Bribing The Billionaire’s Revenge - Chapter 58: Chapter 58

Sherry walked with Harrison to the front door of the house and stood back as he opened the door to let her mother in.
She immediately noted how tired she appeared. Her hair was pulled back in a messy bun, grey hair peppered through her usually dyed deep brown hair. Her eyes were rimmed with dark circles and the lines which edged them were deeper than normal. Her mouth was set in a sad frown and even her clothing was not the normal casual chic she wore.
“Hey Mom,” Sherry spoke first. “Everything okay?”
“I just wanted to see you. I miss you. I figured if I came in person, it might be harder for you to send me off. Karl gave me the address but told me he’d never let me see Winnie again if gave it to Willow or Vince or anyone else for the matter. I only wanted to see you for myself.” She wrung her hands together.
“Come in,” Harrison motioned her to enter the house and he gave a wave to Mallory who was already walking back down the driveway.
“Mom, this is Harrison Franklin. Harrison, this is my mom, Stella Wilson.”
“It’s nice to meet you,” Harrison shook her hand. “Please, let’s have a seat in the living room. Can I get you anything? The housekeeper doesn’t work Sundays but I’m capable of making tea and coffee or drinks if you’d rather something else? Mimosa?”
She smiled at his hospitality, “no thank you Harrison. It’s nice to meet you too. I might get a cup of tea from you if Sherry doesn’t throw me on my ass. I tend to piss her off so much lately, all of our conversations are usually only a few minutes long.” She looked around the room, “this is a lovely place. Don’t let your sister see it Sherry. She’ll want it.”
“She’d never get it,” Harrison said firmly.
They sat in the living room, her mother taking a spot at the end of a sofa.
“You look good Sherry. Your sister said you were sick last night and left a party early. She called me saying you refused to talk to her and left her there all alone with strangers.” As Sherry opened her mouth she held her hand up, “I know it’s bullshit. She was with the McGraths.”
“Harrison was running behind and the four of them cornered me. It gave me a headache. I ended up taking a room in the hotel and Harrison came up after he gave his speech.”
“Oh, your sister thought perhaps you’d had a fight. She told me she was worried about you and Harrison breaking up or something. I called Karl this morning and he reassured me nothing was further from the truth. I want you to be happy, Sherry. Willow really made it seem you were in a crisis last night.”
“Nope.” Harrison quickly shot down the fishing expedition they could both see her beginning. “Though I will say, I was quite disgusted by Willow’s behavior last night, this week really. Between slapping Sherry at the gallery on Thursday and then berating her last night and then cornering me to tell me Sherry is flaky with no career path and not the kind of woman a businessman needs in his life and offering to blow me,” he was blunt as Stella paled, “I got a very real insight into the hell Sherry’s life must have been growing up.”
“She doesn’t mean it,” Stella protested half-heartedly.
“Stella,” Harrison lifted his hand, “in front of my sister she bluntly tried to seduce me away from Sherry. She’s jealous and unhinged. She is not content unless she is taking from Sherry. She is fixated.”
She sighed loudly, “she’s been getting worse. She’s off her meds because of the baby and I swear it’s making me want to check myself into a facility for a break.” She rubbed her forehead. “If I have to hear one more time how Vince must be cheating on her because he isn’t sleeping with her or how you ruined her life by crushing the house, I’m going to lose my mind. Plowing down the house was spiteful Sherry,” she gave a look to Sherry who didn’t respond to the comment, “and it’s made her hyper fixated.”
“She was always hyper fixated, Mom.”
“Well, it’s worse now,” her mother sighed and flopped backwards against the sofa. “God, I miss your father, Sherry. He used to be able to help me figure out a way to get through to her, but I’m lost. I love her. She’s my daughter and my baby but she is going to get me fired from my job with the way she keeps showing up freaking out. She will randomly show up at the house at all hours of the day and night. She keeps flipping back and forth on whether she wants to have an abortion. She’s too far along for one now but it doesn’t mean she won’t stop talking about it. I want to be excited about the birth of my first grandchild but jumping Jesus in jeans, she’s sucking the life out of me.”
Sherry’s lips twisted as her mother used the phrase her father used to all the time.
“Jumping Jesus in Jeans?” Harrison chuckled, “it’s a new one.”
“My dad said it a lot. Usually about Willow.” Sherry smiled at him as he squeezed her hand softly.
Her mother sat up, “enough about Willow. Tell me about you, Sherry. I want to know what’s been going on with you. Karl has refused to tell me anything other than you’re happy. Are you?”
She smiled at her mom. “I am happy, Mom.”
“Are you living here now or what’s the deal with living arrangements?”
“Yes.”
“No.”
She and Harrison spoke over each other, and she chuckled, “I rented an apartment, but it turned out it was owned by one of Trent’s subsidiary companies. I didn’t know. Vince used the master key to the unit to enter my house in the middle of the night with the intent of trying to sleep with me. Trent used a key to get into my unit to put recording devices all through it.”
Her mother sat up straight, “are you kidding me?”
“No,” she shrugged, “so the alternative until I find a new place is to stay with Harrison where they can’t get to me.”
“You don’t need to find another place,” Harrison grumbled. “I want you to stay here.”
“You only recently met,” Stella commented seriously.
“I don’t care. I love her and I want her here.”
She felt her cheeks going rosy at his blunt statement and her mother raised her eyebrows at Sherry.
“Love? Isn’t it a bit soon for love?”
“No,” Sherry stared back at her mother’s condescending question. “I love him too.”
“Sweetie, I’m not trying to be mean.” Her mother spoke softly not looking at Harrison but straight at her, “but you’ve been through the ringer the last few months. You’re not in the right head space and the things you’ve been doing lately are not normal for you. You don’t usually go for confrontation and conflict. I’m worried you’re rebounding.”
“You’ve never worried about me before,” Sherry shut her down.
“Yes, I have. I worry all the time. Just because I need to focus more on Willow because of her illnesses doesn’t mean I don’t worry about you. I promise I worry as much over you as I do her.”
“No, all you care about is making sure I don’t fight back against Willow.”
“Sherry, honey, I’m worried because it’s not like you to argue with her. I worry for both of you equally.”
“No, you don’t,” Harrison interrupted. “I don’t believe you’re here out of concern. You’re here because you got wind, probably from Karl or Vígi, Sherry has someone in her life who loves her and puts her first and Willow’s jealous rage has escalated, and she’s put it on you. You’re here to make sure Willow’s desire to be the center of attention isn’t disrupted with Sherry being happy. Now, you may be thinking you’re doing this for Sherry, to reassure yourself Sherry is safe and happy, but the minute I said I loved her, your demeanor changed.”
“That’s not true.”
“It is,” Harrison continued as Sherry studied him intently. “You don’t want Sherry to be happier than Willow because it means Willow gets even more psychologically twisted than she already is, and it makes your life infinitely harder. It’s better from your perspective for Sherry to be second to Willow because it means less drama for you. You didn’t come here to check on Sherry and to reconnect. You came to make sure Willow wasn’t wrong when she said we broke up or we were fighting, because for your sanity, Sherry can’t be happier than Willow.”