“Language! Ugh, you have no manners. This is why we can't talk.”
A snort of disbelief escaped him. “Sure, my language is the cause of problems between us.”
“Do this for me,” Leela tried again, coaxing him. “Be an obedient son. Don’t embarrass me in front of my friends.”
“Why would I care what you want? You seem to forget that we hate each other.”
“You can’t hate me. I’m your mother.”
“Biologically, yes. Unfortunately,” he added, watching a familiar look of loathing overtake her expressions.
“You were always a thankless little prick,” she spat, her face contorting in fury. No amount of fillers and makeup would hide the ugliness of Leela Shetty for him.
“Me?”
“I brought you under the notice of that family. Do you think they would want their daughter to be married to you if I hadn’t built you up?”
“I do not want your help finding a wife.”
“But you will take your grandmother’s help, won’t you?” she jeered, her mask finally dropping. “I am your mother. You should be listening to me, not her!”
Rian shook his head, unable to hold back from responding to her hateful comments. “Whatever sick competition you are in with Nanamma is in your head. Leave her out of this.”
“You will marry the woman I pick for you,” Leela ordered, a manic look in her eyes. “That family will bring us more wealth and fame. Did you hear Mr. Dasavi mention how much is in his daughter’s name? All that will be mine if you just marry her.”
“Yours?”
“What is yours belongs to me. You think you would have this success if it wasn’t for me?”
Rian took a step back, feeling his throat close in disgust. There was no point in arguing with a belligerent drunk.
“Go back inside and spend time with people who pretend to like you. I am not one of them.”
He strode away, feeling claustrophobic in Leela's presence. Descending the stairs swiftly, he slipped into the back kitchen, weaving through his employees. The clang of dishes, barked orders, and chaos of a busy dinner service surrounded him. Unfortunately, Leela had followed right behind.
“I pushed you to achieve something in your life!” she cried, her voice rising despite having an audience. “You would have stayed a worthless little shit, whoring your way through cheap trash if I hadn’t demanded you to be better! You owe me!” When he still showed no sign of acceding to her, she picked up a glass nearby and launched it at him.
Pain exploded between his shoulder blades, the sound of glass shattering near his feet bringing the entire kitchen to a standstill. Two of his employees immediately approached him, the worry on their faces clear.
Before they could check him for injuries Rian turned and charged at his mother, his vision red.
Perhaps Leela realised the depth of his fury because she stepped back, apprehension flickering across her face. He stopped an arm’s length away, unbridled disdain for this woman who called herself his mother spiking within him. The pressure behind his eyes built, every bad memory of her callous treatment of him crashing upon him over and over again, threatening to submerge him in a tsunami of hate he had worked hard to claw his way out of.
“All I owe you,” he informed her, his fists clenched as he held back the urge to smash it into the wall next to her face, “is the last name that you married into and the same blood that you have drawn many times. I put up with you in public because I don’t want to feed gossip. If you ever get physically violent with me or my staff again, especially in my place of work, I will forget every consideration I have shown you, public perception be damned.”
Leela glared at him, her stubborn expression showing no regret for her behaviour.
He spoke softly, a deathly chill in his voice as he moved past her towards the exit. “This is my final warning, Mother. Don’t test me. You won’t like the results.”
19
Mistakes
Rian
Ishould have gonehome,Rian thought, sitting in the dark upper balcony of the posh club he was in, watching people around him have fun and make merry. The episode with his mother had brought back memories he wished he could forget. Despite his friends trying to involve him in their fun, his altercation with Leela had put him in a terrible mood.
He was struggling. Worse, no one truly knew how bad things were with him and Leela. How hard he worked to come out from the shadows she’d thrust him under.