Page 5 of The Omega's Secret Baby
“It’s good to see you too, Mother.”
She led me to one of the arm chairs. “Sit with me. Will you have tea or coffee?”
“Tea.” I preferred coffee, really, but I had to watch my blood pressure. Or at least, my doctor suggested I do so, now that I was going to be an unmated alpha and all.
“Of course, dear.” My mother related my request to the maid and sat. She already had a cup of coffee in front of her. She'd probably been waiting impatiently ever since I'd informed her of my visit. My mother was a lot of things, but she was not a patient woman. “What brings you here, darling?” she asked, seconds after the maid had left.
I leaned back in my chair. “Can't I simply visit my parents? I notice Father isn't with you tonight.”
“He's resting.” She waved her hand as if it was no big matter. “You know we would be delighted to see you more often, but we understand that you have a business to run.”
Ah yes, the family business. “The business will survive my absence for a few days. My staff is excellent.” And they were. I'd handpicked most of them to ensure I didn't have idiots working on my team. Idiots were bad for my blood pressure. My family owned a chain of hotels and coastal resorts. After I'd graduated school, I'd been put in charge of a hotel we'd recently bought from the competition, and I'd made it my own.
“Things are going well then?” my mother asked.
“Well enough,” I said, and I couldn't go into further detail before the maid returned with tea for me. I took it and thanked her with a smile. She seemed surprised.
I set the cup of tea down on the table and looked at my mother. It was time to break the news to her and really get this visit started.
And she gave me the perfect jumping off point. Raising an eyebrow she said, “I can't help but notice your wife isn't with you.”
I licked my lips. “Danielle is with her own family.”
“And why is that? You're letting your wife travel on her own? That is not how I raised you.”
“I'm not letting my wife travel on her own.” It was difficult to keep from making a face. As if I'd everletDanielle do anything. She'd always done what she wanted.
“Then explain to me why you're here and she's not.”
I folded my hands in my lap and looked into my mother's eyes. “Danielle is not my wife anymore.”
Both of my mother's eyebrows went up, and then they came down again in a scowl. “What are you talking about?”
“We got a divorce.” I kept my tone level, emotionless. My mother didn't need to know how I felt about this.
“A divorce!” My mother's voice went up a pitch. “Why would you do something so disgraceful? Are you trying to put your father in an early grave?”
Now it was on me to raise my eyebrows. “I wasn’t aware that Father had health problems,” I lied, because she probably didn’t know that my sister and I had talked about this. And I really wanted to know how much truth there was to that. My sister had never been above manipulating people with made-up information. When we were kids, she'd convinced me my favorite brand of chocolate was poisonous to alphas so she could have it while I tried to empty the contents of my stomach in the toilet bowl. She was ruthless.
She made Mommy and Daddy proud.
“Don't try to distract from the topic,” my mother scolded me. “We're talking about you now, not your father. How could you drive poor Danielle to divorce you? Did we raise you that poorly?”
Part of me wanted to point out that my parents had hardly spent any time raising me at all, but I got the feeling it wasn't wise to enrage her further. No reason to make this trip even more unpleasant than it had to be. And I had to set the record straight. “Danielle didn't divorce me. I asked for the divorce.”
One, two, three seconds of absolute silence, and then my mother exploded.
“How could you do that? She was perfect for you! I made sure that she was perfect for you! Don't you know how much time I've invested into finding you a spouse as good as her?”
I don't need a spouse. I need a mate.
I didn't voice that thought, but she must have seen something in my eyes. I'd never been good at keeping what I thought from showing on my face.
“What?” she snapped. “Were you not happy with her?” She shook her head. “Your father and I have always done our best to make sure you lacked for nothing, that you got the best education there was, that you got a suitable spouse... and yet you insist on being selfish. It wasn't good enough for you, was it?”
“I appreciate all you've done for me, but Danielle and I were too young.” And the more time we spent together, the more we realized that we were not made for each other. We never connected. Danielle was a proud woman, and every bit as entrenched in higher society as my mother was. She would never have asked for a divorce, but I knew that she got no joy out of our marriage.
“Too young.” My mother scoffed. “You're still too young. You don't know what's good for you.”
