Page 30 of Renegade Rift
That I’d be the object ofhiswrath.
I shake the memories from my head. “It doesn’t matter.”
He chews the inside of his cheek while searching my face for answers. “Why are you protecting him after he left you to deal with all of this?”
“Why do you care?”
“Because I made a promise,” he admits softly.
“You and your promises,” I say with a halfhearted chuckle. “Who could possibly mean so much to you that you’d pay over a million to settle a debt?”
“My mother.”
My mouth goes dry. Of course. “And what could the great Tawny have made you promise that would make you finally show up for someone other than yourself?”
“Don’t.” He steps back and hits me with a dagger sharp glare. “You can hate me. Punish me in every imaginable way. But don’t patronize my mother.”
“What did you promise her?”
He runs a hand through the long brown tangles of his hair and swallows hard. “Two years ago, she was diagnosed with stage four ovarian cancer. There wasn’t anything the doctors could do. Within a month, she withered away before my eyes. But she never lost her spark. Not until the end. Three days before she died, during one of her last truly lucid moments, she let me know she called Tyler’s dad and forgave him for everything. She knew she couldn’t ask me to do the same. I still hate the bastard for what he did to our family, but she made me promise to fix things with Tyler.”
“The fight,” I whisper.
It wasn’t two years ago. Maybe a year and a half. Tyler came home from that game absolutely livid. He broke every glass we had after drinking God knows how much whiskey. I hid in our room, praying he’d pass out before making it to the bedroom.
He didn’t. And I had bruises for weeks on my hips and thighs.
Ford nods. “That was my first attempt to try and talk to him.”
“I’m sorry you lost her.” It’s all I can say. As much as I want to call bullshit and tell him it’s a terrible reason to pay over a million dollars, it’s exactly the kind of thing Ford would do for his mother.
“Me too.” His voice waivers past his quivering lips as he drops his gaze to the floor. “She was better than all of us.”
I wish that were true. Yes, Tawny was an amazing woman, but I know all too well she perpetuated Marcus’ perfect image of Ford. She couldn’t help it. Ford was her son and while she loved Tyler, he wasn’t her blood.
“I can appreciate your need to fulfill your mom’s dying wish, but Ford.” I pause and wait for him to look up at me. When he does, I silently plead for him to understand. “I can’t let you do this.”
He chuckles. “Fortunately, it’s not your choice.”
“But—”
“Maybe someday you’ll tell me the whole story of how you got here. But for now, I want you to start over. You aren’t tied to this city or Tyler anymore. You can live those dreams I know you once had. Go back to California. Open a restaurant. Hell, go see the pyramids. You can do it all.”
I can.
The quietest part of my heart flutters at all the possibilities.
I wouldn’t even know where to start.
“How about with calling your parents?”
I look up, only just realizing I said that last thought out loud.
“No.”
His brows knit together. “Why not?”
“I—” He doesn’t know the lengths I went to sever that link. The things I said—I’m not sure I can take them back. I always dreamed maybe someday, but I didn’t think I’d actually live to see it.
