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A moment later, the warden himself came out to meet us. Fallon tugged on the reins and halted Kolt outside.
“Where is she?” Fallon muttered to me.
I snorted. “If you knew her, you’d know she’d never wait around out here in the dust. She’s sitting clean and pretty inside, waiting for me to come to her.”
“For us to come to her,” Fallon said.
“No, Fallon.” Protectiveness swept through me, a battering wind. I didn’t want Fallon in the same room as my mother. And besides, this was something I wanted, needed, to do on my own. “You being outside with the warden is all the support I need. I have to do this alone.”
I patted Kolt’s warm, black neck. “Why don’t you get this guy some water? I don’t think this will take long.”
Not if I had anything to say about it, anyway.
Fallon didn’t seem happy about that idea, but he honoured my request. After helping me down from the saddle, he let his hands linger at my waist for a moment longer than necessary, looked at me intently, and said, “I’ll be here. Right here.”
Fucking hell. I couldn’t afford to lose my shit before I even saw my mom. I took a massive breath, nodded, waved at the warden, then ran inside and closed the door before I could change my mind.
I found my mother standing in the same room I’d gotten married in. The merging of my two worlds was disorienting. Uncomfortably surreal, like something from a dream I would have given anything to wake up from.
My mother looked perfect, as usual. Like an older, blonder, freckle-less version of me, she narrowed her eyes at me imperiously.
“You are absolutely filthy.”
Nice greeting, Ma.
Ignoring the jab the way I’d learned to do when I was very young, I took off my hat, rubbed my forehead, and got straight to the point. “What do you want?”
“Is that any way to greet your mother?” she demanded.
Apparently, she’d already forgotten about the fact that she’d greeted her youngest daughter with a disparaging comment about cleanliness…
“I’m not here to greet you,” I told her flatly. “I’m here to find out what you want and then send you on your way. Tell me what you’re here for, then leave.”
“You’re even more rude than you were on Terratribe II,” she sniffed. “Being out here has not been good for you. All I want is what’s best for you. You know that.”
I knew that? I knew that? In what fucking universe?! I breathed fast and heavy through my nose, gritting my teeth, doing everything in my power not to let her get under my skin. That was what she was best at. Driving me up the fucking wall right before she swung back into placid politeness, making me look like the crazy one. But I wouldn’t let her win. Not this time. She had no power over me now.
“What’s best for me is you leaving now,” I said after fighting my rage into something of a submission. “So. Are we done here?”
“Hardly!” She took a swift step towards me and glared. “You’re coming back with me. Massimo wants nothing to do with you, but after an extraordinary amount of effort and sacrifice on my part, his younger brother has agreed to marry you.”
“Are you for real?” I asked, my eyes wide. Well, there went trying to stay controlled. “You’re just going to pawn me off on his brother, now? You are insane! I’m not going! Besides,” I gave her a triumphant smile, “I’m already a married woman. Legally married.”
My mother didn’t seem to think that important fact was the trump card I believed it was.
“No one on Terratribe II but your father, our lawyer, and I know that. We can make this all go away before you come home.”
Come home. The home she’d told me never to return to. And now, she was telling me she’d make “this” – Fallon, the only man I’d ever loved, disappear.
That wasn’t happening.
“I’m not going back with you,” I hissed.
“Don’t be absurd,” she shot back. “You’ve always been so dramatic. I never actually expected you to stay away this long. You were supposed to marry someone who’d contribute to our family, our stature. So, you are going to come back. You’ll still be married, still get to be a wife.”
“But I never wanted to be a wife!” I shouted, my fists balling. “I never even wanted to get married!”
“Oh?” My mother sneered. It made her beautiful face look so fucking ugly. Her voice rose. “And what else would you have been good for, if not making a decent marriage match? You’ve never exhibited any other particular skills or talents. You never had any real interests. God knows it was hard enough to teach you even the most basic domestic duties.”
