“I don’t regret protecting my sons,” she said stiffly. “I’d do it again. You’ll understand when your son or daughter is born. You’ll understand why I did what I did. With parenthood comes the knowledge that you’ll do anything at all for your child. You’ll protect them with everything you have. You can’t just stand by and let your child make the worst mistake of their life and do nothing. Come talk to me in a few years. Then ask yourself if you still hate me so much.”

He was dumbfounded by the lengths she went to justify her actions. They weren’t simply morally reprehensible. They were criminal!

“I would hope that I never act as you have, that I’d never hurt an innocent woman just because I didn’t think she was good enough. Here’s what you don’t understand, Mother. She’s a better person than you’ll ever be. Not good enough? We aren’t good enough for her. We’ll never be. I just have to hope to hell she’ll accept and forgive me despite the worthless excuse for a family that I have.”

His mother’s eyes burned with outrage. “You’re a typical man. Thinking with the lower portion of your anatomy. You’re completely blinded by lust, but in a few years you won’t look at her with the same lovesick puppy eyes. Then you’ll thank me for trying to protect you. You can do better than her, Ryan. Why can’t I make you see that?”

Ryan shook his head, sadness and grief so thick in his chest he could barely breathe. “I’ll never thank you for this. You’re nothing to me anymore. I’ll never subject my wife or children to your poison.”

Her face whitened with shock. “You don’t mean that!”

“I mean it. You aren’t my mother. I have no mother. I have no family save Kelly and our child. I’ll never forgive you for this. Stay away from me. Stay away from Kelly. If you ever come within a hundred yards of my family, I’ll forget that you gave birth to me and I’ll have you hauled away in handcuffs. Are we understood?”

She stared wordlessly at him, suddenly looking every one of her sixty years. If she hadn’t so callously tried to destroy the woman he loved, he would have felt sorry for her. But she showed no remorse. No regret.

“I have nothing more to say to you,” he bit out.

He turned and walked away, his mother’s cries for him to stop ringing in his ears.

He walked out of her house, never looking back. He got into the waiting cab and directed the driver back to the hospital. Kelly needed him. Their child needed him.

Chances were she’d never forgive him, but he’d make sure she never wanted for another thing in her life. He’d provide for her and their child. He’d spend the rest of his life making it up to her if only she’d let him.

* * *

Kelly awoke to silence. She was so relieved to no longer hear the horrible ringing in her ears that she could weep. The vile headache was gone. It no longer felt like the top of her head was going to explode.