Page 92 of Devotion: Isn't What It Seems (Love Isn't What It Seems 1)

“That’s great,” I told her calmly. “Now leave before I have you thrown out.”

“What is going on?” Elise was crying now. “I don’t understand what the fuck is going on here?’

“Would you like to tell her, Mother?” I challenged her.

“Don’t patronize me,” she spat out at me. “If you would have spent more time with your husband and less time writing your stupid novels, he would have never slept with me.”

Several sharp inhales sounded in the room but I focused only on my mother.

“What is wrong with you?” I yelled. “It wasn’t enough for all the marriages you destroyed, men you’d used. You had to add seducing your daughter’s husband to your resume?”

“You are not my daughter,” she screamed back at me. “Your father’s love child with another woman. The only reason he came back is because she fucking died giving you life.”

I stared at her, disbelief and confusion in my brain.

“What?” My voice was just a whisper but the room was so quiet, I knew she heard me.

“That’s right,” she raged. “It’s the ultimate payback, isn’t it?”

She laughed maniacally and added, “He shoved his love child under my roof, and I seduced the love of your life under yours.”

“What is wrong with you?” Elise asked in shock. “How could you do such a thing? Eve almost killed herself and you just watched her, never saying a word!”

I took Elise’s hand in mine and gently squeezed it. She and Brandon are my family. Lachlan and the McLaren’s were family, if I can fix this fucking mess.

“Get out,” I told her calmly. I glanced over to John. “You can stay here for the night, but she cannot. It is up to you if you go with her or not.”

My mother… no, not my mother… the woman that pretended to be my mother and failed miserably got up and walked out of the room with her head held high.

John came up to me. “I’m sorry, Eve,” he mumbled sadly. “I’ll go with her. I can’t leave her alone.”

I nodded and stood still as he hugged me. He was a good man. He didn’t deserve any of these shitstorms that woman put him through

“Thanks for everything,” I sobbed.

He gave me a final sad smile and went after his wife.

Elise, Brandon, Colin, and Margaret were the only ones left with me.

“Why didn’t you say anything?” Elise asked softly.

I walked over and sat on the chair. “I don’t know,” I uttered. “I don’t know anything anymore.”

My elbows on the table, I put my face in the palms of my hands. How did I fuck everything up so bad?

I held my head in my hands unsure what to do or say, how to fix it. I should have talked to Lachlan but instead I started pushing him away as soon as I came up with my own conclusions.

Elise hugged me from behind, her little murmurs a comfort she always gave me.

“You should have told me,” she said again. “All this time. I knew how much you loved him.”

“We were on the brink of separating, Elise,” I spoke low with my head still in my hands. “I came back early hoping we’d talk it over. I found them, turned around, and left. I wanted to take Hayden but he slept so peacefully, so I left to come back the next day.”

It was the first time since their death that I spoke my son’s name out loud.

“I left him,” I choked out. “If I hadn’t, he would have still been alive.”

“Shhh,” Elise's voice was a whisper. “Nobody could have known there was a gas leak underground.”

---