Page 11 of Rejected By My Shifter Billionaire
My mother laughed again. “Well, then, I guess you’re in for disappointment.” Turning to look at me, she asked, “Shall we sit?” She didn’t wait for an answer, leaving Kate and me to take our seats as well.
The woman behind her remained on her feet, and when my mother saw where I was looking, she said dismissively, “Don’t mind her. We’ll get to her later.”
My mouth opened and closed, unable to figure out the best way to answer. Be polite to guests and offer a seat or be respectful of my mother’s wishes?
Everything was just so odd, nothing happening like I had imagined it would.
“Kassia, I need you to sign something.”
My heart leapt in my throat as Kimberley handed me a sheaf of documents.Adoption papers,I thought dazedly. I was pretty sure someone as beautiful as my mother wouldn’t have remained single. She was married now, and the nice man she had married wanted to adopt me so we could be a family.
I was just about to read the contract when Kate asked, “What’s it for?”
“Oh, just a trust fund for her, in exchange for a confidentiality agreement.”
The last words threw me off, and I lowered the contract back to my lap. “A confidentiality agreement about what?” I couldn’t think of anything I know that was worth hiding except, maybe, for theFifty Shades of GreyDVD I had hidden under my bed.
“It’s all in there,” my mother answered, still smiling her odd smile.
“Just spell it out, Kimberley. What is in it?”
“Can’t you just read—-”
“Kimberley!”
My mother’s face whitened.
I was shocked, too. I had never heard Kate raise her voice before.
The odd smile disappeared from Kimberley’s face. “This is how you want to play it?” She didn’t wait for Kate to answer. “Fine, then. The contract is for Kassia to receive a hundred thousand dollars in exchange for promising she will never contact me after this and never tell a living soul about the relationship between us. Once she’s signed this, we can all be dead to each other.”Her gaze never waved from Kate as she spoke, and this time I realized what the oddness was about.
In fact, it wasn’t oddness at all.
Her smile, her tone, everything that made her seem odd was all because she was empty.
Kimberley Dresden was completely devoid of love, and I hadn’t ever met someone like her until now.
“For God’s sake, Kimmy, don’t speak like that.” It was Chris, coming to us from behind, and I had never seen such despair on my grandfather’s face. Beside me, Kate drew in her breath sharply, and I knew she had seen the same thing, too.
All of us were hurting, but my mother remained...odd.An oddstranger,able to look at Kate and Chris like they weren’t the parents who made her, raised her, loved her. In fact, my mother acted like they didn’t even exist at all, looking at me with one arched eyebrow as she asked, “Are you going to sign it or not?”
I remembered all the days that I had dreamt about meeting her, remembered how I would imagine all sorts of things we’d be doing together as mother and daughter. I remembered telling all of it to Kate and Chris, and I wondered if that was the reason why they had allowed this meeting, why they had allowed themselves to be hurt again.
Picking up the pen, I scrawled my name on the lines, over and over, until all twenty pages of the contract were signed. “Please don’t send us any money. We don’t need it.”
She laughed,oddly.“You’re just like them.” She threw a disgusted look at her surroundings. “And how can you seriously say that when you’re living in this dump?”
Chris flinched, and I knew that the insult hit him raw. My grandfather was a very traditional man, someone who thought it was his duty to be the breadwinner of the family simply because he was the man and Kate and I were women.
“We don’t see it as a dump.” My voice drew her attention back to me. “We’re happy here, so thank you for your concern, but we really don’t need anything else.” I stood up, and Kimberley stood up as well. “Thank you for coming. Rest assured none of us will ever bother you again. But if you ever make the mistake of sending us the money, I’ll just ask the bank to give it back tomy mother.”
Her lips tightened at the threat. “Bitch.”
“Kimberley,” Kate cried out.
I didn’t even flinch. It seemed her oddness was rubbing off on me.Like mother, like daughter,and all that crap.
“Is that all?” I asked quietly.
