Page 109 of Scandal
She’d be an extraordinary one.
She’d be kind and generous.
Loving and supportive.
But we have a deal. Three months. Then she goes back to her life in LA, and I try to go on without her.
Without her…
Fuck.
“I can see you’re struggling with something,” my mum says softly.
I look up and, for the first time, notice a hint of concern in her eyes. I’m unsure if it’s concern for me or for the family legacy I will soon inherit. Either way, I seize the opportunity.
“She has a whole life back in LA. How is any of this fair to her?”
It’s the most honest I’ve been with her since I came home.
Maybe ever.
“And yet she’s here with you,” she simply says. “Doesn’t that tell you something?”
“I don’t know.” Sometimes I worry she’s here only out of pity. But then we’re together like we were last night, and I know it’s more than that.
It has to be.
“Listen.” She sighs, as if it physically pains her to talk about emotions with her son. “I don’t know what arrangement you two had at the beginning, and frankly”—she waves her hand—“I don’t want to know. But I do know it wasn’t real. And yet that girl walked away from that life you seem to think she loves so much to be here with you. Even then. What makes you think she wouldn’t stay now?”
I stare at her, completely dumbfounded by her words. “She worked her whole life to get a career in the music industry. If she stays here?—”
“Then we’ll figure it out,” she finishes my sentence. “She can continue to work remotely like she is now, or she can find some other way to use her talents. We won’t let her waste away, I promise.”
I swear my eyes start to sting at the passionate tone my mother’s words carry.
“Why do you care so much?”
She waves my question away, avoiding my intense gaze. “Perhaps I’m just feeling a bit sentimental. It’s been one of those weeks, hasn’t it?”
I decide not to press her anymore, realizing her walls are rebuilding around her. “Indeed, it has.”
We both get up, but before we reach the double doors, my mother turns to me and says, “She’s a lovely woman. She really will make a wonderful countess.”
I swallow hard. “I know.”
“I knew it the instant I met her.”
My brow quirks. “Really?”
Her lips pucker at my silent accusation. “All right. Maybe not the instant, but it didn’t take me long to realize how special she is.”
Smiling, I reply, “I’ve always known.”
And it’s about time I tell her.
Chapter Twenty-Six
MERCURY
