Page 43 of Cruel Love
Excluding the information I disclosed to her on the way here aboutKiera and Billie, of course. Why I had told her about my family history, I didn’t know, but something about talking to her helped distract me from the anxiety that had been building within me on our way to see my father.
He placed his elbows on the table and laced his fingers together,falling silent as he thought.“Are you developing feelings for her?”he asked after a tense pause.
“No,”I replied, a little too quickly, earning a raised brow from him.“You and I both know I said I would never fall for someone after Shona. Like I said, Willow is a means to an end. Once she gives me an heir, I couldn’t give a fuck what happens to her.”
Pain speared my chest as I said the words, regret sweepingthrough me as I spewed them.
“You know what you’re saying, don’t you James? You chose to marrysomeone who doesn’t fall within Legion’s rules. She’s unprotected should someone decide they don’t want her around anymore.”
“I’m aware,”I snapped, ignoring every ounce of me that wanted towarn my father that if anyone dared hurt Willow, I’d end their miserable existence in the most painful way imaginable.
He fell quiet for a minute, rubbing his lip in thought.“Very well. Theterms of our agreement remain though. She needs to be pregnant within three months, or-”
“Or you hand my legacy to Elijah? Yeah, I get it,”I replied, standingfrom my seat and needing to get the fuck away from him before I pummelled his face.“Are we done here?”
His lips pursed at my disrespect, but he nodded his head, excusingme from the conversation.
Not hanging around to hear any more of his bullshit, I stormed fromthe room and headed straight up the stairs, intent on finding Willow and making her spread her legs as determination to get her pregnant streaked through me.
But I didn’t get far when I heard squeaks coming from the hallway.Squeaks that sounded like my mouse was in pain. With my heart pounding, I hurried in the direction the noise was coming from and turned a corner, only to freeze on the spot at the sight before me.
Willow’s face was twisted in pure terror as she tried to placate thecrazed woman who had pinned her against the wall, muffled sounds coming from the woman’s mouth.
The woman I hadn’t seen in over six months.
My mom.
“Mom, what are you doing?”I said, launching myself toward them,and pulling my mom’s surprisingly strong fingers from Willow’s arms.
My mom blinked at me, a hint of recognition floating into herbloodshot eyes before they glazed over again, but incoherent sounds continued to fall from her mouth.
“What did you do to her?”I hissed, looking over my shoulder at acowering Willow.
What the fuck was she even doing down this hallway anyway?
“No…nothing. I got confused, I thought your room was down here.She…she came out of a room and started trying to say something, and…and then she grabbed me,”Willow said, her voice shaky as tears welled in her eyes.
I looked down at my mom, finding that in the six months since I’d lastseen her, she’d lost weight, and had become more frail. Her long hair, once the same color as mine was now almost gray, and wrinkles marred her face, making her appear older than her sixty-five years.
“What’s wrong with her?”Willow asked on a broken whisper.
A wave of anger rolled through me at her question. I pulled my mominto my arms and glared at Willow as a tremor took hold of my mom’s body.“Get the fuck out of here, Willow, my room is back the other way.”
Dutifully, she turned, her head bowed as she scarpered back downthe hallway, and disappeared around the corner. Once she was gone, I pulled my mom out of my arms, anger turning to frustration at finding her eyes still glazed over from whatever drugs my father had given her earlier.
“Come on, mom, let’s get you back to bed,”I said, lifting her into myarms.
Even in her dazed state, she must have recognized me as she laidher head against my chest and murmured what sounded like my name. Or maybe that was wishful thinking. I hadn’t heard my mom say my name for over ten years.
I hadn’t heard my mom sayanyone’sname for over ten years.
Not after my father cut her tongue off.
She’d tried to convince him to let Kiera come home, and despite hiswarnings to leave the matter alone, my mom had continued to pester him, resulting in her tongue being removed.
Ironically, despite my father’s insistence that Legion members onlymarry other Legion members, my mom wasn’t part of the society, and therefore not protected by the rule.
She’d almost died. It was a miracle she didn’t with the amount ofblood she lost. But that day, she didn’t just lose her voice, she lost her mind. She wasn’t the happy, carefree mom I’d grown up with, turning into a woman who tried to hurt herself more often than not and could only be calmed with strong pills.
