Chapter 23
Gemma
We talk for a little longer, then get off the phone. She sounds so
excited to see Cassian and me.
I sink onto the edge of my bed and think. I did Cassian a favor by going to his family dinner today. I could ask him to return it.
After all, he owes me.
But even when I was pretending to be his happy little wifey, he works so much that he rarely came to visit my mother.
Because of course he didn’t. Why would the Blackwell Alpha visit a crazy old woman?
Now that we’re getting divorced, there’s no way he’ll return the
favor.
I sigh and shoot off a quick text to him anyway, then go to sleep.
When I wake up in the morning, there’s no response from him. Since I didn’t expect one, it doesn’t sting too much.
Honestly? It’s for the best. I need to tell her that my relationship with him is over, and it will be easier without him there.
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I head to the hospital, which is a special one made for.
supernaturals rather than normal humans.
Lucky Draw
Supernaturals rarely have physical problems, especially the
stronger races, like wolves and fey. But any of us can still have
mental health issues.
I take the elevator to my mother’s floor. The hospital is a little outside the city in the forest, and it has lots of wide windows and glass to give the impression of openness and freedom.
There are lots of patients out in the lounge on her floor. Nurses
and volunteers play games and do puzzles with them.
It feels very peaceful, and I’m grateful to Donovan forever for
making it possible for her to stay here instead of a state–run place,
or worse, the streets.
The door to her room is open, and I stand there for a moment,
watching her look out the window at the river that runs behind the
hospital.
My mom was never meant to be part of the supernatural
underworld. That much is clear just from looking at her.
She came from a rich old family who disowned her after the
wedding.
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Lucky Draw
Maybe that’s why to me, my mother has always seemed gentle
and elegant. I’ve never seen her lose her temper. She’s never been
like the other mafia wives.
She always treated people so kindly, and naturally expected them to treat her kindly in return. I think that’s why she didn’t realize what kind of man my father truly was for such a long time.
My mind flashes back to my father’s funeral, to the days after, when things were so dangerous for us.
To the day after his funeral, when she was poisoned.
I have no idea how to prove it, but one day she was fine and the
next she just…snapped. She got caught between mania and suicidal depression, and I couldn’t deal with her on my own.
The couple of months between Dad’s funeral and the night I ran through the city to the Smokewind Pack house are my greatest
failure ever.
I tried, but I couldn’t take care of my mother.
I must make some kind of sound, because she suddenly whirls, her long, red hair fanning out around her. She sees me and breaks into a bright smile.
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Chapter 23
Lucky Draw
“Gemma! You came!” She looks around, her face clouded a little
in confusion. “Where’s Cassian?”
“Sorry, Mom. He…had a flight today.”
In the haze of her mind, she’s forgotten about the mafia
connections and the dark parts of her life.
She believes I’m a flight attendant, and that Cassian is a billionaire
Alpha airline owner and pilot.
“Oh,” she says. She looks sad, but she brightens right away. “That’s all right. I know how busy he is. Come over here. I have some gifts for Cassian and his grandfather! I ordered them online. Can you deliver them when you have time?”
I feel a pang in my heart as I look over the things she has on the
bed.
There’s a shirt and some other clothes. They’re obviously from
discount sites, and I cringe at the mental image of the way
Cassian would sneer at them.
“Mom, please. Just keep the money I give you or spend it on yourself. Cassian and Alpha Donovan don’t need gifts from you.”
“Well, I’m your mother, and they’re your in–laws. We should be able to give each other gifts,” she says.
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Lucky Draw
“Mom, seriously. It looks like you spent all of the money I loaded onto your card on this stuff. Stop buying them things!”
My voice is too harsh. My mother’s eyes suddenly fill with tears and her bottom lip wavers.
“I…I just feel like I owe them so much for paying for me to stay here. Don’t you think they’ll like them? I can return these and try to get them something better!”
I close my eyes. No, I don’t think Cassian will like any of this, but I can’t tell my mom that. She’ll be devastated.
I hear footsteps and I look up just in time to see Cassian enter the room. He’s so big, so obviously powerful, it’s like he takes up the entire space, which feels suddenly too small for all three of us.
His eyes sweep over the bed and my mother’s paltry gifts. His
face is so cold.
Then he looks at my mother.
