Page 27 of Broken Rejected Mate

I shouldn’t be here—if I’m angry at Emin for rejecting me, turning me away all those years ago, then I should befuriouswith my mother for making our family like this. Falling apart after the death of my father and leaving me to deal with the shattered remnants of our family name.

But, for some reason, I can’t hold on to that anger.

“Veva,” my mother says, opening the door, looking so happy she might cry. “And you must be Sarina.”

Before, when I saw her outside the pack hall, I didn’t get this good a look at her. But now, studying her in the bright light of day, I can see that my mother looks good—rosy color in her cheeks, her hair brushed back from her face, her clothes clean and wrinkle-free.

“Sarina,” I cut in, giving my mother a pointed look. “This is my friend, Opal.”

Mom’s face shifts as she swallows that down—the fact that I don’t want my daughter to know who Opal is to me. To her. The last thing I’m going to do is give Sarina the hope of a grandmother, then move halfway across the continent.

Or risk Opal being exactly the person she always was for me.

“Nice to meet you, Opal,” Sarina says, holding out her hand, and Opal smiles at her the way all adults do.

“You as well,” she says, shaking her hand, then turning and gesturing for us to come inside.

The house I grew up in is unrecognizable. Clean, for one. The kitchen has all new appliances. There’s a TV in the living room, shelves full of books, which Sarina immediately turns toward.

“I made some lemonade for us,” my mother says, bringing a glass out to Sarina. I watch, stupefied, as she puts a coaster down on the coffee table, underneath the glass. “Feel free to watch the TV, or read anything on the shelf, dear.”

Sarina smiles at her, sinks down into a chair with a book in her lap, and my mother and I move into the dining room together. My hands shake as I accept my lemonade and sit across from her.

“The house looks great,” I say.

She smiles sadly. “Barely recognize it, huh?”

It draws a laugh from me. “No—it’s—you’ve done a lot of work on it.”

My mother stares at me for so long that I’m worried she might have spaced off. Then she gathers herself, swallows, and says, “I wanted it to be ready. In case you ever came back.”

The words hit me like a well-placed blow, making my throat swell up, and I suck in a breath.

“Mom—”

“Sorry,” she raises a hand, looks to the ceiling, then meets my eyes again. “Can I?”

A beat passes, and I nod. She takes another moment, then begins.

“When you left,” she starts, “it took me a few days to notice you were gone. That boy came looking for you—”

“That boy?” I blink at her, and she nods, running a hand over her hair.

“That Argent boy,” she says, softly. “I’d seen him around the house sometimes, and thought the two of you…?”

I glance back toward the living room, though there’s no way for me to know how well Sarina can hear, or if she’s even paying any attention to us. The last thing I need is for her to be asking any questions about why Emin might have asked after me.

Emin asked after me.

The knowledge of that sits heavy in my stomach, and though I try to stop myself, I picture him as a teenager, standing on my stoop, asking about me. What does that mean? Was he trying to find me after that night?

“But he came looking for you, day after day,” Mom goes on, clearing her throat. “And that’s when I realized you had left. I—I had some realizations about myself in that moment. After that day, I didn’t touch the stuff again, Veva. I got clean, I went back to work, and I—”

She stops, looking like she’s trying not to cry. Then a tear rolls down her cheek, and she dabs at it with her sleeve.

“I never stopped looking for you,” she chokes out. “I had a feeling that you were out there, somewhere. And now that you’re back, I would like—I’d like for us to have a relationship. I’d like for you to give me a chance to make up for the way I let you down. And, if you’ll allow it, eventually, I’d love to have a relationship with Sarina, too.”

I don’t realize I’m biting my tongue until the hot, metallic taste of blood blooms in my mouth.

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