Now I was the one enraged. Yes, I had screwed up everything, but she could try to be more understanding. I thought Mason had been in love with me too. My heart was breaking. And what was my mother doing? Applying more salt to my wound.
The hole in my chest grew and grew. I was tired of how everything was about her, about how I had to behave for her, on how I had to dress for her, on how I had to look for her, what I had to say for her. I wanted to be my own person, to have my own life, to decide my own future.
I raised my chin and stuffed my chest. “That’s enough. I’m done.”
She stared at me as if I was speaking in riddles. “What are you done with?”
“You.”
A frown wrinkled her forehead. “What do you mean?”
“I can’t do this anymore. You can’t rule me as if I were a slave. I’m a person and I have my own wishes, wishes that you never bothered to learn. Hell, you never bothered to know anything about me.”
“But, Charlotte, everything I do for you, everything I chose for you, it’s in your best interest. I would never do something less than stellar for you.”
I shook my head. “Even now, you don’t get it. It’s not about what you want for me, Mom. It’s about what I want for me.”
“Don’t be ridiculous, Charlotte.” She gestured to the newspapers on her desk. “Didn’t you just prove that you can’t decide anything by yourself?”
I pressed my lips into a thin line and clenched my fists, counting to twenty, because ten wouldn’t do it. Rage and frustration swam in my veins. “I’m out.”
I turned my back to her and marched to the door.
“Charlotte, what are you doing?” my mother asked, her tone rising a little.
“I’m leaving.”
She gaped at me for a moment. “You can’t do this. Look at the mess you caused. You want to add more wood to the fire?”
I paused. I knew this would make things look worse, but I couldn’t sit here and let my mother rule my life and stomp on my dreams because I had ruined her precious career. Come on! Ruined was too strong of a word. Maybe I had caused a huge bump, but she would survive this. After all, the picture was of me, not her. She could simply spin this story, saying I was crazy and she had tried everything to help me, but I was too far gone. Then she would redeem herself by visiting some mental institutions. Or whatever other insane story her publicists could come up with.
I turned the doorknob. “Goodbye.”
“Charlotte Anne McClain!” she yelled. “If you walk out of that door now, be prepared to never come back!”
I looked at her one more time. She would forgive me someday, even if it was in thirty or forty years, when she was dying of old age.
Taking a deep breath, I walked out of her office.
Chapter Nineteen
Charlotte
I left the Executive Mansion as soon as I finished packing two bags with some clothing and other essential things. It had been a pain to drive by the reporters as they threw themselves over my car, but I had made it. As I expected, I was followed, but nothing that driving around in circles, and entering and exiting interstates didn’t solve.
I drove around until it was late night, then turned on my phone and called the only person I could think of. The hundreds of voice mails didn’t escape me, but I ignored them all, and as soon as my call was over, I turned my phone off again.
Perhaps it wasn’t my wisest decision to date, but I didn’t have anywhere else to go. The two-hour drive to Washington passed in a blur. Numbness and shock still inhabited my senses, and I wasn’t so sure I would ever recover from their marks. Not so soon, at least.
Liana waited for me in front of her house. She opened the garage and I parked my car inside. I felt bad for making her father leave his car in the driveway so I could hide mine, but it was his suggestion since my car was easily recognized.
As soon as I stepped out of my car, Liana brought me in for a bear hug. I sagged in her arms, and the tears I was able to fight until then fell mercilessly.
“It’s going to be okay, hon,” she said, rubbing my back.
She let me cry and snot all over her for what seemed like an eternity. When I finally was able to take a deep breath without tearing up, she brought me inside her house. Her parents were in the kitchen, waiting for me with fresh coffee and chocolate cake.
I smiled and teared up again.
Joan put her arms around me, and guided me to a stool around the kitchen island. She cut me a piece of cake, brought me a mug of coffee, and then sat beside me. Liana sat on the other side. Then the four of us sat there, in silence, for a long time.
It wasn’t an uncomfortable silence. Quite the opposite. It was comforting and secure. I knew I was safe here, though they wouldn’t be. If I were discovered, it would end their peace. I couldn’t do that to them.
“Thanks for taking me in,” I said.
“You’re always welcome here,” Joan said.
“I know, but I shouldn’t stay long. The paparazzi might find me here and it’ll be a nightmare for you.”
“We don’t care about that,” Liana’s father said.
I smiled again. “Thanks, but I do. Besides, I have to think about what to do with my life now. Should I stay in the city, move to another state, hide for a few months? And there’s school. I have to decide what to do about it. Drop out? Take a break while I hide? Change maj—”
Joan reached over and squeezed my hand. “You don’t have to decide anything now. Right now, you’re going to go to bed and try to sleep. Tomorrow is a new day and you can start thinking about what you want to do. But no rush, okay? You can stay here as long as you want.”
I knew she really meant that, but I wouldn’t put them in the spotlight too.
“Thanks,” I said, feeling a tiny bit better since this mess exploded.
Mason
David and I stared at the TV as the reporter showed the latest news: Charlotte driving away from the Executive Mansion. Some tried following her, but she was too smart and drove around until they lost her.
I had called her five hundred times since I saw the newspaper this morning. At first, she didn’t pick up. Now, her phone was turned off and the call went directly to her voice mail.
That didn’t stop me from trying again.
“Hello, this is Charlotte McClain. I can’t answer now. You know what to do. Bye!”
I threw my phone on the floor and punched the coffee table. “Goddammit.”
“Hey!” David interjected. “Please, don’t break our apartment.”
I grunted.
When David got home late this afternoon, he seemed a little wary because of the newspaper story. Of course, he didn’t know the truth, and to him, since they accused me of taking advantage of her for money, he sort of believed it. He was also upset that I had hidden Charlotte’s identity from him, even when he knew she looked familiar.
“I knew I had seen her before. I just had no idea from where,” he said. I knew he would connect the dots sooner or later, but I didn’t think it would be like this. With my name all over the news. “Did you do it?” David asked.
“No!” I shouted. Come on, did he really think I had sent those pictures? “I never cared about her money. She could be penniless and I would still love her.”
He stared at me, appraising me. “Love her?”
I sighed. “Yes. I love her.” I had never said it out loud. In truth, I hadn’t even acknowledged it to myself until now. Now that it was out, I knew I really loved her. “With all my heart and soul.”