Page 52 of Shattered Reign

Before she could talk, I took a step back, allowing her to enter my apartment so that this wouldn’t happen in the doorway. I didn’t need my neighbors to hear every part of the conversation I was probably going to have with my mother.

“I needed to see you,” she said, sniffling as she tried to calm herself down. “I waited to come over to give you some time away from your father and me. I want to do better and be there for you like I should have been for all of these years.” Her voice cracked and she swiped at her eyes with the back of her hand.

“Was what Dad did to me the last time we saw each other a turning point?”

Mom seemed shocked by my question. “No. The news of his affairs was. Not having you there when the news broke was.”

“I didn’t even realize you knew I was missing.”

Mom’s eyes opened wide in shock. “Of course I did. I took Tristan’s explanation as a fact, but I did want to know where you were. I’m glad you weren’t here to see everything that happened. I wish you hadn’t been there to see me throw that vase at your father.”

I couldn’t tell if her cheeks were turning red because she was embarrassed or from the tears she was crying.

The tears in my mother’s eyes sparked something deep within me, and I couldn’t help but feel the walls I’d built around my mind and heart start to crumble. Hell, they started to crumble when I saw how upset my mother was the evening before the fateful night that my father acted as if he was going to lunge at me. Tentatively, I wrapped my arms around her, allowing myself to fully embrace her.

“I know I don’t deserve your forgiveness, Bianca, but I’ll work hard to show you that I want to be in your life. I will do anything for us to start the process of rebuilding the relationship we once had.”

The weight of her words sank in, almost crushing me as I replayed them over and over. Could I really find it in myself to fully forgive her? It was a terrifying thought, if I was being honest, but a small part of me yearned to feel the love of my mother again that wasn’t tied to anything to do with politics.

As I stood with my mother just arm’s length away from me, I felt something inside me shift. All the pain and betrayal didn’t disappear in an instant, but the heavy weight on my chest seemed to lift ever so slightly. It felt nice not to feel the burden of all of this pain anymore.

“Okay, Mom,” I said softly, my eyes locked with hers. “Let’s give this a shot. I want to try to rebuild our relationship.”

Mom fell into my arms again and cried once more.

29

BIANCA

A FEW DAYS LATER

The deep breathing exercises I’d been performing to distract myself weren’t working. The SUV slowed down before it came to a stop. The peaceful ambience in the vehicle didn’t do a thing to stop my heart from hammering in my chest. Even with Easton here, sitting in the driver’s seat, it wasn’t doing anything to calm me down.

Today could be it. It could fix a lot of things. I’d been wanting to do this for a long time, but the thought of what I might find, or my being too late, might make me throw up.

The gothic mansion stood before us, nestled among towering trees on a hill. It felt as if it was surrounded by darkness, even though it was the middle of the afternoon. Its outer appearance was weathered and aged by time and there were so many windows that I wouldn’t even bother trying to count all of them because I knew I would fail. Two crumbling stone statues guarded the entrance to the home, and the state of them was freaking me the fuck out.

Or maybe it was what I might find on the other side of the front door that was making me panic.

It looked the same as I remembered it as a kid and when I stopped by a few weeks ago. I wasn’t surprised that my childhood friends and I thought it was haunted. Hell, maybe it was.

Easton killed the engine, and we were surrounded by silence, which was thick and suffocating. It spread around us like a dense fog, and I wouldn’t have been surprised if a fog had drifted down from the mansion we were parked in front of.

He turned to me, his green eyes shifting between me and the house we were in front of. “Are you ready?”

“Yes, I am.”

But that was a lie.

Shit. What had I gotten us into?

I swallowed hard; my mouth suddenly as dry as a desert. Everything in me screamed to tell Easton to start the engine and get us the hell out of here. However, I couldn’t back down now.

Easton squeezed my hand before he opened his door. I followed his lead and stepped out of the vehicle.

I pulled my coat tighter around me as I felt the crunch of gravel under my boots and listened to the sharp sound of my steps breaking the silence. The sound penetrated, seeming to echo around us and forced me to bite back a scream due to it and the fear and anticipation for what was about to happen.

By the time we walked up the crumbling steps to the front door, I was a hot, nervous mess. While I knew Easton wouldn’t let anything happen to me, I still couldn’t stop my nerves from spinning.

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