Page 31 of Cruel Revenge
“I’m a minor. Of course, either my dad or my legal guardian needed to know about this. I picked Jacky. Figured you and Dad shouldn’t be in the same room.”
“Legal guardian?” Courtney looked rapidly between us. “She’s my daughter, and you’re not even married to Heath yet. How?”
“It was done years ago,” I said, simply. “Why don’t you two sit down and talk? Pretend like I’m not here,” I said, not bothering to hide my vicious smile.
“Yeah, let’s sit down and eat,” Carey said, pointing to the table for them. Courtney nodded and went to her seat without another word until her coat was off and hung up like Carey’s on the back of her chair.
“Well, Carey, you were right about me and your father. We probably wouldn’t have been able to have a real conversation with him here. He’s always run over conversations.”
No, he doesn’t.
I fought not to say anything. It wasn’t my place today.
“He’s an Alpha werewolf. He sort of commands every room he’s in naturally. He does make an effort to give people their own space to speak, though. But we’re not here to talk about my dad. We’re here to talk about me and you,” Carey said, and I saw something in Carey for a moment that reminded me of her father. A look, a way of standing, the way she sat down, and stared at her biological mother.
“We are, and I’m so excited to talk about us,” Courtney said, smiling. It wasn’t a lie, but the words still felt dishonest to me. “I have so many questions.”
“Well, Courtney, I’ve been answering your questions for weeks over text, so we’re going to spend today with you answering my questions,” Carey said, her tone drastically changing from the nervous girl a moment ago. I could smell her nerves, but that flick of anger came roaring back. “Like, why youthink you can abandon me at six weeks old and walk back in my life nearly seventeen years later like nothing happened.”
13
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
“E-Excuse me?” Courtney was stunned.
It was the only emotion she and I naturally shared. I was also surprised.
“And while we’re at you, you can lie to me.” Carey smiled as she tilted her head toward me. “Don’t tell me if she does until after we leave. She only gets one chance to answer. If she wants to waste it on lying to me, then that’s her choice.”
“Okay,” I said, too stunned to say anything else for a moment. As the surprise of Carey’s switch faded, pride began to swell in my chest.
“Now, Carey, I’m your mother?—”
“You’re my egg donor. If you want a real relationship with me, you’ll start answering my questions,” Carey said, her expression going flat as she turned back to Courtney. “I thought about playing nice for a course or two, like I have been over texts, but then you looked at Jacky like she was the dirt on your shoes. That made it really hard to hide how angry I am that you’re even here.”
I had been so distracted by the woman that I hadn’t noticed Carey was angry about how Courtney came in here and gave me that disgusted look.
“Sweetie—”
“Don’t trot out some pet name you’ve never bothered using before to try to infantilize me,” Carey snapped. “I’m not a baby. I might only be sixteen, but I’m in college, and the only people who get to coddle me like a child were the people who actually raised me. You didn’t. You don’t have that privilege, Courtney.”
Courtney’s mouth thinned as Carey verbally dressed her down for trying to overstep and manipulate Carey. When Carey was done, Courtney took a deep breath.
“I birthed you. You won’t call me by my first name.”
“That’s fine, Ms. Lane,” Carey corrected, smiling with her own viciousness that made me think of Landon. Her ability to disarm and dismiss this woman so effectively was almost too much like her brother. “I won’t call you by your first name.”
“I thought we were building something over text. This hostility must be because of your father… or her,” Courtney said, pointing in my direction.
“No. I’ve really disliked you most of my life. I wanted to draw you in so I could finally confront you.” Carey crossed her arms as she leaned back in her seat. “It was really hard hiding this from Dad and Jacky. I could only text you sometimes, and if I ever thought about you, I had to leave and wait for my anger to die down before they noticed. I had to air out my room to make sure they never caught a lingering scent of it so they wouldn’t know.”
As troublesome as all that subterfuge was, I was also a bit impressed.
I wonder if this is how Heath feels whenever Landon or Richard does something intense and proves their power and intelligence. Concerned and proud. Worried and impressed. It’s so conflicting.
When Courtney didn’t speak for some time, Carey chuckled.
“So, are you going to make an honest effort to answer my questions or not?”
