Read Trent for Free Online Page B

me. Or don’t find her.” She turned her back on him to go
into the house, her heart breaking with each word. “I didn’t raise you to be a
coward. And from where I’m standing, not only are you that, but you are wasting
your life too.”
    As soon as she entered her house, she turned
to the stairs and ran up them to her bedroom. Closing the door behind her, she
leaned heavily against it and let the tears fall. Christine knew as surely as
she was standing there that she’d done the best thing for her son, but it
didn’t lessen the pain of it.
    An hour later, feeling no better about what
she’d done, Christine went to see if he had left. TJ was standing at the bottom
of the stairs waiting for her, and she was worried that something had happened.
When he slammed his hand down on the banister and told her he was mad at her,
she paused in mid-step and waited.
    “You ran him off.” She pointed out that he’d
told her to. “Yeah, I did, but not by telling him that he wasn’t welcome here.
You know how mad he was when he left here? Powerful, let me tell you.”
    “Did he tell you that Joe is his mate?” That shut
him up. “I see. So all you know is that he left here mad and not any of the
details. Well, Trent James Calhoun the fifth, I’m not going to stand for you
treating me this way. You have less time than your son had to get out of my
house. Leave here right now.”
    “You’re kicking me out of my own house?” She
told him she was kicking him out of her life too. “You can’t do that. I’m your
mate. You can’t...what do you think you’re doing?”
    “What I need to.” She walked down the steps
and to the door. After opening it, she looked at her husband. “Get out of here
before I hurt you. And you know that I will too.”
    “Honey…Christine, you don’t—”
    “Don’t you dare honey me, you overbearing
jackass. I did what I thought needed to be done. I came down here for support,
after doing what we talked about. You hear one thing from our son, one small
part of what we talked about, and you get mad at me. Well, I got news for you,
I slapped him too. You want to do that to me as well?” He told her that he’d
never hit her. “No, but you’ll hurt my heart without any provocation, won’t
you? Get out of here, TJ. I don’t want to see you right now.”
    As soon as he left, still trying to sweet
talk her, she went to her office and sat behind her desk. Christine had no idea
what she was supposed to do now, but she knew that she wasn’t going to be
pushed around. Reaching for a tissue, she wiped at the tears just as her cell
phone rang. Right now she didn’t want to talk to any of them and turned her
ringer off when it stopped. Then for good measure, she turned the entire phone
off.
    “Stupid men. I wish we’d had all girls now.” Looking
at the last family picture that had been taken of them all, Christine stuck her
tongue out at it. Crying harder now, she turned her back on the picture and
everything else that she had to do today and felt sorry for herself. It was
something that she rarely did. “Like that’s going to solve a damned thing.”
    The laugher made her turn and then stand. The
man standing there hadn’t been invited in, and she wasn’t sure what he wanted. “Can
I help you?”
    “There is no need for you to worry, my dear
lady. I have not invaded your home; I could never do that anyway. I am here to
speak to you about our children. Joe is...she is very upset with me, and your
son, I’m afraid, has hurt her. Perhaps unintentionally, but he has all the same.”
    “Your child? You mean Joe. I guess...all
right, you only think of her as your child. I’m sorry, I’m a little upset at
the moment. Also you should know, my son isn’t any happier with me. I have
resorted to violence, and I’m not proud of myself over it.” He laughed again. “I
don’t think this is the least bit funny. And how is it you’re here if you say
you’ve not invaded my home?”
    “I am