Page 80 of The Demon Prince's Accidental Mate
Without warning, she lunged from the bed, her arms wrapping me up. “My Lilith,” she whispered as we hugged tight.
“Why?” I whispered, barely able to get the word out. “What did I do to make you leave?”
“Make me leave?” she repeated, tears springing from the corners of her eyes. “My dearest, whatever are you talking about? You didn’t make me leave. Surely you know that.”
I shook my head. “How? You just left one day. Never came back.”
Slowly, halting, I told the story. It hurt to watch her learn about the downward spiral her husband had gone into, but the sadness evaporated instantly when she learned about how he had treated me.
“That sonofabitch,” she snarled. “I’m going to kill him myself. I’ll kill him!”
“He’s already dead,” I said, telling the story about how he’d been baked alive by a Fae, a rather fitting end.
She nodded slowly, torn between mourning the man she had loved and happy that I had escaped the abuser he’d become.
“So, he never told you?” she said when I was done.
“He said you left.” I told her that when we’d summoned his soul, he’d gone on about the mark of Astaroth and how that was the only clue.
“That asshole,” she hissed. “I left a message. A note.”
“Father must have torn it up,” I said, wondering how he’d managed to lie about that.
“Not him. Astaroth. He burned it. I guarantee it. It’s just like him.”
“What … what did the note say?” I asked nervously. “Why did you leave?”
Fresh tears glistened. “For you,” she said hoarsely. “I left for you, my darling Lilith.”
“For me?”
She nodded. “You were not a healthy baby. Nobody could figure out what was wrong with you, but you were losing weight, and … it didn’t look good.”
“Oh,” I said quietly.
“So, I made a deal,” she said.
“With Astaroth.”
She nodded. “In exchange for me, he would cure you. He would save my baby.”
I stared at her, unable to speak. The sheer sacrifice she’d made for me …
“And it worked,” she said. “It worked. Look at you. Itworked.”
“M—Mom,” I said, trying the word on for the very first time.
“My baby!” she sobbed, pulling me in tight.
There were no words for some time after that as we cried in each other’s arms until no tears were left.
Eventually, she pulled away enough to look me in the eyes while holding my shoulders. “So, are you going to introduce me properly to the nice demon you brought home?”
The tears were replaced by laughter that went on for far too long and somehow not nearly long enough.
“Take a shower,” I said. “Then let’s get some food, and you can meet Belial. He’s different, I promise.”
Chapter Thirty-Nine
