought through anything, Joelle. If you don’t listen to me, I’ll cut you off.”

“Fine. Cut me off. Your money comes with too many strings.”

“And you think your new friends here are going to let you keep staying without payment? You think they’re going to be totally fine with a broke, unemployed, worthless woman?”

“They don’t care about money. None of them knew I had any.”

“Oh, and you haven’t been paying to stay here? Because your credit card says you have been.”

“I’m getting a job. I’m moving here. I’ll find a place to live. I don’t need you. And I don’t want you in my life.”

“Joelle,” Thomas said, his tone softer, placating. “Be reasonable here. If you stay, you’ll be no one. You’ll be small, like the other people in this place. Why would you want that?”

I laughed. Neither of them got it. They were so lost in their world that they couldn’t see that something else, something better, was out there.

And they had no idea that I was suffocating in DC.

“I like it here. I don’t have to be someone else here. I can be myself.”

“And who is that? A gardener’s fuck-friend?”

I shrugged. “If I choose to be, then yes. Maybe I’ll marry him. Maybe I’ll end up with someone else. All I know is it’ll be my choice.”

“You can’t do this, Joelle. All of DC knows the two of you are getting married. The deals, the arrangements. You can’t back out. It’ll ruin everything,” Mother growled.

“Maybe you should marry Thomas. After all, you’ve already been on my honeymoon. Apparently you’re sexually compatible. And I don’t fucking care.”

“You will stop using that language with me, young lady,” Mother snapped.

“That’s fine. I’ll stop saying anything to you, Mother. Because I’m done. You can see your way out. I have more important things to do than stand here another minute and listen to you.”

I moved toward the door, ready to leave. I wanted to go see Andre, to explain everything to him. To make it right with him.

I pulled the door open just as my mother grabbed my arm.

“You’re not walking away from me,” she snarled.

“Yes, Mother, I am. I’m done. Let go of me.”

She tugged harder on my arm.

I pulled back, trying to free my arm, but Thomas blocked my exit. “Get off of me!”

Thomas’s hands clasped my shoulders, stopping me from moving.

My mother released my arm. “You’re coming back to DC with us.”

“No. I am never going anywhere with you again. Let go of me. Now!”

She slapped me. Across the face. The sound echoed in the dining room as it registered that she hit me.

I was so shocked I didn’t resist as Thomas shoved me forward, moving me toward the room where I’d been staying.

“Let go of her. Right now,” a male voice said. It was low and threatening and for a second, I thought it was Andre.

“This is none of your concern, Officer,” Mother said, laying on the sweetness.

I turned and saw James and Rowan, hands on their sides, ready to draw their weapons.

“We saw you hit her. That’s assault.”

“She will not press charges,” Mother said, continuing with the saccharine tone.

“Joelle, it’s within your right to press charges. For both assault and attempted kidnapping,” Rowan said, his tone measured but reassuring.

“Kidnapping! How dare you!”

“His hands are on her shoulders, and multiple times you said she’s going with you, even though she stated she’s not willing to do so. It appears to be attempted kidnapping to me. And we both witnessed the assault and would be willing to testify as such.” James took another step toward us.

Thomas released me, stepping back into the dining room before taking off toward the back door.

James chased after him while Rowan stepped forward and shoved my mother against the wall.

I gaped as my mother was read her rights and taken away in handcuffs. She shouted the entire time, promising to get her lawyers on this and have their badges.

“Are you okay?” Piper asked, wrapping an arm around my shoulders.

I hadn’t even noticed her there. I nodded. “I’m so sorry about all of this.”

Piper chuckled. “Oh, please, none of this is on you.” She guided me outside to where James was dragging Thomas around the corner of the house, in his own set of handcuffs. “Is it too soon to ask if you think they’ll get off on being in cuffs?”

I snorted a laugh. “Nope. But I honestly don’t care.”

“I wonder if Rowan used the dog poop covered cuffs on your mother,” Piper whispered.

The laugh that burst from me drew my mother’s scowl. “I hope he did.”

Piper laughed with me. “They’re even worse than I imagined they would be.”

I nodded. “Yeah.” I looked over at her as Rowan and James closed the SUV doors and approached. “How much of that did you hear?”

“Enough to know we needed them to come,” Piper said.

“You called them?”

She nodded. “We really like you, Joelle. When they guided you into the dining room, Zoey called me. We thought you might need friends after they left, but as soon as we heard the shouting, we called James and Rowan.”

“Those two are feisty,” James said, stopping a step below Piper and me. “Are you okay?”

I shrugged and shook my head. “I don’t know.”

“I hate to ask you this, but we really need your statement. Are you able to come down to the station?”

I nodded. “Yeah. I just want this all behind me.”

“I’ll go with you,” Piper said. “Let me check in with Gavin really quick, and we’ll be right behind you guys. Is that okay?”

“Of course. Sebastian and Zoey were here when they arrived?” James asked.

Piper nodded. “They were. Do you need them to come with us?”

“It might be a good idea.”

“We’ll all be there soon.” Piper pulled out her phone, already texting.

“Thanks. And I’m sorry this happened to you, Joelle.”

“Thank you.”

James and Rowan left, waving and tooting the horn as they pulled out. Piper led me to a chair on the porch, telling me to sit while she found her husband.

I stared off at the property, wishing I hadn’t brought all this on everyone. I loved MacKellar Cove, and inflicting my mother on the town felt wrong.

I should have known she was checking my credit card and knew where I was. After the first week, I figured she didn’t know how to do that and was less careful. Instead, she was just on my honeymoon.

I scoffed. It was almost funny. If it had happened to someone else, maybe it would have been, but for me, it was just sad. My mother slept with my fiancé, then went on my honeymoon with him.

They deserved each other.

Piper came outside a few minutes later and said Sebastian and Zoey were going to meet us at the station. Piper drove, assuring me no one thought less of me because of my mother and Thomas.

James and Rowan greeted us at the police station and took our statements. It was a relatively painless process since they witnessed the worst of it. I was ashamed of the way my mother spoke to me, and that I’d allowed it for so many years, but James and Rowan told me it didn’t mean she was allowed to treat me the way she did.

When we left the police station, Piper insisted on staying with me. Zoey met us at the fire pit with a bottle of wine, and the three of us drank and laughed and forgot about my day from hell.

* * *

James helped me file a restraining order against my mother and Thomas the next day. A judge approved it immediately, stating the incident was enough of a justification for the emergency order of protection.

The judge also agreed to probation for my mother and Thomas if they left town and promised not to return. The threat of everything going public was enough for them to accept the offer.

The only conditions were that everything my mother owned had to be returned to her. Including the credit cards I used, my debit card, and my car. She said she didn’t want any of the things I bought in MacKellar Cove or the clothes I’d brought with me.

“Not my size. Or style,” she told the judge with a sneer in my direction.

I rolled my eyes and counted myself grateful I was finally done with the two of them. Even if it meant I had no money, no vehicle, and no family.

I was also fairly sure it would mean I wouldn’t get a reference from anyone at my previous job. That was the part I was most worried about. Omar didn’t say I needed a reference, but most positions required them.

“One thing at a time,” Piper said when I expressed my concerns. “If necessary, James and Rowan can vouch for you. They will be able to explain why you’re not able to ask for a reference.”

“I hope so. I really want this job.”

But more than the job, I wanted to talk to Andre. I wanted to explain everything to him. To tell him Thomas wasn’t really my fiancé, and that I had no intention of going back to DC with him and my mother.

“Have you spoken to Andre?” Zoey asked when everything was settled and we were back at the Inn.

I shook my head. “I don’t want him to think I’m looking for him to support me. Maybe I should wait until I find out about the job?”

“I don’t know Andre as well as you do, but I think men need to be hit over the head with the truth sometimes,” Piper said.

“What do you mean?”

“That man loves you, but I don’t think he’s willing to risk your rejection. And he might not even know you’re still in town. So if you’re going to wait for him to come to you, you might be waiting a really long time,” Piper continued.

I nibbled the inside of my cheek. I blew out a long breath. “You’re right. I need to go talk to him.”

“I think it’ll be okay. He’s a good guy from what I know. Tell him the whole story. He deserves that much,” Zoey said.

“I should have told him before.”

Zoey shrugged. “It didn’t feel right then.”

“Yeah, but he still deserved to know. Hopefully, he can forgive me for keeping it from him.”

“Only one way to know,” Piper told me.

“Yeah.”

We talked another minute, then I went to my room. I hadn’t asked them when I needed to be out of the room, but I knew it wasn’t fair to keep living at the Inn without a way to pay for it.

I wanted independence from my mother. And I finally got it. I didn’t want to turn around and rely on everyone else for the rest of my life. Time to do things on my own.