loved me. Like I said, I’ve made it a goal to keep all negativity out of my life. And you’ve never been anything but negative. So no, you’re not invited to our wedding.”
She inhales a sharp breath. I can sense her exasperation from across the ocean. “Excuse me? I’m your mother. How do you think it’s going to look if you don’t invite your own mother to your wedding?”
“It’ll look like I’ve grown the backbone I should have years ago. I will not have you there to ruin the most important day of my life.”
“Until the next wedding.”
“There won’t be another wedding. I’m not you.”
“We’ll see about that.”
“We certainly will. But you still aren’t invited.”
“I can make life extremely difficult for you. Don’t forget. I know all your secrets. I’d hate for the world to learn them, too.”
“At one point, that might have been enough to scare me into caving to your demands. But not anymore. Go ahead. Tell the world my secrets. Anderson’s the only person I care about, and he already knows everything about me. So you lose. Goodbye, Elaine,” I say, refusing to call her mother.
“He’s not Hunter,” she says before I can end the call.
I grind my teeth, resisting the urge to scream. She always has a way of saying the precise thing that will cut me deeper than anything else.
“That’s not why I’m marrying him.”
“Are you sure about that? That’s why you married the last one. What was his name again?”
“I just mentioned his name,” I hiss. “It’s Jeremy.”
“Right. Jeremy. And he only looked like Hunter. But this one… Well, in my line of work, you learn that relationships born out of a shared tragedy never survive.” Her voice softens, oozing with sympathy. Except I know it’s about as real as her latest lip enhancement. “It won’t bring him back.”
“I don’t need to bring Hunter back. He’ll live on where he’s meant to be. In my memories. Which is where I plan on keeping you. At least the memories I have when you cared about me. You haven’t in years. So, for the last time… Goodbye.”
I punch the end call button on the screen, then shoot to my feet as adrenaline winds through me. Agitated, I pace the length of the room, trying to work off some of this anxiety.
With every step I take, another painful memory of my childhood comes to the surface. How I was never good enough. How I was never smart enough. How I was never pretty enough.
It all becomes too much. A lifetime of being made to feel incompetent and lacking burns within until the only way I can find relief is to let it all go. So that’s what I do.
Forgetting where I am and any sense of decorum, I dig my hands into my hair and bend over, releasing all my pent-up frustration with a piercing scream.
When the door bursts open seconds later, I straighten. O’Kelly’s panicked eyes find mine, Lieutenant Thomas close on his heels.
“What happened?” O’Kelly asks, scanning the room for any perceived threat, his hand on the gun in his holster, ready to immediately draw and fire.
Smoothing a hand down my hair, then my dress, I take a moment to compose myself. Grabbing my phone off the desk, I return it to Lieutenant Thomas. Minutes ago, I hated that he controlled who had access to me. Now I’m grateful for it.
“That was my mother,” I tell him.
His face blanches. It doesn’t take a genius to know precisely what that means. I have no doubt Anderson’s already briefed both men regarding her.
“I apologize, ma’am. The incoming call came from a hospital in New York. When she claimed it was about your friend, Chloe, I thought—”
“And I thank you for that. I had the same thought when you told me. From now on, the only people I want you to put through are from the numbers already stored in my phone. Even if it’s an emergency, my friends are more inclined to call from their cells.”
“Understood,” Lieutenant Thomas says, bowing his head slightly. “It’ll never happen again.”
I nod with an appreciative smile. “Thank you.”
I tap my fingernails against the arm of the chair as I sit in the waiting room of the palace physician’s office.
When I learned I’d be attended to by one of the “in-house” physicians throughout my pregnancy, as is the protocol, I assumed the appointments would take place in a private office located somewhere in the palace, similar to the nurse’s office at school,