Chapter 51

Chad drove straight to Jack’s house after leaving Andrew and Jack at the office. He pulled his Range Rover to the edge of the driveway and stepped out. Mrs. Poole answered when he rang the bell.

“Hey, Mrs. Poole,” Chad said as he dropped a peck on her cheek. She had been a fixture at Jack’s for so long that both he and Jack had begun to treat her like an aunt more than an employee. “I’m here to see my mom.”

“Hi, dear. I’m not sure where she is. Would you like me to find her for you?” Mrs. Poole responded.

“No, I’ll find her, thanks.”

He wandered through the rooms looking for his mom, and found her sitting in Jack’s living room reading the paper and drinking tea by the window. Mabry spotted him and silently put down her teacup. She set the paper aside before looking up at him.

Her expression was like that of an insolent little child who knew she was about to be scolded, but she laid her hands in her lap and greeted her son, “Hello, Chad. What brings you here in the middle of the day?”

Chad shook his head at her. He was afraid to open his mouth for a moment. Not because he was afraid of what she might think, but because he was afraid he wouldn’t be able to control himself. He had been holding back with his mom for so long, trying to protect her. There was so much built up in him, he was afraid it might all come spewing out in one fell swoop.

Chad stood with his jaw clenched and his arms crossed as he waited for his mother to say something. Unfortunately for his mother, his patience had been honed in his years as an army ranger. There was no question who would win this standoff.

His mother broke quickly. “Don’t look at me like that. This marriage isn’t real and you know it. I don’t know where he got her from, but Kelly is a fake trophy wife to get Jack past the terms of the will. I need to show the board that….”

“Stop it, Mother,” Chad spit out through clenched teeth, cutting her off mid sentence.

He’d had enough of his mother’s hate and anger affecting all of their lives. “What you’re doing is disgusting. It’s embarrassing and hurtful and cruel. Did you know Jack has been protecting you this whole time? He stands up for you. He made sure I didn’t come in and intervene between him and you. He thought that would hurt you too much and he didn’t want to see you hurt. His parents always stood up for you too, but you’ve lashed out at all of them, over and over.”

Now that Chad had started, he couldn’t stop. “For God’s sake, Mom. Jack’s dad was your brother, and for the last years of his life and the last years of his wife’s life, you treated them like enemies.”

Mabry sat with a stunned look on her face for most of his tirade, but now she stood and lashed back. “You don’t know,” she said slicing her hand through the air in front of her son as if to strike out at the words he had thrown between them. “How dare you judge me? You don’t know how it feels to have the person you love walk away as if you meant nothing. As if you were nothing. And then to have to watch them. To have to see how happy and perfect their family was.”

Chad couldn’t believe what he was hearing. He knew she was sick, but she was acting as if Jack’s parents, or even Jack himself, had something to do with his dad leaving his mom.

“Mom, stop! He left you. And that sucks. I wish to God he’d never hurt you. But you’ve let him turn you into this hateful person. It’s turned you into a person I don’t want to know anymore.”

Chad saw his mom begin to falter, but he couldn’t stop.

Frustrated, Chad rubbed a hand over his face. “You need to stop this, Mom. Jack loves Kelly. They’re married. It’s over. But more importantly, you have to listen to me. I don’t want to be the CEO of the company. I love you, but I also love what I do for a living. I need you to hear that, Mom. I need you to respect it. Respect me.”

His mother’s face fell.

“I love you, Mom, but I don’t love what you’ve been doing lately, and I don’t love the person you’ve become. You can’t do this anymore. If you can’t stop, you’re going to lose me. I know you’ve been angry since Dad left and you took that anger out on Jack’s parents, and lately on Jack. It needs to stop.” He walked out, leaving Mabry alone again.

Mabry sank back into the armchair and sat quietly for a long time. She tried to feel indignant. Or angry. Or righteous. But she suddenly couldn’t feel any of those things.

As she replayed her son’s words in her head, she knew he was right. Chad was right. When did I become this person? The changes in her had started when her husband walked out on her.

As she sat there and thought about what Chad had said, Mabry realized she didn’t like herself much either. Ten years later and she was still allowing him to hurt all of them, through her.

Oh God, what power I gave him. I let him do so much more damage than he deserved to be able to inflict.

It was as if she was waking up from a deep sleep and was finally able to see what was truly happening around her. The tears began to fall, and she cried for a long time before pulling herself together.

Mabry was ashamed as she sat in Jack and Kelly’s living room thinking about what she had been doing. But she also knew she needed to go make it right. With a sigh, she pulled herself up and went up to her room. She packed up her bag and drove the half-hour to Jack’s office to do just that.