Winning Back Mr. Right

Chapter 33

•Kevin's POV•

I'm sitting near my office window, tossing my lucky ball hand to hand and against the wall. A moment later, a loud, hard knock brought me back to my day's work.

"Sir, your mother is here," my secretary informs me.

I stood immediately, alarmed of my mother's flushed face. "What happened? Are you alright?"

"Your father dropped by my house last night, drunk. He was so furious, Kev. He even threatened to kill my husband."

"What? Why would he do that?"

"He hates me for talking to you."

The idea of my mom breaking down already hurts and seeing her weep like this, makes my head pound. "Do you want me to talk to him?"

"No! Don't do that. Please." She pleads and falls into my arms.

"What do you want me to do, mom? Talk to me."

"I don't know." She cries and embraces me real tight.

"Please stop crying. He's an asshole. Let him rot, for all I care."

"No. Don't say that. Your father loves you, Kev. He just...he just doesn't know how to show it."

I can't believe what I'm hearing right now. Is she defending him?

"Kevin, I need to tell you something."

"What is it? Dad said you lied to me. Are you ready to tell me the truth now?"

Her normally calm and pleasant demeanor slowly changes and her face contorts in an all-consuming burden of the past.

"I'm the worst person to love, Kev. I didn't tell you the whole story because...because I wouldn't stand you hating and leaving me too."

"I'm your son. I love you and I will never leave you. Now tell me the truth."

She tries to catch her breath in between her sobs.

"It's true that I was not pregnant with you when I met him. He's your real dad. It's also true how we crossed each other's paths, how we started a life together, all of it."

"What did you lie about then?"

"What I couldn't tell you. What I can't bear to confess is that...w-we had it all planned out."

"We? What do you mean we? Who's we?"

"Mr. Sato. He and I...we...he planned out everything and I agreed to do it. I was his...I was a..."

"Mom, I don't understand. Please stop crying. If you can't say it now, it's ok. I won't force you."

"I want to tell you everything."

"Ok. I will listen. Don't be scared to talk to me." I assure her.

"I was..." She sniffs. "I was a prostitute back then, Kev."

My jaw drops to her unexpected confession. Hearing the word prostitute tightened my chest.

"I was a prostitute and Mr. Sato owns me. I was his bitch. He said he'd set me free if I make Tristan fall in love with me. It was his condition and I was willing to do anything, everything just to live a better life."

"Mom..."

"He brought me to the hotel where your father is that night and I worked my way to his life. Tristan, he was a good man then. I didn't know that until I lived with him. He gave me the world, Kev. He loved me with all he has and I fell in love with him, too. And I will always love him."

"Take it slow. You're crying too much, ma."

"I wanted to stop, believe me. I didn't want to hurt him any more than I already did. But Mr. Sato, he was persistent. I never knew why he wanted to hurt Tristan. He wouldn't tell me. He just made me his pet. He calls in the middle of the night wanting to hear updates about our life. Tristan finds me over the phone some nights and I could sense suspicion on his face."

"What did he do?"

"Nothing. He did nothing. Tristan loved me too much to even ask. When you came into our lives, I thought Mr. Sato was done. But he wasn't. He was just obsessed in bringing him down. There was a time when you were five, I brought you to this park and he appeared. I was so afraid of him. He threatened to kill you if I didn't jeopardize your dad's work. He would let me copy files from his folder and send it to him. He made me do things I didn't agree to. I was...I was so scared."

"Calm down, ma. You're scaring me."

"One of Tristan's business fucked up because of me. We would fight often after that and I met Madison in one of my therapy sessions. I couldn't sleep. I couldn't eat."

"You don't have to tell me everything now. You're crying too much. You need to rest."

"Kevin, please let me finish. One night, we were at this big party and Mr. Sato was there, too. I couldn't think straight. Tristan noticed my pacing and he started asking. That fucking devil approached us and revealed everything to him. He even showed a copy of...of our sex tape together and I just wanted to die that night. I wish I did."

"Shit."

"Your father, he was so mad. When we got home, he closed his fists and crouched forward, daring me to repeat once more the words that had torn him into fragments." My mom's breathing becomes shorter in between sobs.

"He wasn't mad at me. He was mad at you. And he blamed it all on me because I was there."

"Kevin... I'm so so so sorry... Please forgive me. Please forgive him, too. Your father, Tristan...he has been through so much pain, he doesn't know how to feel happy anymore. And I'm the coward who couldn't begin to live my life until now because of what I have done. I'm a liar and a fucking whore! I didn't deserve him. I left him even if he's the only constant thing in my life."

"My god, mom. You still love him. But I thought you love Madison?"

"Madison is a very good friend of mine, Kev. But we both know he's gay. His father wanted him to marry so as not to humiliate their family and I wanted to escape from Tristan so we married, lived a good life together, as friends. I divorced your father so Mr. Sato wouldn't use me anymore to destroy him. I left for Paris until that son of a bitch died."

"You felt safe to come back here in L.A. when you knew he was dead."

"Yes."

"Come here." I said as I pull her gently back to me. She used up all her energy crying. It was a twenty-one-year worth of tears and she's completely worn out.

"I forgive you, ma. And I think, you should forgive yourself, too."

She drew out another set of sobs but this time out of relief.