I hadn’t expected the bait to workthiswell.
outsider
. . .
Cade
Mac was a spineless coward.
Instead of running interference, he let my mother talk him into a spa appointment while she perched on a deck chair to watch our next activity with Lovejoy—group meditation.
It involved taking off our shoes, wearing loose linen pants, and sitting on the deck in a circle like schoolchildren.
I didn’t care for it.
“We’re taking it easy today after all the indulging last night,” Lovejoy said as we got settled. She winked at Ellie, who smiled sheepishly. “Let’s rest our bodies and nourish our souls. Close your eyes and breathe in deeply with me, hold for four seconds, then exhale slowly.”
Madison and Piper were the first to close their eyes, followed by Ellie and Harrison. Candace rolled hers before following suit, and I shared a glance with Vlad before doing the same. But I cracked one eye open long enough to see my mother glaring at the back of Ellie’s head.
No amount of meditation could help me relax right now.
My mother cornered me the second Lovejoy gave us a ten-minute break.
I was just grateful Ellie had already scampered back to our cabin to check on Whiskey, while the others grabbed cocktails at the bar.
“She’s not the one for you,” my mother stated bluntly, readjusting her strand of pearls. “It couldn’t be clearer that you don’t fit. Best-case scenario, she’s an outsider trying to claw her way into a finer life. Worst case, the scandal of this marriage will be the downfall of our entire family.”
I didn’t blink at her dramatics. Vivienne Westbrook had always been a fan of the theatre and her never-ending soap operas.
“You got all that from twenty minutes of watching her meditate?” I asked dryly.
She laughed airily before lowering her voice. “Be honest. Is this a cry for help? Are you having a mental breakdown?”
Now I stared. “A mental breakdown? Really?”
“Well, I can’t think of any other reason you’d throw out your standards and get involved with someone this far below you.” She frowned. “Unless she’s pregnant. If she thinks she can trap you with a baby?—”
“There’s no baby,” I bit out. Dideveryonethink Ellie was pregnant?
My mother’s sharp eyes narrowed. “Either way, she’s the kind of woman you hide behind closed doors, Caden. Not the kind you marry. Don’t make a fool of yourself. I’m your mother, and I know you better than you know yourself. That outsider has no business?—”
“Careful,” I warned, feeling my gaze cool. “That ‘outsider’ is my fiancée.”
“A fiancée who’s clearly not built for our life. She’s too soft. You need to end this before a divorce stains your image.”
I couldn’t help it—I laughed. “You’re really giving me relationship advice when you’re on divorce number eight? Or is it nine now? I’ve lost count.”
It was the wrong thing to say, and I knew it. But my mother needed to realize this wasn’t up to her.
She bristled, tone going cold. “I’m not the one up for a life-changing promotion. This is your future, and I won’t let you throw it away on some brainless gold-digging harpy.”
“Ellie’s neither a gold digger nor aharpy,” I said slowly, hardly believing she’d used such a ridiculous term. “And she’s not brainless. You don’t know her.”
“And whose fault is that?” She crossed her arms. “You haven’t given me a chance to know her. I wasn’t even aware you were seeing someone, and now you’re engaged. Do you know how heartbreaking that is for a mother?”
I winced, because it wasn’t something I would’ve done normally, and of course it’d hurt her.
“I’m sorry.” The words scraped like sandpaper against my tongue, but preserving the peace was crucial. “The proposal was recent, but I should’ve mentioned Ellie sooner. I wasn’t thinking.”