Her face twisted, like I’d said something awful. “I’m not in a bad mood,” she snapped. “I don’t need your pity, Daniel.”
“I wasn’t-“
“I don’t!” Her voice broke this time, the words tumbling out like shattered pieces. “I have everything I’ve ever wanted. Kieran and I are getting married soon. In fact, our engagement party is just around the-“
She cocked her head, and I squirmed under her gaze. “Oh, I get it now, you’re trying so hard to curry favor because you know I’m going to be your step-mother soon.”
Mom moved again, blocking my view. Her voice was low, shaking, deadly calm.
“My son doesn’t have to curry favor with anyone. Least of all someone who doesn’t even understand what love is anymore.”
Aunt Celeste recoiled like she’d been hit. “You think you’re so noble, Sera, but you’ve just learned how to hide your claws behind your pathetic little fa?ade.”
Mom shook her head, and I heard the pity in her voice. “And you wonder why everyone is leaving your side.”
She turned then, taking my hand. “Let’s go, Daniel.”
“Wait-” Grandma began, panicked, but Mom just shook her head again.
“It was a mistake to come here in the first place.”
Grandma’s face twisted in pain. “Please, Sera-“
But Mom was already tugging me toward the door.
I glanced back once. Aunt Celeste stood in the middle of the mess-cookies crushed beneath her heels, her lipstick smudged, her hands trembling.
For a second, I thought she’d cry.
But she didn’t. She just stood there, frozen, while Grandma knelt to pick up the tray in silence.
Outside, the air was cool and sharp, like rain might come soon. I didn’t say anything. Neither did Mom.
We just walked to the car.
When she started the engine, I glanced at her. Her face was calm, but her eyes were wet.
“Mom?” I whispered.
“Yes, baby?”
“Why is Aunt Celeste so mean?”
I didn’t understand it. Mom was amazing. Uncle Ethan was nice. Why was their sister like…that?
Mom didn’t answer right away. She looked out the window, her jaw tight. “Sometimes,” she said softly, “when people are hurt, they try to make everyone else around them hurt too. Like you said, people are mean when they’re sad.”
I nodded slowly, even though I didn’t really understand all of it. I reached out and took her hand. Her fingers squeezed mine gently as she turned back to me.
“Honey, you know Celeste’s reaction to you is a testament to her character and has nothing to do with you, right?”
I nodded and gave her a smile I hoped would draw out one of hers.
She only exhaled and leaned forward, kissing my hair. “My beautiful, perfect boy.” She pulled back to look at me. Her eyes were so pretty. “Never stop being kind to people, no matter how mean they are to you, okay?”
I nodded. “I promise.”
The drive home was quiet.
The sun was setting, turning the world gold and pink, and everything felt better.
Until Mom stepped on the brakes and muttered angrily, “You have got to be kidding me.”
I followed her gaze and sighed. There, in our driveway, leaning against the hood of his car with his arms crossed, was my dad.
SERAPHINA’S POV
The sight of Kieran hit me like a punch to the gut, twisting my insides with a nauseating churn.
He stood by his car, arms crossed, the chilled wind teasing his dark hair into disarray. That familiar brooding expression was painted across his face.
For a second, I couldn’t move. I just gripped the steering wheel tighter like it was the last shred of my sanity.
Of course he was here.
My first thought was bitter and instinctive: He came to defend her again.
Maybe Celeste had already run crying to him, spinning some tragic story about me attacking her in front of her “stepson.”
And he’d come to tell me off-right here, in front of Daniel-because heaven forbid Saint Celeste ever be at fault.
“Mom?” Daniel’s voice broke through my spiraling thoughts. “Why’s Dad here?”
My throat was dry. “I’m not sure,” I answered, though I was very sure. It was always the same pattern. Celeste cried wolf; Kieran came running.
I parked haphazardly next to the Escalade. The gearshift clicked loudly in the quiet.
“Stay here,” I ordered Daniel, unbuckling my seatbelt.
His hand froze on his own seatbelt. “But-“
“I mean it, Daniel.” I tried to make my voice gentle, but it still came out strained.
I opened the car door. “Do not get out until your father leaves.”
He hesitated, frowning. I felt a slight twinge of guilt. I was hardly ever strict with Daniel, but I was already high-strung from the fiasco at the Lockwood Manor.
Plus, he’d seen too much tonight already. His small face still carried the traces of confusion and worry from the Lockwood manor. I didn’t want my son to hear me and his father exchange verbal blows.
I reached out and brushed his hair back, trying to smile. “It’s okay, sweetheart. We’re just going to talk.”
He nodded slowly, though the uncertainty in his eyes told me he didn’t believe it was “okay.”
When I opened the door and stepped out, the evening air bit at my skin. The street was quiet except for the rustle of dry leaves and the low hum of my car engine.
Kieran straightened as I approached, eyes immediately scanning me as though checking for injuries.
That look sent a bolt of something sharp through my chest, part ache, part anger, all tangled.
I crossed my arms, defensiveness prickling along my skin. “What did she tell you this time? That I attacked her unprovoked? That I assaulted her with my son’s cookies?”
“Sera-“
“Or maybe she went a different angle,” I pressed, my voice sharpening. “Tell me, did she paint the altercation to make me seem like an unfit mother?”
He looked pained, and he opened his mouth to interrupt, but I didn’t let him.
“I’m done being your convenient villain, Kieran,” I said coldly. “And I can’t believe you would come here to scold me in front of our son after the way she treated him right in front of you!”
Something in his expression shifted-guilt? Frustration? Maybe both. “I didn’t come to scold you, Sera,” he said finally, his tone quiet. “I came to talk.”
I blinked, surprised by his subdued demeanor. But I refused to let my guard down. “I have nothing to talk to you about.”
“You always say that,” he murmured, stepping closer. “But we both know that’s not true.”
I laughed once, brittle and humorless. “Do we?”
Kieran sighed. “Look, Sera-about me and Celeste-“
“I hear you’re getting married soon,” I spat out. “Congratulations.”
He froze. “What?”
“Look,” I said, gesturing vaguely, suddenly exhausted. “I genuinely, genuinely don’t give a fuck about what goes on with you and Celeste. You can marry her, parade her around as your Luna, and have the picture-perfect life you’ve been dreaming of. I just want one thing- keep her away from me and my son.”
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