Chapter twenty-seven
PANIC MODE: 13 YEARS EARLIER
His chest constricted looking at the rose petals on his mother’s bed. They spelled, “I love you.” No doubt from her mother’s boyfriend. He turned at the sound of his mother’s heels behind him. She gasped at the sight before her. “Oh, my God! Gerald loves me. He did all this? Where is he?”
He smirked. “Oh, I just saw him. He had to leave, Mother .”
His mother glared. “What? Why would he leave after this beautiful gesture?”
“You have to understand, Mama . He wanted to get between us, and I had to tell him that I am the only man who can love you. Not him.”
His mother moved forward, her long fingernails digging into his scalp. “What the f**k did you do, dummy?”
He hyperventilated, not wanting to experience his mother’s wrath, but he coul
