Page 133 of Dr. Aster
I frowned. The knot that had been twisting in my stomach since my confrontation with John’s mother tightened in a way that made me want to hurl or cry, whichever came first at this point.
“I wasn’t—” my voice cracked as I choked on my words, and I had to clear my throat. “Sorry. I wasn’t aware of any of this?”
“Jim and Chief Alan are hunting like crazy men to get someone to float over here and help you with the workload, but finding an OBGYN Oncologist is pretty difficult these days.”
“There’s not too many of them,” I answered, remembering why John had pursued the specialty.
“Nope,” he leaned forward and clasped his hands on the mahogany desk. “Have you ever considered the specialty?”
“It would take at least two more years of school, and unfortunately, money isn’t at my disposal because my parents don’t come from a long line of people who run the world like John’s,” I said snidely.
I couldn’t help but let some of the venom seethe out. After hearing this news, I was incensed. I should’ve been angry with myself because I knew from the beginning this could happen—even when he insisted it wouldn’t—but I wasn’t. I was angry with him. I wanted to be a bigger person, knowing that this was ultimately for the best because we weren’t socially compatible, and I was responsible for leaving Monaco the way I did and all that bullshit, but I wasn’t ready to deal with the big picture.
“There’s the pissed-off girlfriend I was hoping to find.”
“What does that mean?”
“I want to know what the hell happened. Why did my buddy, whom I just went on a ski trip to Aspen with, go MIA? Bad break-up?”
“I guess you could say that. If you could get through to the Secret Service and contact his mommy, you’d probably get all the answers you need.”
“Ah,” Jake smirked. “I’d love to say I could relate to the wealthy bitch mother who runs her children’s life with no remorse because she’s obsessed with her precious family name; however?—”
“You can’t because I assume your wealthy mother isn’t a control freak who manipulates you so much that you believe she actually loves you and is doing you a favor when she says that your girlfriend is a worthless nobody who could never love you the way you deserve?”
“Indeed,” he answered smugly. “My mother was a wealthy crack whore who locked my brother and me outside as children. She also banged anyone who walked through our front door while my dad busted his ass to build us the life we have today. So, yeah. Neat lady.”
“Oh, my God,” I said, eyes wide and feeling like an asshole for my comment. “I’m sorry. It was harsh of me to make assumptions about your family. I didn’t mean anything by it; it’s just burning me that the woman was so goddamn insistent that I’m not good enough for her son.”
“A momma’s boy, eh?” he grinned and shook his head. “Those are tough. They’re spoiled golden children, and the little angels can do no wrong.”
“Well, he sure did wrong when he brought me to his brother’s wedding, which didn’t even ultimately happen from what my sister told me,” I paused, trying not to sound as obsessed as I felt since John had ghosted me in every sense of the word. “Doesn’t seem that the golden child is golden anymore.”
“Ah, you don’t know how these wicked moms work, do you?”
“Apparently, I don’t.”
“Here’s a funny one for you,” he casually slumped into the chair, his chill demeanor and personality putting me at ease as I listened to Jake prepare to tell me a story.
“There was this family, the Browns, I think it was? It doesn’t matter. Anyway, they walked around like the biggest badasses on the planet, moving out of every house they lived in because every neighbor was jealous and out to get them. It didn’t take long for everyone to start figuring them out, though.”
“And what did they find?”
“They were miserable assholes who provoked everyone around them. If someone called them out on what one of their spoiled-ass sons did, they turned them into an enemy. They’d stop at nothing to make everyone’s life hell if anyone went up against them.”
“What’s the point in this story, Jake?” I said, not following him.
“Well, one of the sons and the old man clashed big time. They never saw eye-to-eye, always arguing and all that, so the kid pretty much runs away and gets married to prove he can be a big boy, but his parents’ disappointment made him try even harder to earn their love. The poor girl who fell for his damaged ass thought the bastard loved her, so they had multiple kids, and she spent years trying to help him with his family issues.”
“Okay?”
“Well, years later, she realized the same thing you would if you had stayed with John, given his current response to his family shit, and that is that she couldn’t fix his issues. She spent her whole adult life trying to be there for the man, but his family and their weird obsession with themselves had a stronger pull. He was never present with her because he was hardwired to put his family first and spent his life trying to get their approval.”
“That sounds pretty fucking dysfunctional,” I said.
“And look at how close you were to getting stuck into that shit.”
“There’s no way I would’ve gone into a life—a world—like that. God help me, I truly didn’t think John was anything like them.”