My Mother Chose Her Lover's Son Over Me

I took out a loan to open a restaurant, and out of nowhere business exploded.

Once I had something steady under me, I got ready to propose to my girlfriend. But before the ring ever reached her finger, a fire tore through my restaurant and burned it down to nothing.

I didn't just lose everything. I owed the bank a million on top of it.

Two blows at once. The grief was so heavy I blacked out.

When I opened my eyes again, every single person around me was gone.

Alone, carrying that grief, I went looking for my fiancée, only to end up outside her private dining room, overhearing her and her friends:

"Holy crap! Sid Dickerson's restaurant was torched by his own mother?"

"Yeah. But it was my idea."

"Elmer's business failed and Sid was doing great. I was scared it would crush Elmer, so I suggested his mother burn the place down."

"What? Why would his mother listen to you?"

"You all know Sid's the family's adopted son, but what you don't know is that Sid is the son of his mother's first love. She loves the man, so she loves everything about him too, I guess."

"God, Sid's got it rough. Last night you were behind his back messing around with Elmer, and his mother torched his restaurant."

"You two are cold."

"…"

1

Standing outside the door, I felt the blood freeze in my veins, my mind gone blank.

The talk inside blurred into nothing. All I could hear was a roar in my ears.

So the one who set fire to my restaurant was my mother. That was something I would never have dared to imagine, not even at the point of death.

All because Elmer was the son of her first love, she loved everything about that man and took Elmer's side and destroyed my livelihood.

But I was the one who was good to her. When she was sick and in the hospital, I was the one who cared for her the whole time.

My money was her money. If I went broke, she'd have nothing to spend either.

And yet she'd rather have nothing than watch my restaurant keep thriving. Was she afraid of bruising Elmer's pride?

My hands clenched into fists, and a mouthful of blood surged up and clogged my throat.

Before I could even cough it out, I heard the next bombshell.

"I feel a little guilty now. Wasn't this too cruel to Sid?"

Her friend shot her a look. "You mean because you're carrying Elmer's baby?"

The words set the whole room off again.

"What? I thought you two only slept together last night. Pregnant already?"

"God, maybe they've been at it for way longer. You're really something."

"Honestly, I think there's something wrong with you. Why would you do this?"

Ella Harding took out her wallet, opened it, and glanced at the photo of us.

The next second, she pulled another photo out from behind ours.

It was her and Elmer together, both of them the way they'd looked back in college.

"I didn't even like Elmer at first. But one afternoon, just like that, he walked right into my heart."

"He drove off some girls who were harassing me. He saved me a few times."

"Seeing him covered in bruises, it made my heart ache for him, and it ached even more for the life he'd had."

"From then on, whenever I said I was going to see Sid, the truth was I just wanted to see Elmer."

"I never thought he'd become my one regret. But I couldn't just abandon Sid either. So we started a secret relationship, one that could never see the light of day."

The whole room went silent at once. No one said a word.

"His mother knew too, and she didn't stop us. Sometimes she'd even quietly cover for us."

Hearing that, my heart felt like it was being cut apart, as if someone were taking the sharpest knife and slicing it away piece by piece.

I pressed my back hard against the wall. That was the only thing keeping me from collapsing.

I'd always noticed my mother favored Elmer a little more, but thinking of the life he'd had, I gave way at every turn.

Because I honestly thought I was the luckier one. I had a girlfriend as wonderful as Ella, and I had family who cared about me.

I never imagined I'd stand here overhearing her secrets and learn that the happiness I'd been so proud of was all a lie.

If that's how it is, then I don't want any of it anymore.