Page 81 of Blind Devotion

“Maman, arrête.” Mom, stop.

“Your father would be so disappointed.”

“He always was,” Adrien said, his tone cold. “You should be ecstatic. You’re getting what you wanted. I am no longer single, and Persetta will be my wife.” I held my tongue not to contradict him, considering the tension. “She will be the mother of my children, of your grandchildren. And youwillrespect her as a head of this family.”

He was getting a little ahead of himself. We barely spoke about marriage, and already he was leaping toward children.

Océane De Villier gave no response, but her heels clacked in movement…away from us and out of the dining room.

I stared blankly at her blobbed shape in the overly bright and effervescent room.

“I thought your mother liked me,” I muttered from the corner of my mouth as Adrien steered me away. I glanced at her over my shoulder. I remembered her loving me, actually.

“It’s been a few years,” Adrien answered cryptically. Yeah, I wasn’t buying that.

This was the woman who would go out of her way to make me chocolate chip peanut butter cookies whenever I visited because they were my favorite, even though sweet peanut butter was nearly impossible to find in France. She used to read me bedtime stories and make plans for my wedding to her son with just as much excitement as my own mother. She loved me. I was sure she had. Time didn’t just erase that.

“Adrien, don’t lie to—”

“Alizé.” He cut me off, stopping in front of the last family member. I still wasn’t sure how to act with her.

“Seems you two finally got out of your heads and figured things out.” Adrien’s sister greeted us. “You look great, Tessa. A whole new you without those bandages. Very trendy scars.”

“Thanks,” I said, surprised by her sincerity.

“See, I told you a good seduction goes a long way.”

And there it was. A zinger, a little way of stirring up problems for her own amusement. She always was good at that, from the little I remembered of her, and it didn’t seem she’d changed from what I’d experienced over the last two weeks.

“When did the two of you talk seduction?”

“Oh, you see, brother—”

“Your sister,” I interrupted, crossing my arms, “tried to blackmail me into seducing you when I first woke up. Seems she didn’t understand my no for what it was.”

“Everything worked out. Imagine if I hadn’t done what I did.”

The sweep of Adrien’s finger over my lips cut me off from tossing out a snarky comeback. This wasn’t how he touched me when upset or frustrated. No, this was reverent, loving.

“How did you know?” he asked her, as that finger lovingly brushed over my cheek. “When I didn’t even recognize her?”

“Easy, on the boat, when she was half dying, she mumbled ‘paper boy’. Nobody else ever would have dared say such a thing about you, no matter how close they were to death.”

“I’m thankful, Alizé. Anything you want, it’ll be yours.”

“I didn’t do this for a prize.”

Adrien grappled Alizé into a hug between us. The way Alizé gasped, she was obviously surprised. With his aversion to touch, how many times had he ever hugged her? “I know. Whatever you want, name it. It’s yours.”

She exhaled shakily. “I guess…I’ll hold you to that. I really am happy for you. Both of you.” She grasped my hand and gave it a little squeeze. “You’ll have to forgive Maman. She’s still got a chip on her shoulder after all these years. I’m sure it’ll pass.”

From that cold greeting, it might take a while.

“I was sorry to hear about yours.”

“My what?” I asked in genuine confusion. “My…mother? What about my mother?”

“Didn’t you hear?” she asked. “You didn’t tell her?”