“Yeah?”

“You just won't be satisfied until you fuck up everything that's given to you will you?”

Oh, this fucking bastard. He couldn't possibly be serious about asking that question?

“And what have I been given that wasn't already deeply fucked up, Dad?”

“That little stunt you pulled-”

“Stunt?”

“Parading your stepsister around-”

“She's... not my stepsister, Dad.”

“Well she will be.”

“But she's not, so...”

“I've worked too long and too hard to let you fuck up my reputation. You hear me, you little bastard?”

“Dad, you haven't worked for shit. You've taken everything you've ever had, and you're pissed off because I won't help you swindle some innocent woman and her daughter for their business. You're a fucking predator, not some upstanding citizen who's just received a pink slip after twenty years of service to the job, so fuck off with the bullshit about how you’ve worked so long or hard.”

A slight pause in the conversation told Liam that his father had heard him loud and clear, that he was digesting his son's words, no matter how bitter they went down.

“Just... take care of this little problem. Fake like you were drunk. I don't know. Don't care. Just fix it.”

“Oh I have. Sorry if it fucked up your day.”

Clicking off the call, Liam reached for the SpongeBob stress ball sitting in the dish with his rubber bands. Fuck it. In the words of the very smart woman he was choosing over all of this bullshit: He wasn't worth the brain space.

Jackie

Jackie kept her mother on hold until Donna finally hung up, fuming at the audacity of her. Up until the moment her mother had actually verbalized her “disappointment,” Jackie had been worried about she and Liam's relationship coming out.

But something about having her mother's controlling tendencies rising to the surface of their already strained connection again had woken something in her gut that made it damn near impossible for her to dredge up even one iota of concern now.

She was a grown woman.

With a life.

And a real relationship, not a business opportunity.

Snatching up her bag, she skipped into her boots and headed out the door. There was one person and one person only that she wanted to talk to right now, and that was Liam. She knew herself. She was enflamed now, and that would keep her bold for awhile, but she'd second guess herself, eventually, and she couldn't have that.

For the first time in all of it, she didn't see a thing wrong with choosing love over her mother's manufactured happiness. How many times did love come knocking at the door? Not often. And when it did knock – you guessed it – you answered. It didn't take long for the cab to come, and on the ride over her mother's words replayed over and over in her head. She was so tired of being “carefully instructed”  how to live. She'd been dealing with that bullshit her entire life. And she was over it. She had to draw a line somewhere.

Rushing from the car when it pulled up in front of the shop, Jackie grumbled all the way to the door, sweeping in on all the winds of a huff.

“Hey, Babe. You're a sight for sore eyes.”

Lip quivering, Jackie held back a dam of tears. Tears that wanted to fall for a number of reasons.

“You get the call, too?”

Drawing a breath, she nodded.

“You tell her to fuck off?”

“In so many words.”

“Good girl. Me, too.”

~

Shaking out of sleep at the blaring phone, Jackie blinked the exhaustion from her eyes. Mentally and physically, she felt like a fifty-ton weight had been laid on her head. Frowning, she set the cell phone down.

“Your Mom?” Liam asked, his voice croaking with half-sleep.

“Yep.”

Their eyes looked to the phone in tandem when her text notification dinged. Huffing, Jackie lifted the cell, flicking to the message screen:

Family Meeting.

3:00 at Angel's Garden. Important.

Fuck. She was so tired of this shit!

“What's it say?”

“Apparently, we've been summoned to a 'family meeting.'”

Liam grinned, rubbing his eyes.

“Yeah, I saw that coming.”

“I don't want to go.”

“Nah, we should.”

“For what?”

“Why give them the satisfaction of running or hiding?”

Digesting his words, Jackie tucked in closer to him. He had a point. Better to meet this thing head on. They made their choice, and their parents were going to have to live with it. It scared the shit out of Jackie, but the sooner they got it over with, the sooner they could get on with their lives. Kind of like cutting the apron strings. She'd have to stand up to her mother at some point.

And really, there was no time like the present.

That didn't mean they were going to rush, and they didn't, but when they finally entered the Angel's Garden, they were ready for whatever their parents had to throw at them.

“Party?”

A pretty hostess asked with a serviceable smile.

“Cross and Rhodes.”

“Yes, of course. Right this way.”

Stepping out from her podium, she led them down the hall to the ramp into the lower deck where their table waited, complete with disapproving parents, amidst a gorgeously arranged indoor garden bursting with tropical plants. Apparently, Liam's father did everything big, including meetings arranged for the sole purpose of chastising his son and said son's sister-to-be.

“Glad you could make it. You're only ten minutes late. Finally learning some responsibility.”

Gary was wearing a sour expression, glaring at his son like he'd love nothing more than to throw him around right then, given the chance. It made a compelling case for the apple not falling far from the tree. She could see the same explosive fury flashing in the older man's eyes that she'd seen in Liam when Colin had all but called her an outright whore at the casting party.

Taking a seat at Liam's side, she wisely held her tongue. It wasn't their meeting, after all. Better to let the lovebirds (not) say what they had to say. Maybe it would be worth a response, maybe it wouldn't.

Time would tell.

“Always good to see you, Dad.”

Liam fixed his father with a narrowing look, and Jackie stole a glance at her mother.

Donna looked fit to be tied.

“Yeah, well onto the business at hand. The two of you are going to have to call this sham off. I have a lot riding on this marriage.”

Liam cracked a bitter smirk.

“You have a lot riding on it? Oh, yeah?”

His father leaned in like he was two seconds from reaching over the table and hemming his son up.

“I don't stutter.”

Jackie folded her arms over her chest. What exactly did he mean he had a lot riding on it? Was he talking about VitaGourmet? Because she hadn't signed a damn thing, and it was a little premature for him to assume she would.

“Running for Mayor, Dad? Need a make-believe perfect family to make that happen?”

Leaning back, his father shook his head softly.

“You know Liam, you could have been one of the greats. You have it all. The drive. The focus. The shark teeth. Unfortunately, you lack vision. That's the difference between men like me, and men like you. I know how to bring an idea to life. How to make it happen. You? You settle for some mid-range goal that might net you a hundred-thousand a year tops after this silly little “reality” show you've signed up for. You think small, son. I'd have thought better of someone I had a hand in creating.”