Page 90 of Mercy (The Sins Trilogy 3)
Chapter Thirty-One
Anthony
I look at Yuna’s mother with wariness and admiration. The woman is a force of nature, saying what she wants to say. I guess her interpreter isn’t good enough to suit her. Or maybe she got tired of having to convey everything secondhand.
I would’ve preferred if she hadn’t brought up kids, though. I saw the spark of joy in Ivy’s bright gray eyes—and felt my blood chill.
Does she want me to give her children? When? How many?
What will she say if I tell her I’m not interested? I shove my hands into my pockets, my shoulders growing tense. Kids are so fragile. So easily damaged.
“Who’s that?” I ask Ivy. It can’t be Ryder or Harry. They’re on the guest list.
“Um. Your mother.”
What the hell?She hasn’t contacted me since Saturday. I figured she was done with whatever she wanted to accomplish and returned to Tempérane.
But other than offering to pay for the wedding, what does she want? I know this visit isn’t about me—and particularly not about forgiving me for what I’ve done.
Is Mother going to embarrass me and Ivy in front of her best friends and Mrs. Min? If so, I won’t react well.
Mother finally arrives and walks in. Unlike Yuna’s mother, she’s alone. She’s dressed to show off the family’s wealth. All the pearls. A fitted dress the color of rich, dark chocolate and matching shoes. The color does very little to hide her frailty. But her eyes… They’re cold and hard.
She notices me first, and barely nods. She then looks at Yuna’s mother and her entourage, then at Julie, Yuna and finally Ivy.
“I didn’t know you had guests,” Mother says.
“I didn’t realize you were coming,” Ivy says calmly. It makes me proud of her. But then, until the partial amnesia, she always knew what she wanted and never let anybody, not even my mother, intimidate her. “What’s this visit about?”
“I thought about your refusal. I think it was really the money that bothered you, so I came to offer you my help instead. A wedding isn’t something you leave to chance or people who’ve never done it.” Mother smiles.
It’s so beatific…and so much like the expression she used to have before she lost Katherine that it punches me, one-two, until I feel dazed and shocked.
She continues, “You need someone to guide you…like your own mother would have, if you will.”
I start to object because I know there’s no way Mother wants to help with the wedding. It’d be more like her to sabotage the ceremony.
Yuna’s mother steps forward. “I’m sorry, but who are you?” The question is perfectly polite, but it can’t hide the territorial undertone.
Mother sizes up her opponent, from jewelry to dress to shoes. Whatever she’s concluded, she doesn’t like it. Her eyes are chilly, her spine straight. “I’m Margot Blackwood, Tony’s mother. And you are?”
“I’m Suji Min. Yuna’s mother.”
Mother arches an eyebrow that eloquently says, And why are you in my way?
“Yuna is Ivy’s soul sister. Which makes Ivy my soul daughter.”
Damn. Her mother believes this soul family stuff too?
Mother’s spine stiffens. “That’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard.”
“No more ridiculous than you claiming to want to act as Ivy’s mother during the planning process.”
“She’s my brother’s child.”
“But you’re the groom’s mother.”
“And? I fail to see how—”
