Total pages in book: 72
Estimated words: 70931 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 355(@200wpm)___ 284(@250wpm)___ 236(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 70931 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 355(@200wpm)___ 284(@250wpm)___ 236(@300wpm)
I have to stop looking.
“Lyam.” My mother’s warm voice captures my attention.
I shut the door behind me. She sits on the leather couch, her hands folded in her lap. Maman was a young bride and had Fabien, the eldest of my siblings, when she was only twenty. People sometimes think she’s our sister, because we share the same bright eyes, strong chin, and olive skin, though her features are softened and feminine.
I give her a smile. Even when I’m angry, my mother’s soothing voice and demeanor calm me. I gentle my voice. “Maman. You never come here unannounced.”
“I… oh, I just happened to be in the neighborhood.”
She’s as bad at lying as Cosette. I don’t buy it.
“Right. Something bothering you?”
“Well, yes, I… I thought it best to talk to you in person.”
That’s strange. She never does this.
“Do you want a drink?
She shakes her head. “No, thank you. I don’t want to take up much of your time. Listen, Lyam, I was… I didn’t know…” She draws in a breath and lets it out sharply. “Nicolette called me to talk about Savannah’s baby. Apparently, it’s customary in America to have a party of some sort. Something about a shower and presents, and she hoped we could do something like that here. But that isn’t the point of my visit.”
Nicolette, my brother Fabien’s wife, is Savannah’s sister.
Maman opens her mouth, then closes it before she opens it again. “You know I don’t interfere, Lyam, but I—well. I need to… talk to you.”
“So you do want to interfere.”
I’m losing my patience.
“Lyam, Nicolette told me what Cosette did to Savannah. And I… know you’re bringing her here if you haven’t already.”
I don’t respond at first. She doesn’t need to know she’s here.
When I don’t respond, she goes on. “Listen, Lyam. I just want to remind you. Your father may have done some things that others would have criticized him for, but you know he never raised a hand to me. Not once, Lyam.”
“You were his wife,” I say shortly. “Not someone who betrayed your family.” And my father was the exception to the rule.
She winces. “I’m just saying that you’re better than that. You’re not the type to raise a hand to a woman, Lyam.”
There’s a world of difference between striking a woman and taking her across my knee, but I’d rather not get into details with my mother.
She pleads with me. “Lyam. If you hurt Cosette, you’ll never be the same.”
I shake my head. “She betrayed us. She set Savannah up to be killed. If we hadn’t rescued Savannah, she’d be dead, Maman. Savannah’s my sister-in-law. Thayer’s wife. Now I don’t know why Cosette did what she did, but I do know this. If she were a man, she’d already be dead.”
I swear, the older Maman gets the less she can handle. But I’m not making excuses for who we are or what we do.
Her face pales when she whispers, “Oh, Lyam.”
I’ve had enough.
“Don’t ‘Oh, Lyam,’ me. You came here because you want to interfere. You don’t like to know details, because you don’t want to know. And yet here you are. So I’ll give it to you straight. She’s my prisoner. She made a huge mistake. I’m not sure why yet, but I’ll do whatever it takes to find that out, because I have to know what motivated her.”
And saying it aloud makes me realize… why she betrayed us matters more than anything. There’s nothing more telling or insightful than her why.
I can’t move forward until I know the truth.
Maman looks at me sadly. “If you hurt a woman, you hurt who you are. You don’t come back from that because you’ll never be the same, Lyam. Did you ever bother to ask how your father and I came to be married?”
I’m getting impatient to see my prisoner. “You met in London. It was instant attraction. I know this story.”
But the reproach in her gaze tells me I only know part of it.
I don’t have time for this. I’ve had a long fucking day and it isn’t anywhere near over yet. I tap my foot impatiently.
“My father owed him money. A large, significant sum of money. My father was not a good man, so he promised my youngest sister instead.”
I feel my eyes widen. I had no idea. Her father’s long since dead. How did I not know this?
“I offered myself in her stead. I couldn’t let her go to a man she didn’t know, Lyam. I didn’t know what he was capable of. He could have assaulted me. He could’ve beaten me. I went into marriage to him knowing this.”
I stare at her. My father lived by a moral code all his own, and he taught us to do the same.
“But he didn’t, Lyam. And you all remember him as a good man because of that.” She shakes her head. “Only the weak need to hurt the vulnerable.” She rises and steps over to me. Reaches for my hand and gives it a squeeze.