Cameron x Nash Short Stories - cash -

The Gilded Age Part Eight

I stare at my mother and I frown, trying to gauge her honesty. Her eyes are wide and she looks distressed, I never really knew her personality too well because she never spoke to me. I try to think about how Cameron was in the beginning of our relationship and I wonder if that man was capable of emotionally scarring me for life for his own gain. I decide to hear her out if only to get the story on how Cameron even came to own me in the first place.

"Let's go to my room, I don't want anyone to overhear us." I tell her and she nods immediately, she looks so unsure of herself and I've never seen her look that way before. What if she's telling the truth? I have no idea what I would do, I love Cameron so much but this information has shaken me to the core.

She follows me upstairs and I lock the door behind us, if Cameron comes up to find me, I'll have a heads up when he tries to open the door.

I sit on the bed and she sits down next to me, I turn to face her and I wait for her to start talking to me.

"15 years ago your father worked for the Dallas family's corporation. The very one Cameron runs today. His father was still at the helm at that time and your father was CFO, you were only 4 at the time so you might not remember much about that time. We lived a lifestyle similar to this, obviously not as grand as this because we weren't billionaires but we lived in a smaller mansion. We had memberships to the country club, we were invited to every black tie gala event. Your father was very close to John. Your father was embezzling hundreds of thousands of dollars from the company. The total was close to 15 million dollars, he was using the money on lavish vacations that we took, he bought luxury cars and we owned homes in multiple spots of the world, all very exclusive and expensive. When he got caught he panicked, he didn't want to go to jail. He begged John not to press charges and in return he offered you, my baby boy." She says, her eyes are starting to tear up. I listen intently to her story and I have some very vague memories of what she's describing.

"It seemed so archaic to me at the time, offering your first born son in exchange for forgiving 20 million dollars? He begged and pleaded with me to agree, he swore that he would kill himself if he had to go to jail so in order to save his life, I agreed. That was the worst decision of my life. There is nothing I regret more than that decision. We had to sell everything because we could no longer afford to maintain it. We were able to live off of the proceeds for a few years but Chad was never the same, we both had gotten used to the lavish lifestyle that we had. We had already signed custody of you to the Dallas family but they allowed you to stay with me, Cameron was a teenager only 15 years old when all of this started. They weren't sure what to do with you and when Cameron turned 18 it was decided that you would be his partner. I wish I had fled the country with you, we could have gone to some small island and made a life for ourselves but I was so stupid and scared that I didn't ever do it. Cameron was very specific in his requests to me, he provided for your education and other expenses but I had to keep an emotional distance from you because he wanted to mold you exactly into what he wanted in a partner." She continues and her voice breaks slightly as she continues with her story.

It honestly seems plausible that she's telling the truth, my heart starts pounding and my hands shake. It's because of Cameron that I had such a shitty upbringing. He alone is not to blame my parents definitely caused this but he's the one that requested that my mother emotionally neglect me. I was so lonely and my self-esteem was poor because of that.

I blink back tears because I don't want her to see me cry. I can't forgive her for what she did, she was not innocent in this and I know she's trying to paint herself as some sort of martyr but she was an adult with a child, she's not stupid like she claims. She didn't leave out of self-preservation and she may regret her choices now but that doesn't mean anything to me, the damage has already been done.