by Lexy Timms
But instead, staring back at him with her cold dark eyes, was none other than his mother.
“I’m so glad you answered,” she said as she barged through the door. “You weren’t picking up your phone.”
“My phone is in my pocket and hasn’t been ringing,” Ash said as he shut the door.
“Then who was I calling? Never mind, it doesn’t matter.”
Ash watched his mother stride her way into the kitchen and he knew what she was going for. He heard the cork of the wine bottle open before the pouring could be heard. He came around the corner and leaned against the doorway, watching his mother pour herself a very tall glass of wine.
“So good to me. Wine already opened and everything. Were you expecting me?” his mother asked.
“No, I wasn’t. Now if you don’t mind—”
“When were you going to tell the family you were in town?” she asked.
“Never, if I could help it.”
“Always so dramatic. I planned on being here an hour ago, but my driver was late. And I was already wound up as it was because my massage therapist canceled due to some pish-posh family emergency.”
“How dare he have a life,” Ash said.
“She. I fired the other one. Got a little too handsy.”
“Not something I needed to know.”
“And to make matters worse, my maid hid my Louboutins! I had them made especially for this outfit and I couldn’t even find them.”
“Call the Coast Guard,” Ash said.
“You poke fun, but I’m very wound up. So a tall glass of wine will have to do.”
“I’m surprised you haven’t gone in on Dad yet.”
“Oh, don’t get me started,” his mother said. “That man called me yesterday to tell me you were back in town and I was furious to even hear from him. He knew before I did! What were you trying to do, give me a heart attack?”
“Nothing in that statement is heart attack worthy.”
“You’re my son, Ash. I should know when you’re in town before your cheating father does.”
His mother ran on with her litany of complaints as he relaxed into the wall. He was waiting for the old bag to run out of wind. She was one of the main reasons why he never came into town. Why he was estranged from his family. It was all topical, and “me, me, me,” and they bitched about absolutely nothing that was worthy of their energy. Ash kept looking at his watch, counting the minutes until he could kick her out, and make way for Kallie’s arrival.
“And that woman! What's that? His third wife now? I guess he can’t find a suitable replacement for the original,” his mother said.
Ash rolled his eyes and tuned out again as he looked at his watch. There was a reason he’d left New York City, and everything happening in his kitchen was it. His mother hated his father and had no problem treating Ash as a captive audience to her bickering. It had been like that all throughout his teenage years. Whenever she felt like going in on his father, she made Ash listen. Like some form of torture used at Guantanamo. It made him resent his mother. Loathe her presence and the sound of her voice.
She was so self-absorbed. He really could see why she and his father never worked.
Ash’s father was a narcissist with unlimited funds who didn’t give a shit about anyone but himself. Their marriage fell apart before Ash’s third birthday and the only presence his father had in his life was all the money he threw his way.
Somehow making up for the absence.
Not that being raised by his mother was any better.
Ash couldn't get a word in edgewise, and his mother hadn’t asked him how he was doing. She hadn’t seen the man in over a year, and not once had she asked about him. Par for the course, in Ash’s life. But before he could open his mouth to try and get her out of the apartment, the doorbell rang again.
Fuck.
Kallie was there.
Without another word, he rushed to the front door. He looked down the hallway and saw his mother’s shadow and started to panic.
“Ready to go?” Ash asked with a smile. “We can grab dinner anywhere you want. Wait down in the lobby and I’ll get my things.”
“Honestly? I’m really tired. I was hoping we wouldn’t have to rush back out tonight. Is it still okay to do dinner here?” she asked.
This wasn’t going to be good.
He nodded his head and stepped off to the side, allowing the beautiful woman to enter. He bowed to the inevitable as his mother’s heels fell along the hallway that dumped into the living room. She’d have to meet his mother sometime anyway. So, why not?
He embraced Kallie and he felt her sigh into him. She’d had a hard day, and he wanted to make things better.
And somehow, he knew things were about to get worse.
“Ash? Who’s this?”
He watched Kallie’s eyes widen before he stepped off to the side.
“Mother, this is Kallie. The woman I’m seeing. Kallie, this is my mother, Sylvia.”
Chapter 22
Kallie
Kallie was surprised to see the woman standing in Ash’s living room. His mother had a very large glass of wine in her hands, and the idea of it being Ash’s mother made her weak in the knees. Her nerves grew and her hands began to shake, and suddenly she felt very out of place. Like she’d barged in on a moment not meant for her. Why hadn’t Ash told her his mother would be there? Why didn’t he at least tell her she was coming over?
Kallie felt cornered, and she didn’t like it.
“Kallie,” the woman said.
Like his mother was trying her name on the tip of her tongue.
The woman was wearing enough jewelry to blind a man and the clothing on her back was obviously expensive. Kallie was painfully aware of her fake jewelry and her department-store clothing in the presence of a woman like her. She watched as Sylvia raked her eyes up and down her form. A small crinkle formed at her nose, like she didn’t enjoy what she saw.
“So what brings you back to the city?” Sylvia asked while ignoring Kallie. “Did you finally grow tired of screwing tourists?”
Kallie’s eyes widened before they shot up to Ash.
“You’re being inappropriate, Mother,” he said.
“So, you’re screwing locals then,” Sylvia said.
“Enough,” Ash said.
“Well, whoever you choose to spend your time with, just be mindful of who you are. Our family has a reputation to uphold in this country, whether you choose to be in it or not. Slumming around and lowering your standards won’t help you if you want to get serious about your life.”
Kallie watched as Sylvia took stock of her again and her stomach dropped to her toes. Was his mother talking about her?
Ash stepped forward and Kallie watched the scene unfold. Ash grabbed his mother by the elbow and not-so-gently escorted her toward the door. She was fighting against her son and he wouldn't let up, and Kallie stepped off to the side to give them room. To get out of the way. To hopefully melt into the walls, so she couldn't be seen.
“You’re not allowed to come into my home and talk to my friends that way,” Ash said. “Go crawl back under the rock you’ve been hiding under for the last year and leave me alone.”
“You’re being an idiot,” Sylvia said. “Just like your father. Always thinking with your dick instead of with your head.”
“Pretty sure cocks have heads,” he said flippantly.
Kallie watched them disappear around the corner and walk down the hallway. They were still talking, but she couldn't hear what they were saying. She gripped her hands and tried to quell their shaking. She leaned against the edge of the couch and closed her eyes. Her heart was slamming against her chest and all sorts of familiar feelings were rushing back to the forefront of her mind.
This was how James’s mother used to treat her.
Kallie didn’t look up until she heard the door shut firmly. Her eyes rose to meet his and sorrow dripped from Ash’s eyes. He walked over to her and wrapped his arms
around her, pulling her close as she trembled on the couch.
“I’m sorry for my mother,” he said. “My family is full of assholes with inflated egos. There’s a reason I pulled away from them a long time ago.”
James’s mother wasn’t as public with her opinions as Sylvia had been, but they were still one and the same. Would Kallie always be considered inferior by mothers of her partners? Was that something she would have to come to terms with? She felt Ash stroking her back. She felt him unclip her hair before he ran his fingers through it. She relaxed into him, her cheek pressed to his chest.
She could feel his rhythmic heartbeat underneath his soft shirt.
“Forget whatever you’re thinking,” Ash said. “You’re wonderful, and beautiful, and a much better human being than my mother ever could be.”
His words were sweet, but Kallie still felt a nagging sense of inadequacy and disappointment deep within her gut.
“Come on. Why don’t we go lie down for a little bit?” Ash asked.
The next thing Kallie knew, she was waking up in his arms. Curled around his body with her work clothes from the previous day still on. She stretched and looked at the clock, smiling when she saw it was almost ten in the morning. She still had two hours before she needed to be in her office, and it felt good to be able to settle back into Ash’s grasp. He pulled her close and nuzzled into her neck before she drifted back off to sleep. And when the two of them woke up again, it was a little after eleven.
“You're late,” Ash said.
“Nope. I cleared my morning,” Kallie said.
She felt him smile into her neck before peppering it with kisses.
“We didn’t eat dinner,” he said.
“I think we were both pretty drained from the festivities of last night.”
“Forget about her. My mother’s opinion has no bearing on me.”
“Nice to know, because I don’t think she was very impressed,” I said.
“My mother’s never impressed. It’s a personality trait of hers.”
“How charming,” she said flatly.
She lay there in bed until the last possible second. Staring into Ash’s beautiful hazel orbs and getting lost in his smile. A passionate make out session at the door sent her off to work with a fuzzy feeling in the pit of her gut, and she almost forgot about the storm brewing outside.
Almost.
Just as Kallie opened up her office door, a text message was sent to her phone. From Eris. All it had was a clickable link, and Kallie almost ignored it. For all she knew, Eris’s phone had spam on it and whatever she clicked would infect her phone as well.
But her curiosity got the best of her and she opened it up anyway.
The second James’s face popped up on her phone screen she felt her stomach lurch. She shut her office door behind her and watched the interview as a tagline appeared below the screen. Tears rose to her eyes and fell down her cheeks as she pressed her back into the doorway. She slid to her ass, her heart stopping in her chest as her hand gripped the phone.
Gold Digger Digs Claws into Worthington Heir.
“Oh no,” she said with a whisper.
The picture of her and James kissing popped up on the screen and she thought she was going to be sick. Her hands were shaking violently, and she couldn't stand to her feet. She heard a videoconference coming in through her laptop, but she couldn't get there. She couldn’t get to the person she had agreed to help because she needed help.
Out of the frying pan and into the fucking fire.
Only this time, Kallie didn’t know what the fallout would be.
Chapter 23
Ash
His social media feed was blowing up. Scores of people tagged him in Twitter feeds and people on Instagram were showering his pictures with nasty messages. That fucking video. James fucking Rathbone. A damn tell-all interview exposing Kallie as a fraud, a liar, and a gold digger.
Fuck.
He sat on his couch and watched the interview, and it was disgusting. The things he was saying were hard to dispute, and Ash felt himself being torn. On the one hand, he believed Kallie about that picture. James Rathbone looked like the kind of asshole who would manipulate a situation to get his way.
But it was a fucking national interview.
There had to be some merit to it.
“So what made you want to bring this to the public’s attention, Mr. Rathbone?”
“Simple,” James said. “Women like Kallie have always been after money and attention. My family warned me time and time again about her gold-digging ways, but I didn’t listen. I was in love with her. Head over heels. I was ready to move anywhere I needed to be and support her in any way necessary. And then Kallie left me at the altar.”
“Bullshit,” Ash said as he stood from the couch.
He turned on his television and blasted the entire interview throughout his apartment.
“She left you at the altar? Why?”
“Because she set her sights on a bigger fish,” James said. “And while I don’t want to drag her name through the mud, I do want to highlight that this is an issue that plagues the upper one percent. I know that’s an unpopular opinion to have, but with all of the progressive feminist movements happening in our age today, it’s important to know that women like her set those movements back. Kallie Semple is just one of a massive horde of women who hunt men down for their money. Women like Kallie set women’s rights and movements back decades.”
“Some people would say you’re doing this out of spite,” the woman said. “But you say you’re doing it out of some sort of respect for the feminist movement?”
“I try to support in my own way. I donate to their causes. I volunteer my time at women’s shelters. And every time a friend of mine comes to me and talks about how he got swindled by a woman who wanted nothing more than his money, it makes me burn. All of these women out there are trying to find equality in a world dominated by people like me, but the war has to be fought on both fronts. Men who take advantage of women need to be exposed, of course. But women who take advantage of men need to be exposed as well.”
“It’s an interesting theory, Mr. Rathbone. And a theory you speak of thoroughly in this article.”
The woman held up the fucking New York Times and Ash roared out into his apartment.
“In the article, you talk about how things ended with you and Miss Semple,” the woman said. “Do you care to elaborate for us?”
“Kallie and I planned our honeymoon together. Two weeks in St. Barts. Ash Worthington has a bungalow there at the resort we were staying at, and her plans changed.”
“Are you saying she planned to go to St. Barts for the explicit purpose of getting close to Mr. Worthington?”
“I’m honestly not sure. I don’t want to believe that about her, but it’s hard not to. At first, she didn’t really care about the honeymoon. Then all of a sudden, she was insistent on St. Barts. She grew distant. We didn’t see each other much. I figured it was pre-wedding jitters, and then she didn’t show up for the wedding. Left me high and dry. I didn’t even know what had happened to her until a charge came through on my credit card.”
“A charge?” the woman asked.
“Drinks,” James said with a chuckle. “My card was linked to our private bungalow for room service and drink service. That’s how I knew she took the trip to St. Barts anyway. After standing me up. She went to the island, conveniently found one of the wealthiest men on the East Coast, and she did it all on my dime. I mean, who does that? What woman doesn’t show up to her own wedding and then goes on the honeymoon trip alone? We all know they’re back in town together. Pictures of them in Central Park have been taken. You mean to tell me she’s back in town with a new billionaire boyfriend, and somehow these dots aren’t all connected somehow?”
“You sound like a bitter ex,” the woman said.
“I’m bitter because I loved her,” James said. “With every fiber of my being. I sold my apartment. Moved into a m
assive house I was readying for her to move into. She didn’t want to move until after we were married. She was hell-bent on staying independent until the last possible second. And now that I think of it, maybe I was blind. Maybe ... maybe she didn’t have any plans of marrying me at all.”
Ash couldn't tear his eyes away from the man on the screen. He watched James’s stare glisten over before he cleared his throat. Oh, the man was good. And even though he sounded very convincing, he had to trust Kallie. He trusted Kallie. He had to keep telling himself that. His Pretty Kallie wasn’t the type to do the kinds of things this man was talking about. According to her, James was the one who called off the wedding. Who was caught cheating with one of her bridesmaids. And her friend at the club backed that story up.
Kallie wouldn’t rope her friend into that kind of lie.
Right?
“So what happened when Kallie returned back from the island?” the woman asked.
“I tried to get her back. I couldn’t stop thinking about her. Even though she stood me up and even though it broke my heart, I wanted her back. Would’ve done anything to get her back. And for a while, it worked.”
“What do you mean ‘it worked’?” the woman asked.
“For a few days there, we saw each other. Got together. And I thought things would be okay. We talked out the wedding and what happened, and she admitted to being nervous about the wedding. To being self-conscious about all the people that would’ve attended that day. And, being the idiot I was, I offered her another chance. We could have a small wedding anywhere she wanted. Hell, I’d take her to the courthouse and we could be married with nothing but a magistrate and two witnesses! And I almost fell for it. She convinced me to buy her this beautiful necklace and everything to go with her future wedding dress. I thought we were rekindling our romance, hence the picture of us outside of that restaurant.”
“Then you found out about Mr. Worthington.”
“I did. And she wasn’t even the one to tell me. I didn’t know about Ash until the picture of them in Central Park holding hands was plastered all over the papers. She didn’t even tell me about him.”
