Page 21

21

ALEENA

Aleena was all ready to go with a rental hovercoach waiting in the driveway of her grand new house when her personal communications device buzzed discretely.

Quickly, Aleena answered. She was thinking that it might be either Bear or her mother. Before he had left for his negotiations, her new husband had exchanged contact information with her. Of course she would never bother him in the middle of his important meeting. A wife did not interrupt her husband’s work—such a thing was unthinkable. But it was nice he cared enough to want to be able to call her if he decided to.

Her other thought was that the call might be from her mother. Sometimes her treatments were so painful and if they had started early before Aleena was there to hold her hand, she might be in distress.

“Hello?” she said, hoping everything was all right.

“Hello? Is this the daughter of the woman Leelah who was formerly the wife of Sir Greggor?” an unfamiliar male voice asked.

“Yes, this is Aleena, her daughter,” Aleena said. “Who is this?”

“I’m calling from the Healing House,” the man said, without bothering to answer her question. “I must inform you that your mother is here but the balance of her bill has not been paid, so it will be impossible to give her a treatment today.”

“What? But I made arrangements—it was supposed to be paid in full!” Aleena protested.

“Well, it hasn’t been. Not a single credit has been paid since her last visit,” he said bluntly. “So we’re going to send her home.”

“No, please!” Aleena begged. “This is all just a big misunderstanding. Please give me some time to call and straighten things out—don’t send my mother away. She needs her treatment or the disease will spread!”

“You can have a few hours—I’ll put her out in the hallway while I deal with other patients.” The male on the other side of the call sounded grumpy and put out. “But if you don’t show up soon or pay the balance, I’ll have to send her away.”

“I’ll get it fixed and you’ll have the funds soon—I promise!” Aleena said quickly. “Just let her stay there until I can get this figured out, please .”

He made a noncommittal noise and hung up, leaving Aleena to stare at her device. She’d been afraid of this—her stepmother wasn’t holding up her end of the bargain!

Desperately, she punched in her father’s number. He didn’t often answer her calls, but she hoped that this time he might make an exception.

The device buzzed in her ear several times and she began to be afraid that he was just going to ignore her again. But finally there was a click as the call was answered.

“Father please, you have to help me!” she began, only to be cut off by a cold, familiar voice.

“If you’re calling to complain about your new life as the wife of that gigantic Kindred you can keep your whining to yourself,” her stepmother said. “Nobody cares how much it hurt when he changed the color of your eyes. It’s part of your wifely duty to spread your legs for him so don’t think for a minute?—”

“That’s not why I’m calling!” Aleena exclaimed. “I’m calling because you didn’t keep your end of the bargain—the Healing House called and said not one single credit of my mother’s bill has been paid!”

“And it’s not going to get paid either,” Grindelia’s voice was cold. “Why would I waste money on a woman my husband disavowed years ago?”

“What?” Aleena was so shaken she had to sit down. “You can’t be serious! We made a bargain—I married the Kindred Ambassador in Faleesha’s place and you were supposed to pay my mother’s debt!”

“Well, I’ve decided I don’t like that deal,” her stepmother said coolly. “So you can forget about it. Your new husband is rich enough—ask him to pay your mother’s debt.”

“You know I can’t do that!” Aleena was shocked at the suggestion. A husband never paid for anything to do with his wife’s family. Even to ask such a thing was a grave offense that was likely to get the wife in question immediately disavowed.

“Well then, I guess your mother will die.” Grindelia’s voice had never sounded more cold. “Good riddance, I say. Once a woman has been disavowed and has no husband to serve, she has no reason for living anyway.”

Then she hung up the phone with a final click that echoed in Aleena’s ears.