Mom…
I almost said that word.
She patted my leg before standing back up. “If you ever want to get coffee, I’m here. I’m here for anything you need, okay? But you never have to do anything for me. You never have to see me. You never have to talk to me. If you see me in a store, you don’t have to say hi. You can walk past me like we’re strangers, and I will never get angry with you. I’m letting you go, Sam.” She cupped the side of my face, and her thumb brushed over my cheek. “You’ll always be my baby girl,” she said lovingly, “but I’ll be whoever you want me to be.” She bent down, and I closed my eyes as she kissed me on the forehead.
I reached up, bringing my fingers to rest where she’d kissed me as she went back to the elevator. I tried to remember another time when she’d kissed me like that.
I couldn’t.
The elevator opened. She stepped inside, and the doors closed.
I sat there for another hour.
“Sam.”
I was finally leaving the hotel when I heard my name. Becky rested against Logan’s Escalade. She twisted her hands together and straightened as I drew near.
“What are you doing here?” I looked around. The lot was full of cars, but it was relatively quiet, like the lobby. A party bus pulled up to the front entrance, and a bunch of people staggered off it, laughing loudly.
“It was Adam.”
“What was?”
“Adam’s the one who turned in that video of Mason. He saw that one of the workers there had his phone out, and later he tracked him down. He edited the video so it looks like Mason attacked that guy for no reason. Here.” She held out a flash drive.
“What is it?” I took it.
“It’s the rest of the video. It’ll show that the guy’s about to hit you and Mason is just protecting you. It should get him off.”
“Why are you giving me this?”
“Because Adam’s wrong with what he’s doing.” She looked away. Shoving her hands in her back pockets, she looked like half the person she’d been. “I’m really sorry, Sam.”
I laughed. This had become the night of apologies somehow. “I… Why did Adam do that?”
“Because he’s still mad about how Mason humiliated him in high school.” She lifted her head, and her eyes swam with tears. “Because he knows you guys are behind getting his dad arrested, and because of Logan’s threat to go to law school with him.” She stopped and took a breath. “Adam’s not thinking straight right now. And he’s angry because…” She took another deep breath. “He’s angry that I broke off the engagement. He’s blaming you for that.” She nodded to the flash drive still in my hand. “He wanted to hurt you guys. This is me trying to make it right.”
She started to go, but I stepped forward. “Wait. You broke up with him?”
She nodded, her lip trembling. “He thinks it’s because his dad’s in legal trouble, but it’s not. I’ve always loved Adam, even before I loved myself. And I’ve always chosen him, but I’ve been thinking a lot over the last week. I still love him. I think it’s just in my DNA, but I don’t know. I think I need to start doing things for myself, you know? I can’t marry a guy and have our entire life already mapped out. I know it’s sudden and random, but—” She lifted her shoulder and rested her cheek against it. “Maybe it’s the fight with you guys. I’m just so tired of it. I don’t know if Logan’s really going to do the whole law school thing, but when he said that, it was like I got a wake-up call. Adam’s always going to fight someone. Whether it’s you guys or someone else. He hates Mason, and it’s like he chooses guys at school to hate, too. I was shocked when he said he wanted to make things right with you guys, but it was all a sham. Adam did know what Caldron was supposed to do. James insisted the two boys worked together, and it was his job too. He was supposed to distract Mason, too. He wanted to do it by being friends with him, but we all know that didn’t work out. I’m sorry.” She went back to twisting her hands together. “This is a lot of talking, and I’m probably not making any sense.”
“No. You are.”
She stopped twisting her hands and held still as her eyes found mine. She almost looked like a statue, like someone I used to know when life was simpler.
“I can never be friends with you. I know that now. I’ve been missing you all these years and thinking what I could have done differently, or what I could still do differently, but that opportunity is gone. Even if Adam’s my ex, I still have to be on his side. It wouldn’t be right to end things with him and then try to be friends with you again. That’s, like, unnecessary betrayal, you know?”