Simple Perfection

to know. He held it over my head that he controlled my life. If I wanted this world, then I had to bend to his will. Yet all along it would become mine on my twenty-fifth birthday or in the event of my father’s death. Whichever came first. There was no running from this now.
    I thought about knocking and changed my mind. My mother needed to stop acting like a child. I was all she had left. It was time she accepted Della in my life, because I was getting a ring on her finger as soon as I could convince her of it. I knew Della well enough to know that it wouldn’t be easy to get her to marry me. With my world completely morphing into something I hadn’t expected, I wanted the security of knowing that when I came home Della would be there.
    I started to reach for the doorknob when the door swung open. My eyes lifted to see Angelina Greystone standing in the doorway of my parents’ house with an innocent smile on her face. The evil twinkle in her eye couldn’t be masked by her attempt to appear nice. I had almost married this woman so that I could get the club that was going to become mine anyway. My father had made me believe I had to marry Angelina to get the promotion and future I deserved.
    What my dad hadn’t banked on was Della walking into my life and showing me there was more for me than a loveless marriage to a heartless bitch.
    “We were expecting you. Your mother is in the sitting room with some chamomile tea I made for her. She needs to see you, Woods. I’m glad you took her feelings into consideration and didn’t bring that girl.”
    The one thing I did know, despite what the witch had just said, was she knew Della’s name. She might have wanted to pretend like she had never heard of her and didn’t know her, but she did. She was just being spiteful. What I didn’t know was why the fuck she was at my mother’s house.
    I pushed past her and walked into the house without responding to her. I knew where my mother was without her help. The sitting room was the place my mother always went to be alone. She would sit on the white velvet chaise lounge that had once been my grandmother’s and she would stare out at the water through the large picture windows that lined the room.
    I ignored the click of Angelina’s heels as she followed behind me. Everything about her grated on my nerves. Her being here in the middle of a family situation on the day of my father’s funeral only added to my disgust. Why was she doing this? What did she think this would win her? I owned it all now. Me. Not my father. And certainly not my mother. I was now the Kerrington in control.
    “Mother,” I said as I walked into the sitting room without knocking. She didn’t need a chance to send me away. Not that I would go without having this conversation. As wrong as she had been, I loved her. She was my mom, even though she had always stood beside my father and never once thought of me. It had always been about what they wanted for me. But it didn’t make me love her less.
    She didn’t turn her attention from the gulf view outside. “Woods, I was expecting you.” Nothing more. It hurt. We had both lost a part of our lives with my father’s death. She didn’t see it that way. She never would.
    I walked over to stand in her line of view. “We need to talk,” I replied simply.
    She shifted her eyes to look up at me. “Yes, we do.”
    I could have let her control this conversation but I wasn’t going to. It was time I set some boundaries. Especially now that I had Della with me and we were back in Rosemary.
    “At least he came alone.” Angelina’s voice came from the door and I jerked my head to glare at her intrusion. She wasn’t a part of this.
    “This doesn’t concern you. You may leave,” I replied in a cold tone.
    She flinched.
    “She is a part of this. She’s going to stay with me. I need someone here so I’m not alone and Angelina understands that. She’s a good girl. She would have made an excellent daughter-in-law.”
    I understood my mother’s pain at losing my father was fresh—and she was in pain. But I wouldn’t let her control this. It was time I made some things very clear for both of them. “She would have been a selfish spoiled bitch of a daughter-in-law. I was lucky enough to realize it before it was too late and I ruined my life.” I heard both of their sharp intakes of breath but I wasn’t about to let them speak. “I control everything now, Mother. I will take care of you. I will