Page 77 of The Love of Priest 2

"Quite honestly, I can't even blame you for your actions.

You are coming from a place of hurt and the fact that you were forced to be stronger than you wanted to be.

I cannot force or expect things out of you when you were never given them yourself.

However, what I will do is hold you accountable.

I was hurt to see you not show up the day Priest and I left.

The little girl in me was still searching for your validation as my mother, despite me making the decision to leave.

" She remained firm with the choices she had made, but her feelings were still wounded.

Seven hung her head low in shame. She could admit, she hadn't been her best to Britain, but she couldn't just overlook her apprehension about her daughter's new life.

Britain was her child whom she had raised, and she couldn't just take a step back and watch her make all these life-altering decisions for love from a man.

"As your mother, I take full accountability for my wrongs. Putting my differences aside would have been the best thing to do in that moment. I'm sorry," she apologized as her eyes trailed back up to lock with Britain's orbs.

The apology sounded very nice and sincere; however, Britain knew Seven still had more to say, which was why she didn't rush to accept the apology. Instead, she eyed her mother with an awaiting look on her face.

" But also, as your mother, I think I'm allowed to let you know how I feel about certain situations.

I may not be able to sway you away from them, but at least you would know I have my reservations about them.

As happy as you are right now with this man and your engagement, I just never want you to lose sight of yourself and who you are.

Your whole life is changing, Britain, and the only familiar thing at the moment while you're in Italy is him.

This will result in a traumatic codependency problem just like the one you had the last time you were in love.

Indeed, Priest is a wonderful man. We love the way he loves you so openly and how protective he is of you.

In no way am I trying to convince you to end things with him.

I just want you to understand what you are getting yourself into.

"Being with a man like that is hard, let alone being married to him.

That lifestyle is suffocating enough, but to be on the grand scale that he's on with the news, his alleged death and all the other crazy things he has going on, where in the midst of that will you have the time and space to do what you want?

" Seven let out a deep sigh. "Britain, you're making a big mistake if you think you'll be content with living in Italy with just this man and nothing else that reminds you of who you were before him.

You're so easily blinded by love that you don't even understand how isolated and disconnected you've become from everything around you besides him.

It seems as though I'm the only one who remembers how deeply involved you can get and how much pain it caused you when you got that way for Cameron.

You are making the same mistakes, just with a different man and on a much larger scale. "

Britain pursed her lips as she eyed her mother. At this very moment, she was beginning to feel like reopening this wound with her mother was like beating a dead horse. There was nothing in the world that could make them come to an understanding.

"Alright, Ma." Britain nodded as she rose from her seat. "It was nice seeing you, but it's clear you can't accept the fact that I did what you've always wanted to do," she slyly told her mother.

Taken back by Britain's statement, Seven screwed up her face in question as her eyes seared into her daughter. "And what is that?" she asked as she crossed her arms against her chest, clearly offended by her remark.

Britain turned around to face her mother before her shoulders motioned in a heavy shrug.

"Actually being with the man I love instead of settling because of fear," Britain told her as she pointed to her mother's wedding ring, indicating that she settled for Henderson when who she really wanted was Jeremy.

Before her mother could let out anything else, Britain made it to the foyer of the brownstone, grabbing her bag that she didn't even get the chance to unpack.

She headed straight out the door, glad that Cyro had never left his post out front.

She felt her stomach churn as sadness weighed heavily on her.

She had intentions of patching things up with her mother and being welcomed back with open arms. Her trip back home was supposed to give her everything she had been missing since being in Italy.

Instead, all she got was an empty penthouse, an abrupt rush of trauma from just the sight of Remy's house, and the beginning of the end of her relationship with Seven that she always tried to salvage because she loved her mother.

Cyro was a bit confused to see Britain returning to the car with her bags. Instead of wasting any time pondering why she was coming back, he got out the car, taking the bags from her. "Where to next, Mrs. Justice ?" he asked her as he placed the bags in the back of the SUV.

Britain felt an urge to tell Cyro to take her back to the ramp so she could fly back out to Italy.

She felt so uncomfortable and alone in the city at the moment, almost like she had been forgotten.

Despite wanting to go back to Italy so soon already, she knew it wouldn't be possible to do so.

There was no way the jet would be ready to take her back on such short notice.

"Back to the penthouse I guess," she sheepishly muttered as she eased into the leather seats of the vehicle.

Cyro could see the sadness webbed within Britain's eyes, which caused him to let out a short sigh. She thanked him for assisting her into the vehicle before he made his way around to get in himself. "Sorry for making you take all these blank trips. I just?—"

"No need to apologize, Mrs. Justice ," Cyro asserted in his baritone voice as he kept his focus on the road back to TriBeCa.

She nodded her head as she leaned back in her seat.

This definitely wasn't what she envisioned when she packed her bags to head back to the city.

It seemed as though the trip back was bringing her more pain than she came to the city with, and that alone made her want to run back into Priest's arms. She felt so silly to think that she could handle her mother and the trauma of Priest's shooting alone and so soon.

She had overestimated her own strength and in turn endured way too much for one day.

Digging into the pocket of her coat, she extracted her phone.

Glancing down at the screen, she sighed heavily at the sight of the missed calls from Priest and a few from Jazzy that displayed on the screen.

Just as they reached the bridge, Britain mustered up enough courage to return a call to Priest, who answered in no time after having to hear from Cyro that she decided to find elsewhere to stay when she left the penthouse.

"Britain, you can't pull stuff like that.

We talked about this shit before you even got on the jet," Priest sighed deeply in clear frustration, the fact that she had him worried for a bit evident in his voice.

"I know," Britain murmured, allowing Priest to hear the sadness that struck her voice.

A silence waved over them momentarily. Priest could sense all her emotions, which led him to the only conclusion.

"It ain't go well with your moms, did it?

" He opted out of reminding her what they had agreed to before she flew to the city and turned his attention to what had altered her entire mindset about her trip back home.

Britain shook her head as if he could see her on the other end of the phone. "No," she let out lightly.

"I'm sorry to hear that,Gioia," he sympathized.

Priest knew how important Seven was to Britain.

He just wished Seven could put her stubbornness and beliefs aside and just support her daughter through whatever.

She never saw past what she thought could go wrong for Britain.

It was like she always wanted the front row seat to say I told you so .

Britain always knew that at some point she would no longer be able to deal with the fact that her mother would always be expecting her to fail.

It just so happened that this very situation brought her to that point.

She quickly wiped the tears that slipped from her eyes before she even registered that she was crying.

"It's fine. I just wanted to check in and let you know I'm okay," she assured him, forcing a light smile onto her face in hopes of ridding herself of the powerful urge to cry.

Priest knew she wasn't okay, but he also knew timing was very important to her. Instead of forcing her to spill all the emotions she had bottled up, he agreed to give her some time. She deserved that much. "You don't want to talk?" Priest asked in a tender voice.

"No. I'm heading back to the penthouse. Just a few minutes away, actually," she informed him as she glanced out the window, noticing that they were heading off the bridge. "It's pretty late on your side, so just get some sleep, and I'll call tomorrow," she suggested.

Although Priest didn't mind losing out on any sleep just to comfort her, he knew her suggestion meant she was hoping he wouldn't fight her on it. "Alright," he agreed. "I love you, Britain.”

"I love you too, Priest," she returned before they shared goodbyes and ended the call.

In just a few minutes, like Britain estimated, she and Cyro returned to the penthouse.

Like last time, they went through the parking garage and secured a parking spot near the elevator.

Once the doors opened, she assured Cyro she could take her bags up alone.

He was skeptical since he could see her tears forming at the brims of her orbs, but she didn't seem like she would be satisfied if he accompanied her on the elevator ride up.

He handed her the bags, and she thanked him before pressing the button to be lifted up to the highest floor.

She quickly arrived at the penthouse, where the thick steel doors glided open. This time around, she was met by Jazzy, who had a look of relief etched on her face.

"She just made it up," Britain noticed Jazzy say to who she assumed was Priest on the phone. "I'm sorry for not being here when you landed," Jazzy said, quickly spilling out an apology as she pulled Britain into a hug.

Although Jazzy was focused on making things right for not being there for her arrival, Britain appreciated her hug for reasons that surpassed the warm welcome she had to go without.

She genuinely did need a hug at the moment, and with Priest being across the world, she had to find comfort in Jazzy.

In the embrace, she convulsed into tears, catching Jazzy completely off guard.

On the other side of the phone, Priest could hear her cries, which pulled on the strings of his heart. He wanted to be there for her, but it just wasn't possible."I got her," Britain heard Jazzy say to Priest as she allowed Britain room to release her cries onto her without any shame.

Priest had managed to call Jazzy, letting her know that Britain was returning to the penthouse, but she wouldn't be in the best spirits.

He didn't go into much detail besides telling Jazzy that Britain had a run-in with her mother.

Jazzy was all too familiar with the drama that came with a complicated mother, so she understood why Britain would be sad.

"Thank you," Priest expressed his gratitude.

The two siblings shared their goodbyes, allowing Jazzy to focus on consoling Britain.

Jazzy kept her arms around Britain, being her safe space since Priest couldn't physically be there.

Even though Britain had come to the realization that she and Seven had reached a breaking point, that wasn't the only thing hurting Britain. She had come back to the city just for a peace of mind and to feel how she used to feel before her life changed so drastically. She would have never thought her first day back would’ve been the emotional disaster she was enduring now.

Sadly, Britain just wanted to go back home.

Back home to Italy.