Page 48 of The Sounds of Her
Having an overbearing mother trying to marry me off is nothing like a mom that up and left.
“So who is the guy?” Archer changes the subject.
For a moment I’m confused, then realise we’re back to my problem. “He works for a financial company in the city. Rich as shit and from a distinguished New York family. The Campbells.”
“Oh, the Campbells, well now I get it. Why wouldn’t you want to marry one of those?”
My head snaps to him, but he’s grinning. He doesn’t know who the Campbells are.
“What’s he look like?”
“What does that have to do with anything?”
“I mean, are they trying to tie you to an ogre?”
“That’s irrelevant,” I huff. “But he’s good looking,” I admit grudgingly. “He lied to me from the moment we met on Saturday night. That makes him ugly in my book.”
“Dipshit.”
I agree. We head towards the water and stop where the waves are breaking onto the sand.
“I can’t tell you what to do, Brooke, but if you want my advice, you need to run as far away as you can from this.”
“You don’t think the Seychelles was far enough?”
“You know what I mean. Can you live with it if their lives implode, knowing you can help?”
“Talk about getting to the heart of it,” I mutter.
“You can vent, that’s fine. If it’s all you want to do, I’m good with that. But letting this shit fester will not help. You already know the answer, but you’re struggling with it, right?”
“They’re still my parents.”
“And you’re still a person, not a commodity to use as they please. And not for that asshole to fuck around on so he can get money. Prick,” he mutters.
My heart thumps inside my chest. He’s right, I know he is. But it’s going to be hard fending my mother off, or to see what my refusing to help will do to them.
“In my experience, there is always more than one option, Brooke. This plan of theirs is ridiculous and borne out of desperation. They won’t lose their lives, they won’t end up on the streets, right? There has to be other ways to deal with their problem. They’re not looking at the alternatives because they think they’re owed something from you. They’re not. Just because you’re their flesh and blood doesn’t give them the right to do this to you or expect you to go along with it.”
He turns to face me. “When mom left, I would have given anything for her to come back. Shit, if someone said I had to get married to make it happen, I would have gone for it, because I was that desperate for my mom not to leave us.”
My eyes sting as I look at him. I can picture that vulnerable kid wishing for his mom to come home. Archer means what he is saying. That isn’t how I feel about my mother. I shouldn’t feel bad about it.
“Some women aren’t built to be moms,” he adds, looking over my head into the distance. “They don’t have to walk away to prove it. It’s in their actions, Brooke. Some walk away, some mistreat their kids, some are cruel, some…” he inhales then looks down at me. “Some are assholes who think they can control their kids when they have no right.”
“She’s relentless,” I say after a few moments of silence.
“If you stand up to her, what will she do?”
“Try to ruin me.”
“Jesus, you didn’t even have to think about that. Fuck.”
“Yeah well, she’s already told the Mayor,” I laugh. “I’m probably going to go home to an engagement announcement.”
“So change the narrative. Make it so she can’t do it.”
“How do you propose I do that?”