Our Now and Forever(84)

“I saw him,” she said, cutting her eyes to Snow. The loathing in their blue depths made the younger woman step back. “He was waiting outside that night.”

“You’re out of your mind.” That had to be the answer. What kind of a person would tear her own son apart like this? “There was no one outside that night. Tell him you’re lying.”

She had yet to learn the source of Caleb’s strong feelings about cheating, but Snow understood what Vivien’s accusation meant. Infidelity was the one thing that could take Caleb away from her. The one thing Snow never feared because she knew she had never and would never cheat on her husband.

With a steady gaze, Vivien continued to lie. “Someone must have dropped him off. She ran to him the moment she was out of the house, and then they drove off together in her car.”

Caleb’s eyes were on her face, but it was as if he were looking through her. “You have to listen to me,” Snow pleaded. “There was no one else. There’s never been anyone else.”

“I can’t do this,” he said, pulling away from her.

Vivien went in for the kill. “I saw him with my own two eyes. She left you for another man and forced me to betray you. She tried to turn your own mother against you, and now she’s taking you away from your family. Staying here means falling for her endless manipulations. What’s going to happen when she finds another man? Do you really think she won’t leave you again?”

Snow ignored her mother-in-law, keeping her focus on Caleb. The more he backed away, the more she followed. When he reached the wall, she took his face in her hands and made him look at her. “I love you, Caleb. I always loved you. There’s no one else and there never was. You know I’m telling the truth. Look in my eyes. You have to see that I’m telling the truth.”

He wanted to believe her. She could feel it in his grip on her arms. See it in his eyes. But Vivien had planted doubts. She was making him choose between them, and knew she had the upper hand. As if determined to fire the final shot, his mother played her last card.

“You’ve watched me be made a fool of, Caleb. Don’t let her do to you what your father has done to me. Come home and we’ll put an end to this entire episode.”

Episode. As if Snow was nothing more than a bad plot twist in Caleb’s life.

“Please,” Snow begged. “Don’t let her destroy what we have. This is real, Caleb. I love you.”

Seconds passed, and Snow clung to hope. The hope that he would see his mother for the liar that she was. But then he pushed her away.

“I need to think,” Caleb said, and disappeared out the back door.



Once the shock of Caleb leaving wore off, Snow turned on Vivien. “How could you do that to him? He’s your son!”

“And that’s why I have to protect him from women like you,” she said, looking for all the world as if she’d just purchased a toaster and not destroyed her own offspring.

“Caleb is out there hurting, trying to decide which of the women in his life is lying to him,” Snow said.

Vivien didn’t look the least bit concerned. “I’m his mother. He’s never going to doubt me.”

“Wake up, Vivien. This isn’t your stupid country club.” As her mother-in-law turned to leave the storeroom, Snow cut her off. “This is the real world, where money doesn’t always win. You think you’re so damn important because you can buy whatever you want, but you can’t buy yourself a soul. Or a heart. Or your son once he figures out that I’m the one telling the truth.”

With a tilt of her head, Vivien said, “It’s cute that you think my son will choose you over me, but that’s never going to happen.”

“He’ll choose a bitter, cold woman with nothing to cling to but her fancy purse and a bottle of gin? Not likely. This world will continue to spin whether you’re here or not. And Caleb and I will be happy long after you’re gone.” Snow stepped aside to clear the path. “What you did was guarantee that your son will never speak to you again. And though I’m sure you’ll blame me for that, rest assured, we both know that was all you. Now get the hell out of my store.”

Though the armor was still up, Snow had landed a shot hard enough to make the woman waver on her feet. Her mouth pinched into a tight knot, Vivien McGraw kept her head up as she marched through Snow’s Curiosity Shop. If she had any heart at all, she might regret what she’d done. She might even find Caleb and confess her lies.

But the McGraw matriarch was nothing but an empty shell of a woman, and Snow knew full well she would never do the right thing.