Page 194 of Of Sins and Sacrifice

“I know. That was my reaction too,” he adds wryly. “In his defense, he did not think he could father biological children, so he didn’t think that was a risk.”

“But it happened. What next?”

“My mother had the child while she was still at the boarding school. By the time everyone realized she was with child, she was already in labor.”

I wait for him to continue.

“The baby was taken away from her,” he adds quietly.

I gasp loudly.

“What? They took the baby from her? How? Why?”

He nuzzles his face against the crook of my neck. “Her parents still wanted her to go on with the match. They couldn’t have rumors going around about her pregnancy, so they made the baby disappear.

“And no, that was not me. It was my older brother.”

My mouth falls open in shock. This is the first time he’s mentioned an older brother.

“Where is he now?” I dare ask.

He stills. “No one knows. They couldn’t find him,” he adds, his tone sad.

“Your mother married the other male?”

“Yes and no. She kept hoping my father would come back for her—she was sure of it. She waited until her wedding day, and she waited even as she was forced to marry the male her parents decreed. But she would never betray her beloved and…”

“And?” I repeat, trying to temper my excitement at the story.

“She took matters into her own hands and almost killed her husband on the wedding night.”

“She what?”

“She was lucky she didn’t kill him, otherwise she would have been executed for it. But she did injure him enough that he repudiated her. She was shunned by her entire family and exiled to live far away from them, with no money, nothing.”

“Mine, that’s horrible.”

“And yet she kept hoping my father would come back. Year after year, she didn’t lose hope. Year after year he didn’t return.She doesn’t speak much about that time she spent on her own, barely surviving, but I think it was hard on her. Everyone knew her as a fallen woman, and she had to fight to protect herself.”

His voice is full of respect as he talks about his mother and it’s evident how much he loves her. Now I’m even more curious about her. Maybe at some point I can meet her?

“Eventually, my father did return. He searched for her until he found her living in a small cottage, subsiding on an even smaller vegetable garden because the soil was so barren in that area.”

“Please tell me she didn’t take him back immediately.”

He smiles.

“In her heart, I do believe she did. But she also made him work for it, and she told him that she would only take him back once he managed to make the ground fertile again.”

“Oh my.” I laugh. “That sounds rather hard.”

“It was,” he agrees. “It took him a long time to do it, but he never stopped trying. I think my mother needed to see that he was committed to her and that he wouldn’t leave again. On the day of the first harvest, she took him back. And that’s when I appeared.”

“Did your father find out about your older brother.”

“He did, and he couldn’t find him either, which can only mean one thing…” he trails off.

“I’m so sorry,” I whisper.

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