Distinctly Different

Chapter 22 ~ Realization

Chapter 22

 

Feeling apprehensive Arabella watched Rowan leave. She heard the door close and his footsteps fade and immediately missed his presence. In the short time he’d been here she had felt better.

She looked down at her hands in her lap, her hair falling down obscuring her sight of her mother. Why was she here? Did she know about what happened at the masquerade ball? She probably knew about the drinks with wolfsbane but did she know that Arabella had kissed Rowan? Arabella panicked as she thought about what would happen. Her mother wasn’t kidding about the threat when she warned Arabella away from Rowan. He was in danger.

“How do you feel?” Arabella’s mother asked. Arabella shrugged not meeting her eyes. She wished Alistair would walk in and stop this conversation before it even started. “You should have been more careful,” she scolded. “You were close to being caught.”

“I wasn’t though, okay?” Arabella replied. She knew how close she had come to being exposed and she didn’t need her mother to make it worse. “I understand, trust me I do. I don’t need you to talk about it and make me feel worse.”

“I think you do need me to make you feel worse,” her mother went on. “If you understood the severity of this situation you would do anything to make sure your secret didn’t get out.”

“What’s your point?” Arabella sighed.

“My point is that you wouldn’t have got more involved with the hunter boy if you cared about your secret staying unknown,” her mother said. Arabella’s head shot up and she studied her mother. What was she going to do?

“It won’t happen again,” she promised her mother. She would make sure it never happened again if it meant Rowan would be safe. She just didn’t know how she would break it to him.

“Oh, I know it won’t,” Arabella’s mother stated.

“Is that the only reason you came? If it is you may leave now,” Arabella told her. She was foolish to think her mother came because she genuinely wanted to see how her daughter was faring after coming so close to being sentenced to death.

“I was worried about you and wanted to see if you were okay,” her mother answered. Arabella raised an eyebrow and crossed her arms not believing it.

“You don’t care about me, you never did,” she argued. “You wouldn’t have just left me here if you really cared.”

“You’re my daughter, I care about you,” her mother sighed. “How long are you going to keep bringing up the fact that I left you alone for years?”

“Until you stop lying to me and telling me that you care about me. You only care about the idea of having a daughter. You don’t care about me because of the way I am. You only want a daughter by your side because you think that makes us family again, as if nothing was wrong. You’re only acting when you say you care about me personally,” Arabella countered.

“That’s not true,” her mother protested. Arabella rolled her eyes. “I care about you as a whole not because you’re my flesh and blood. However it’s true that I do want you by my side again. We can be a family again, don’t you want that?”

Arabella stared at her mother feeling torn. She wanted her mother back but she knew her mother was still up to something. The thought of her mother’s scheme made up her mind. She would pretend to be on her mother’s side; at least until she found out what she was up to.

“Yes, I do want to be a family again,” Arabella said softly. Her mother smiled pleased with what her daughter had said. Knowing she was on the right track Arabella went on. “I have hated being alone all this time, I’ve missed you,” she said her voice breaking at the end. It was a convincing performance, but would her mother buy it?