Page 62 of When I Accidentally Summoned a Demon

“Apparently not.” I hand the phone back. “Because from where I’m standing, your photographic evidence of the terrifying monster living in my house is a very tall man carrying boxes and taking my daughter to the park. And making us both feel beautifully happy and tremendously safe.”

“Vesper, I know what I saw. And he is the opposite of safe.”

“And you were so certain you were right, you came into my home armed with a crucifix and The Exorcist lines to hurt someone I love.”

“Love?!” Her face turns white as a sheet.

I stare her down. “And you still think he’s the monster in this room.”

“He is not human⁠—”

“Real monsters,” I interject, narrowing my attention, “don’t have claws, glowing eyes, or a tail. Real monsters are human beings who hurt others while convincing themselves they’re morally superior for doing it. Real monsters go to church on Sunday, then spend the rest of the week weaponizing fear and cruelty while calling it love.”

I deadpan with her, my focus flaming and daggered. “Not in my house.”

The words land in the room like a door closing. My mother sets her jaw, her hand tightening around the crucifix. Out of the corner of my eye, I see Valefar holding my daughter, his body still shuddering a little. But she’s playing with his tail, and flicking it in various directions seems to be helping him.

Turning back to my mother, I go on, “You hurt someone I love in my own home. And the fact that you cannot see that is the problem. Jesus preached radical love. And his anger was toward the same oppressive institutions that use morality to justify cruelty.”

Her color is high. “I was protecting⁠—”

“Third. You are going to apologize to Bethie for all this needless drama.” A beat.

“And if I don’t?” she asks. Certain she already knows my limit.

“Then you are not welcome in this house, or in Bethie’s life.” I hold it steady, drawing the line in the sand.

“Vesper. You are overreacting.” She says it like she genuinely believes it. Like her version of reasonable is the only one.

A trigger fires in my chest, brief and hot. But I let it pass. “No,” I say. “I am being significantly more reasonable than I could be. And if I were a man standing here defending my family, you wouldn’t bat an eye.”

“He’s not your family!” She stabs a finger toward Valefar, and I swear I feel him go still behind me. “He is not human, Vesper.”

“He’s mine,” I define. “And I love him.”

It’s not a brave statement. Truth doesn’t need courage to exist. It just needs to be expressed.

My mother stares at me, her fingers white-knuckled around the cross. “You are not thinking clearly,” she says, finally. Quieter now. “You are asking your own mother to leave. You are asking me to stay away from my granddaughter. Vesper. I love you.”

I am quiet for a moment.

“I believe you,” I say. “You may love me. But you don’t respect me. And you don’t respect my boundaries. And as long as those things are true, you cannot fully love me—because love without respect is just ownership with better intentions.” I hold her gaze. “And if you can’t respect me, you can’t love Bethie the way she deserves to be loved. Especially when she adores him. You didn’t just hurt him. You hurt her. And I will not allow you to hurt the people I love.”

Silence. My mother’s expression moves through several things at once. She is, underneath all the righteous certainty, a woman who loves me. That has never been the question. It has never been enough, either.

She opens her mouth once, then closes it. Then she crosses to the door, removes the key from her neck, and sets it on the entry table.

“I will be praying for you, Vesper,” she says at the door, without turning around. “I hope you will come to your senses.”

“Goodbye, Mother,” I say.

The door closes. The house is quiet, apart from the sound of my daughter’s soft coos while she holds Valefar’s tail. I release a grateful sigh. The tremors have stopped.

“Mam,” Bethie’s word is muffled.

I smile and kiss her forehead. “Hey, bug. Can you go get Pwecious a cup of water?”

She blinks at me, then tips her head to look at him. He smiles and eases his tail out of her mouth. “Yes, please, little beastie?”