She stopped in front of him and put her hand on his arm, her eyes worried.

He wiped her hand away and took a step back, choking on his disgust.

“Don’t touch me,” he said in a low voice. “I know what you did. I know what you and Jarrod did. I’ll never forgive you for it.”

Her face creased with consternation. She threw up her hand and turned away, her arms crossing over her chest.

“She’s not who you should be with, Ryan. If you weren’t so infatuated with her, so blinded by…lust, you’d see it too.”

“You’re not even going to deny it. My God. What did Kelly ever do to deserve what you did to her? She’s lying in a hospital right now. She carries my child, your grandchild. She was pregnant when you sent Jarrod to attack her. What kind of a psychopath does that kind of thing?”

“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!”