All or nothing (Love in chaos #1) - Missy Johnson Page 0,8
breath as she slams the door shut in my face. It opens again a few seconds later, only this time she's covered herself up. Not that it makes much difference, because the image of my sixty-year-old mother in tight, lacey lingerie has been permanently burned into my mind. Growling, I rub my eyes.
“What are you doing here?” she frets when she finally finds her words. Then her eyes widen as she realizes what’s going on. “You’re…” She swallows, her voice fading, like the sentence is too mortifying to finish. “Oh God,” she moans. “I knew this was a mistake.”
“Thirty-eight, huh, Mom?” I snap, irritation lacing my voice. “Thirty years ago, maybe.”
“People are always telling me I don’t look my age,” she replies defensively.
“That doesn’t mean you halve it,” I say with a frantic laugh.
“Oh, like you can talk,” she growls. “Your whole profile was a complete lie.” She closes her eyes and shakes her head, like she’s trying to erase this moment from her mind.
“Look, Mom—”
“Go,” she cuts me off as she closes the door in my face. “Get out of here. We can talk about this tomorrow.”
I stand there, feeling paralyzed by what just went down. The overwhelming sense of repulsion makes my stomach turn, but at the same time, I feel bad for her. I had no idea she was dating again. Part of me wants to knock on the door again and try to fix this, but I feel like I’d only make things worse.
The only thing that’s going to fix this is alcohol, and a lot of it.
Striding through the lobby, I get out of the hotel as fast as I can and head across the parking lot to my car. My mind keeps running through what just happened, and something isn’t making sense. I didn’t lie in my profile at all. If anything, I was too honest. Sure, my photo didn’t show my face, but it showed the rest of me, including the small birthmark that’s on my left forearm.
Why and how did she not recognize me?
I’m still thinking about it as I climb into my seat and click on my belt. I turn the key, just as my phone rings. Jake’s name flashes on the screen and I instantly know he has something to do with this.
“You answered.” He sounds surprised, but I can tell it’s not sincere. “I thought you’d be out on a hot date, or something.”
“And why would you think that?” I ask suspiciously.
“Call it intuition,” he replies.
“What did you do?” I growl, my fingers tensing around the phone. I’m not sure how he did it, but I know he has something to do with this.
“What do you mean?” he asks innocently. “Wait… you think that I convinced your mom to sign up to a dating site and then baited you into reeling her in?” My fingers clench tightly around my phone as his chuckles echo down the line. “What kind of psycho do you take me for?”
“And you put Mason up to suggesting the site to me?” I guess, placing the pieces together. “What do you have over him to make him agree to that?”
“What makes you think he didn’t just offer to help me out?” Jake sneers. “Maybe he wants to screw you over as much as I do.”
“You’re fucking insane,” I hiss, not believing that for a second. “Fuck with me all you like, but why did you have to bring my mother into this?” I ask. “You’re a psychopath.”
“No, I’m just doing what I need to do to win the bet.” His voice is low, and there’s an underlying coldness I’ve never heard before. “You might as well hand over your company to me now, save yourself any further embarrassment.”
“You haven’t won yet,” I grumble. “I’ve still got time.”
“Yeah, time to find a new job.”
The lack of humanity in his voice makes me shiver. Part of me was hanging onto the small possibility that maybe he’s just messing with me, that all he’s after is the validation that he won, but now I’m positive that’s not the case. He’s going to go through with this.
He wants to destroy me.
And if he does, everything I’ve accomplished through the last six years will be for nothing. All the hard work I put into rebranding and increasing the profitability of a company that was on the brink of bankruptcy when I first took over will be for fucking nothing.
Jake probably assumed, like everyone else, that I had it easy inheriting