The tone in Natalia’s voice made her stand up straight and hair rise on her arms. “All right, all right.” With a deep sigh, she turned around and opened the door. “What can I do for you, ma’am?”
Natalia sighed. “I saw you running out of the ballroom and my grandson nowhere in sight. I knew the situation was not good. What happened?”
She considered lying to the old woman, but she doubted she would believe it. “It just … it’s not working out, Natalia. Cam and me.”
“Not working out? But you are mates. Fated to be together. I do not believe it!”
“Well, I don’t know what to tell you. We just had a big fight, and I don’t think there’s any way we’re going to make up.” Her shoulders slumped. “It was never going to work out. We’re just too different. We come from different worlds. And I should have known we would never get along, the moment he showed himself to be a real Scrooge.”
“Scrooge?”
“You know. A Christmas Carol. The guy who hates Christmas.”
Recognition flashed in the old woman’s face. “Ah. Charles Dickens. But what—” She sucked in a quick breath. “Ah. I see now. Come, kotyonok.”
J.D. found herself being dragged toward the small couch in the corner. “Sit,” Natalia ordered, “and let me tell you something.”
“If this is about how Cam didn’t mean anything he said—”
“Shush, I am speaking.” Natalia’s eyes narrowed at her, and J.D. closed her mouth. “Aleksandr—Cam,” she began, “was not your typical child growing up. He told you about his parents?”
“Yes.”
“Edward, Cam’s father, resented his father for arranging the marriage with my Anastasia. However, they had no choice because the creditors were at the door, ready to strip them of what they had left. My husband’s money was the only thing that saved their estate. But the truth was, Edward himself was no better than his father. A drunkard who drank even more as his resentment grew. And a wastrel who blew through my daughter’s dowry in a year. Thank goodness my husband’s pockets were deep, and he made sure that the purse strings were kept out of Edward’s reach when he set up Anastasia’s trust fund. Igor had hoped he would change when Cam was born. But … he only got worse. See, Edward also hated the fact that Anastasia and Cam were shifters.”
Her cat let out an angry hiss. “What? Cam’s dad hated shifters?”
“Yes. This was a fact he didn’t realize until after the betrothal contract was signed and he had no choice. He was … disgusted by the idea that he was marrying a shifter.”
“Sonofabitch! Er, sorry.”
Natalia patted her hand. “Do not worry. I said worse when Anastasia relayed this to me. When Cam was born, Edward didn’t hide his bitterness and animosity. He was cruel to Cam. He never hurt him, but never showed him affection either. When he was learning to shift, Edward would berate him whenever he had any accidents, like if he changed into his bear inside the house or scratched up his furniture. He even started forcing Cam to wear those glasses to hide that glow in his eyes when his bear came to the surface. And then Anastasia died in that car crash.” Tears streaked down Natalia’s cheeks as she sobbed, and J.D. rushed to the sink to grab some tissues. “Thank you. Apologies. You never really get over the death of a child.”
“It’s all right,” she soothed. “Take your time.”
Natalia blew her nose into the tissue and wiped her tears. “No, I must continue. So you can understand. When Anastasia died, Edward didn’t even want Cam to live with him in his manor, so he was sent away to boarding school a few weeks after her funeral. He was nine years old.”
Her chest tightened as she imagined Cam losing him mother and being kicked out of the only home he knew.
“And after that first year, when all of his peers left for Christmas break, he was left behind.”
“What?”
“Edward refused to pick him up for the holidays. He had to spend it at St. Andrew’s. I didn’t even know about this, otherwise I would have insisted he come live with me instead. But I had no rights. Edward was still his father. He wouldn’t even sign the papers to let me take him for the holidays or so I could visit. He would probably have left Cam there during the summer, too, if the school was open. That