Chapter 47
Chapter 47
~CHASE
My mother found me near the bar.
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Before I could step around her, she closed her fingers around my arm and pulled with surprising strength for a woman who complained about back ache every day.
“Not now,” I said, already scanning the room for Blair. “I have something I need to do.”
“This cannot wait.”
“Mom.”
“Chase.” Her voice had that urgent edge she usually reserved for social emergencies and poorly seated dinner guests. “Who exactly is Blair?”
I looked at her properly then. Pale. Wide-eyed.
“What?”
“Who is she?” Mom pressed, still gripping my sleeve. “Because that was not some poor girl struggling to make a living up on that stage. That was a woman speaking for William Monroe like she had every right to. People were listening. Donors were listening. I need you to explain to me what I just watched.”
I sighed.
I had very little patience left for this conversation when Blair was somewhere in the same building.
“She’s Monroe’s daughter,” I said. “Apparently. A billionaire.”
My mother made a noise I had never heard from her before. Her hand left my arm and flew to her forehead like she needed to physically hold her head together.
“A what?”
“A billionaire,” I repeated. “William Monroe’s daughter. Monroe Athletics. That Monroe.”
She stared at me. Then she looked past me toward the stage as if Blair might still be standing there with a caption floating over her head. Then she looked back at me and whispered, with genuine horror, “I told that woman my son upgraded.”
“I know.”
“I told her she would have held you back.”
“I know.”
“I said she belonged in the background.”
“Mom.”
She sank onto the nearest chair like her knees had filed for resignation. One hand stayed on her forehead. The other pressed flat against her chest. “All this time. All this time she was a billionaire. Sitting in your apartment. Paying for things. Listening to me talk about ‘your matching success’ like a complete-Chase, I need water. Or a priest. Or a hole to climb into.”
Despite everything, a humorless breath left me. “You’re fine.”
“I am not fine.” She peered up at me, scandalized. “Do you understand what I said to her face? In public? At a charity event funded by her family? I essentially told a Monroe she was lucky you left her for the coach’s daughter. I need to leave the country,”
“You’re being dramatic.”
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“I am being reasonable,” she hissed. “This is the level of reaction required when you discover your former almost daughter-in-law could buy the building we’re standing in. Why didn’t you tell me?”
Chapter 47
“I only fully confirmed it recently
Recently” She closed her eyes, still holding her head. “And Sophie? Does Sophie know she has been competing with a billionaire and losing on every practical scale that matters?”
“Sophie knows enough.”
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Mom let out another wounded sound. “I praised that girl for elevating you. Elevating you. Blair Monroe could elevate entire franchises. Oh my goodness. I called her ordinary. I said so many things behind her back and to her face. Chase, if your father were alive, he would never let me forget this. He would bring it up every Christmas until one of us died.”
I dragged a hand down my face. “Can we not do this right now?”
“Oh, we are doing this.” She pointed a shaking finger at me. “You let me walk around that girl like she was a nobody. You let me insult her with my full chest. And the entire time she was William Monroe’s daughter. No wonder she looked so calm. She must have been internally writing my obituary”
“She clapped back fine on her own.”
“That is not comforting.” Mom leaned forward, still pale. “Tell me everything. How long did she know you? How long was she funding your life while I was at home thanking God you might eventually meet someone suitable? Did she pay your rent? Did she pay for gear? Did she-” Her eyes widened further. “Did the Monroes have something to do with your career?”
I didn’t answer fast enough.
Her mouth fell open. “They did. Of course they did. And I-I told her you upgraded.”
She dropped her face into both hands and made a muffled noise of pure regret.
“I need you to pull yourself together,” I said. “People are starting to look.”
“Let them look.” Her voice came out from behind her palms. “Let them witness a woman confronting the consequences of her own mouth. A billionaire, Chase A billionaire. I asked the universe for a strong match for my son and when one was already in his apartment cooking him dinner, I pointed him toward the coach’ s daughter like an idiot.”
“Mom.”
She lowered her hands just enough to stare at me. “Does she hate me?”
“Probably a normal amount.”
“That is also not comforting.”
I exhaled and glanced back toward the main floor, where Blair had disappeared into the crowd. The plan for the night still existed. Get to her. Talk. Remind her. But my mother was now a pale, obstacle in a chair, replaying every insult she had ever sent Blair’s way.
“I have to go,” I said.
Mom caught my wrist again, weaker this time. “If you speak to her, you will tell her I am unwell. That I may need medical attention. That my comments were made under severe lack of information. And that the medication I’ve been taking may have affected my brain and I didn’t mean most of the things I said. No. Tel her I didn’t meant any of those things I said to her.”
“I’m not telling her that.”
“Then tell her I have retired from speaking,” she said desperately. “Permanently.”
I pulled my wrist from her hand and stepped back before she could create a worse message. Behind me, my mother remained in the chair with one hand on her forehead and the expression of a woman who had just discovered she’d made a huge mess of things.
At least now I knew my mother approved of her. She didn’t in the past. But at least she did now.
Chapter 48
Dex Morgan
Dex works to elevate each story with clean writing, emotional balance, and thoughtful flow for readers.