Page 17 of Cruel Revenge (Jacky Leon #12)

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

“ E -Excuse me?” Courtney was stunned.

It was the only emotion she and I naturally shared. I was also surprised.

“And while we’re at you, you can lie to me.” Carey smiled as she tilted her head toward me. “Don’t tell me if she does until after we leave. She only gets one chance to answer. If she wants to waste it on lying to me, then that’s her choice.”

“Okay,” I said, too stunned to say anything else for a moment. As the surprise of Carey’s switch faded, pride began to swell in my chest.

“Now, Carey, I’m your mother?—”

“You’re my egg donor. If you want a real relationship with me, you’ll start answering my questions,” Carey said, her expression going flat as she turned back to Courtney.

“I thought about playing nice for a course or two, like I have been over texts, but then you looked at Jacky like she was the dirt on your shoes. That made it really hard to hide how angry I am that you’re even here. ”

I had been so distracted by the woman that I hadn’t noticed Carey was angry about how Courtney came in here and gave me that disgusted look.

“Sweetie—”

“Don’t trot out some pet name you’ve never bothered using before to try to infantilize me,” Carey snapped.

“I’m not a baby. I might only be sixteen, but I’m in college, and the only people who get to coddle me like a child were the people who actually raised me.

You didn’t. You don’t have that privilege, Courtney. ”

Courtney’s mouth thinned as Carey verbally dressed her down for trying to overstep and manipulate Carey. When Carey was done, Courtney took a deep breath.

“I birthed you. You won’t call me by my first name.”

“That’s fine, Ms. Lane,” Carey corrected, smiling with her own viciousness that made me think of Landon. Her ability to disarm and dismiss this woman so effectively was almost too much like her brother. “I won’t call you by your first name.”

“I thought we were building something over text. This hostility must be because of your father… or her,” Courtney said, pointing in my direction.

“No. I’ve really disliked you most of my life.

I wanted to draw you in so I could finally confront you.

” Carey crossed her arms as she leaned back in her seat.

“It was really hard hiding this from Dad and Jacky. I could only text you sometimes, and if I ever thought about you, I had to leave and wait for my anger to die down before they noticed. I had to air out my room to make sure they never caught a lingering scent of it so they wouldn’t know. ”

As troublesome as all that subterfuge was, I was also a bit impressed.

I wonder if this is how Heath feels whenever Landon or Richard does something intense and proves their power and intelligence. Concerned and proud. Worried and impressed. It’s so conflicting.

When Courtney didn’t speak for some time, Carey chuckled.

“So, are you going to make an honest effort to answer my questions or not?”

“Only if you can drop some of the attitude,” Courtney snapped.

Carey cleared her throat and softened her expression. She sat up straight again and put her hands on the table, fingers woven together as she waited with a serene smile that didn’t reach her eyes.

“My apologies, Ms. Lane. I’ve just been hoping to understand more about your choices for a long time.” Carey said sweetly.

Only a fool would buy the act.

“I bet your father falls for that,” Courtney said, shaking her head.

“No, but I respect him enough to only do it jokingly.”

That made me snort, which got a glare from Courtney.

“You must be so pleased with this, having alienated my own daughter from me,” Courtney hissed, but it wasn’t very impressive. Humans didn’t hiss as well as I could. Her words toward me erased what momentary humor I had gotten from Carey.

“I didn’t need to alienate her from you,” I growled.

The bitch’s face paled as I spoke. “You weren’t around for me to actively hate, much less talk about.

When I met Carey, we were both busier trying to keep her alive .

And since then, we’ve been busy living our lives, which I promise are far too busy to waste more than a fleeting thought about your existence. ”

Courtney sank back a little by the time I was done.

“Ms. Lane, Jacky really isn’t the person to piss off,” Carey said, waving her biological mother to look back at her. “Like, you need to leave her alone and just let her be here.”

“How do you do it? Living with monsters?” Courtney asked her.

“I’m not justifying that question with an answer,” Carey said, her face twisting back into anger. “They’re my family, the one you left me with.”

“I didn’t leave you with her,” Courtney snapped. “I left you with your father because I knew I wouldn’t be able to keep you anyway, and if you had been a werewolf… you’d need him.”

“You could have stayed just to know me.”

“Heath would have never allowed that,” Courtney said.

“Don’t try that lie with me!” Carey’s volume went up as she kicked the table in clear frustration.

It was the most I had ever seen her physically act out an emotion.

“We both know it’s not true. He never took you to court to rip your rights away or anything!

You could have come back at any time! You just didn’t want to be associated with sleeping with him, and having a kid would prove you had! ”

I could smell Courtney’s anger. There wasn’t a lick of shame for her choices.

“Please forgive me, Carey,” Courtney said, her eyes going wide. “You have no idea what people were like back then. Even now! Sleeping with a werewolf as a human? The things people are called! I… I knew you were better off with him!”

That’s real. She really is wrapped up in how people see her. Carey was an afterthought.

“But now I want a real relationship with my daughter,” Courtney said, pleading. She reached out to try to grab Carey’s hand.

There’s the lie. The smell of her desperation is real, but the words are a lie…

“But I’m not your daughter,” Carey said, pulling her hand away. “And if you don’t want to actually answer my questions without trying to manipulate me, then we don’t need to keep talking.”

“You need a mother! I’m sorry I was late, but?—”

“I have one,” Carey said, frowning.

“What?” Courtney stopped reaching, her hand dropping onto the table.

I looked at Carey, tilting my head to the side in confusion.

“She’s saved my life more than once. She helped me learn to drive and picked me up from school when I needed someone to get me.

She taught me how to do the right thing.

She’s what I imagine when I think of a hero.

” Carey blinked several times, then pointed at me.

“I’d call her Mom if I didn’t think she’d freak out.

Jacky is my mom, and when Dad marries her, it’ll finally be official.

“The only thing I’m looking for from you is closure.

That’s all. I know you didn’t leave because I was unlovable.

You left for you and only you. Dad, Landon, Richard, Jacky, and so many others love me .

I know you didn’t love me, and I know it wasn’t my fault.

I guess coming here was my way, and trying to do this was my way of…

making sure I was right about that. And I am! ”

My heart was pounding as my eyes watered. I was never going to forget those words. They weren’t directed at me, but they were going to live in my heart until the end of time.

“But I do love you. Please give me a chance. We can really talk about this, Carey,” Courtney went back to trying to reach for her.

It was Courtney’s blatant lie that made me focus again, knowing I was going to talk to Carey once we left.

I almost started moving to stop Courtney from trying to grab her, but Carey stood up, shaking her head as she got out of reach.

“Stop trying to touch me. You don’t get to touch me,” Carey said, glaring.

“Carey, please !” The smell of Courtney’s desperation was overwhelming. “Why don’t we go for a walk and talk privately?”

“No,” I snapped. “That won’t be happening.”

“She’s not your daughter!” Courtney screeched. “She’s mine, and if I want to talk to her alone, you have no right to stop me!”

“Carey, we’re leaving,” I said quickly, standing up.

“No!” Courtney grabbed a glass and threw it, sending glass everywhere as she went into a full-blown tantrum over the dinner not going her way. “Carey isn’t leaving with you!”

Carey started walking toward me fast.

“You can’t take her!” Courtney tried once again to grab Carey, but I reached out and caught the woman’s wrist first, yanking her close to me to meet my stare.

“I’ll break every bone in your body if you try to touch her again,” I snarled.

Courtney broke under the ferocity of my stare, my gold eyes bright enough to reflect perfectly in her pupils.

“I need her!” Courtney whimpered.

Those words brought a pit to my stomach.

The desperation is real.

That was when the smell of magic also hit my nose as Courtney’s eyes narrowed, even through the woman’s fear and pain.

“Carey, run!” I roared. I shoved Courtney away to get to Carey, but found myself halted by a tight grip on my neck. It came from nowhere. I felt nothing except the pressure of its hold.

With Carey staring wide-eyed at me, I was yanked back hard, unable to process what was happening, confusion and fear reigning supreme as I slammed into the far wall away from Carey.

“Jacky!” Carey’s screech pierced through the bang of my impact, which knocked the air out of me. Once I could breathe, I roared as I tried to claw at whatever held my neck, only for my nails to hit my own skin.

“RUN!” I roared again, kicking against the wall, but unable to move, magic the only thing I could smell now.