Page 41 of Sinful Palace

“Willow and I had a disagreement,” I said with a casual air, not wanting to get into the finer details with her.

“Oh, no.” She let out a heavy sigh and shook her head. “I really wish you two would figure out your problems. I want you to get along.”

“I think it’s a bit late for that now,” I muttered, picturing the tears shimmering in Willow’s eyes when I left her last night.

“It’s never too late,” Mom insisted, forehead wrinkling.

I gave her a hard look. “Sometimes it is.”

She reached over and patted my left arm. “Look, Logan, I know how hard relationships can get. Believe me, your father and I have had a lot of issues over the years.”

“By issues, do you mean the mountain of whores he keeps on the side?” I asked.

Dad’s frequent affairs with Wonderland girls were no secret. He’d been flaunting them in front of Mom since I was a kid.

Her lips tightened. “I wasn’t actually referring to that, but I suppose it’s a good point. We’ve had a lot of problems in our marriage, including the affairs. It really hasn’t been easy.” She paused for a second, eyebrows gathering in. “Do you want to know what I’ve learned over the years, though?”

“What?”

“The importance of forgiveness,” she said, lifting her chin.

I suppressed the urge to roll my eyes. “Seriously?”

I wondered just how forgiving she’d feel if I told her the truth about Willow; that the future daughter-in-law she was so fond of once tried to kill her daughter.

I couldn’t let her know, though. She was too delicate.

She was so messed up all those years ago when she thought it was just a random hit and run that left Chloe in such a terrible state, and I didn’t want to make things even worse for her. Ever since I was a kid, she’d told me how much she was looking forward to having Willow join our family one day. If the dark truth was revealed to her, it would probably break her. She already cared about Willow so much that it would be like losing another child.

She nodded and held up a palm. “I know it sounds clichéd, but if you want a relationship to work, you have to find a way to forgive your partner’s faults, no matter how bad they are. You have to find a way to push through all that muck and keep loving each other.”

I rubbed the back of my neck. “I don’t think Willow and I can do that.”

She sighed deeply again. “I know you still have issues with her over whatever she did in the past, but don’t you think you’ve punished her enough?”

“I don’t know,” I muttered.

She narrowed her eyes. “You’ve put that girl through hell, Logan,” she said, putting her hands on her hips. “I don’t know what she did to you to make you think she deserves so much pain, but I really think it’s time to stop. It’s time to find a way to forgive her.”

“I’m not sure I can do that, Mom.”

“If you don’t, the toxicity will keep building and building until it eats you both up. I don’t want to see that happen to either of you,” she said, shaking her head. Her eyes were wide and pleading now. “There must be a way to sort things out and move forward.”

“Look, I’ll try, okay?” I said stiffly, needing her to drop the subject. “Anyway, I have to go. I was actually on my way to see her.”

Mom’s lips turned up in a warm smile. “Oh. Good. Let me know how it goes.”

“Uh-huh. I’ll see you later.” I gave her a brief hug and started walking down the hall again.

“Oh, Logan?”

I turned my head over my shoulder to see my mother still looking at me. My brows furrowed. “Yeah?”

“Did you get my email the other day?” she asked, eyes wide and hopeful.

“What email?”

“I sent you a link to an article. It’s about a politician I like. I thought you might find it interesting, because you used to be so fascinated with that sort of stuff.”

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