I meant what I said before. I’m not going to lose her again. She needs to know that there is no choice to be made. I already chose her—years ago—and I’ve never given up.

I’m seconds from kicking in her door when my phone vibrates in my hands, but it’s not Whitney.

It’s my sister.

“What now?”

“Mother is causing a scene in the lobby, and I’m still ten minutes away. Everyone is afraid to approach her. Please get her out of there.”

“Now is not a good time, McKinley.”

“It’s never a good time to deal with her, but someone has to do it.”

“Fuck. Fine. But I’m stealing one of your employees to sit on the VIP floor. Whitney’s a flight risk, and I’m not letting that happen.”

“Do whatever you need to do, just get to the damn lobby and handle her.”

I hang up with my sister and jog down the hall to the bar. After I relieve the bartender of his duties and give him explicit instructions, I head for the elevator.

When I reach the lobby, a crowd has gathered in the atrium area where my mother is spouting off about the Gable whores to anyone who will listen.

She has officially lost her goddamned mind. My mother, the queen of never air your dirty laundry, is enraged enough to forget every single thing she’s ever drilled into me.

I rush toward her and bump into Jackie Gable. She grabs my arm.

“You need to take care of her. I tried to get her to go quietly, but . . . it just went downhill from there.”

“I’ll take care of it. I’m so sorry you had to hear this.”

I march up to my mother and wrap my hand around her upper arm. “You’re leaving.”

“You chose that whore!”

I pull my mother to the nearest employee-only door and drag her through it. As soon as it closes, she screeches at me.

“Don’t you dare drag me around like that! You’re my son, and you’ll respect me. That whore is ruining you!”

I pull out my phone to call her driver. “Pull around to the rear employee entrance. My mother will meet you there. You’ll return her to the estate, and you won’t take her anywhere else for the rest of the night. Understood?”

When I have the affirmative answer I need, I hang up and point toward the rear of the resort. “If you’ll follow me, Mother, it’s time for you to leave.”

The animosity in my mother’s glare could peel the paint off walls, but she marches ahead of me, still going off.

“If you think for one second she won’t drag you down with her, you’re wrong. You’ll drag the whole family into the filth surrounding her, and we’ll never be clean again. The legacy will be destroyed. All future generations will be tainted.”

“You’re being melodramatic, Mother. Now tell me—”

“I’ll tell you nothing! I won’t allow you to do this to us.”