“Ruminating?”Ryan asked with a laugh, obviously recognizing the look on El’s face, and all she could do in response was nod, wishing that it could be described as anything else but knowing that was the best way to sum up the way that she felt.“What were you like as a child?”Ryan pressed, and El swallowed, not wanting to tell him the truth—that she was lonely and scared half the time and desperately wanted a friend in the world.
If anyone was bound to react to that, it was Ryan who was protective of her to the point that it sometimes felt possessive.No, for her future, it was better than El just remaining quiet, if only so that she could somehow convince Annabel to finally like her and give her what she had been searching for her whole life—a sliver of normalcy that El could also gift to her daughter.
Still, El couldn’t help but admit one thing to her mate at that moment.“You know, every single time that I leave here, I swear that it's the last time,” El admitted, feeling a little pathetic and small as she vocalized the thought but knowing that he would do his best to understand.That was the nice thing about having mates.They always tried to understand her and to see from her point of view.“I really have my hopes up this time.I know that you don't trust her, and to be honest, I probably don't have much reason to trust her myself, but I genuinely want to believe in Annabel.”
Ryan seemed to understand that, providing her with a much-needed nod and a grunt of affirmation.“I know that things are still strange with Persia,” Ryan said, failing to touch on the true depth of the situation.Things were far more than strange with Persia.Things always would be.
The more that person tried to act like a mother, the more that she distanced herself from her daughter.It was like El’s mother didn't really know how to be a mother after so long playing the part of the friend, and to be honest, she didn't seem overly interested in the prospect.“I really want something normal,” El said, and yet she was saying more than that at that moment.If she were being truthful with herself, she was saying that she wanted something like what she had had with Shawn’s mother, who had given up her life for the girl and been more of a parent to El than anyone else in her life had ever tried to be.
El’s heart still ached for the old woman, and she hadn’t yet acclimatized to the fact that she was gone.Nothing would ever replace the relationship that she'd had with her, and yet things could come close if she allowed herself to be open and believed that they could.
El tried to be optimistic as the car slowed to a stop in front of the formidable doors she had known in her childhood, the ones that now, as an adult, she happened to cross every month at the most.It had been some time since she'd last visited, about three months, and before then, it had been about a rough ten months.How her mother didn't piece together that there was a pregnancy slipped somewhere in there, she didn't know.Either that or Annabel had tried to contact her while she was out on the run with Persia and Willow, and El had failed to answer her call, thus resulting in the woman resigning, not to mention said call at all, largely out of annoyance.
The more that you ignored Annabel, the more that she ignored you ignoring her.To be honest, it was kind of commendable.
As was her determination to keep her house in the divorce settlement.They hadn't even begun negotiations, and Annabel had made it clear to El’s father that there would be no chance that he would be taking the estate away from her.In her words, she would rather die and be buried on the property than ever allow him to step foot on it again.In response, he had asked for their four yachts and nine cars and to eventually someday be able to get his clothing out of the closet.It was his insistence on keeping his own personal clothes that had riled El’s mother up and made divorce proceedings drag out, the woman seeming far from excited at the prospect of forfeiting anything that she owed to her ex-husband.
And, honestly, El thought as she noted the attractive male footmen that came rushing to open their doors, the men’s pants a little tighter than was likely needed and their faces far more handsome than the job called for, “Good for her,” El muttered under her breath, unable to deny the fact that her adoptive mother was, all things considered, sort of a girl boss.
After all, she’d taken one look at her ex-husband and his notably younger wife and pretty much told him to go fuck himself in the pursuit of her house, having decided that she would rather live on the expansive property alone than even humor the idea of allowing her ex-husband and his new younger girlfriend to live in it, obviously having read the writing on the wall and known far too well that her husband would be overly excited to have children once again.
In fact, the family portrait that hung by the entryway, emphasizing her two perfect boys and Annabel while minimizing El and her father, made it clear that the only legacy that she would allow to be built in her house was her own.Any other children that her ex-husband had would not be involved in the former family home.Hell, if El had to guess, it would probably go to one of the boys once Annabel died.
If Annabel ever happened to die, considering the fact that aging never seemed to impact the woman.Case in point, she looked as fresh as the day El left home eighteen years ago as she appeared at the top of the staircase, a plastic smile on her flawless face and not a wrinkle in sight.
“El, honey,” Annabel said in a perfectly designed voice, and El had to admit to herself there were some women in this world who were just born to play the role of trophy wife.The fact that her father had ever been capable of cheating on Annabel, of all women, was probably a testament to how strong his mate bond was.
Annabel descended the stairs in a cream-colored dress, her flawless blonde waves balancing precariously over one shoulder as her smile grew wider and wider, the woman acting far warmer than she ever had in El’s childhood.To be honest, a small part of El almost thought that she was having a stroke the moment that Annabel approached her, pulling her into her arms and holding her to her breast.
El could count on one hand the number of times that her mother had hugged her in her life, and they were far and few between.She was pretty sure that there were cameras present for every single one of those moments and that one of them might have even been her graduation, which someone had coincidentally called the paparazzi on.Also coincidentally, her graduation just so happened to coincide with some bad press that Annabel was getting at the time, an article or two insisting that she was a little of an ice queen.It sure had lightened her image for the paparazzi to catch her at such a monumental moment in which she was hugging her daughter during graduation, but El did her best to push back memories of those as she slowly and hesitantly wrapped her arms around her mother, some part of her almost waiting for the moment that the woman would try to choke her or something of the like.
El blinked in surprise the moment that her mother pulled away from her, still not fully comprehending the fact that she had deigned herself to hug El, but, well.New leaves, El supposed.
“Mom,” El said hesitantly, trying to remember if she had ever used the word before or if this was the first time.It seemed like a proper enough greeting, considering the topic of the day.However, El did have to internally note the moment that her mother blinked at those words, the corners of her mouth going down slightly.Evidently, such terms of endearment were not to be expected yet.
Annabel moved on easily from her supposed daughter to her supposed daughter's husband, wrapping her arms around Ryan and holding him for perhaps a moment too long.Annabel had made no efforts to hide the fact that she thought that Ryan was attractive, especially considering the way that she pulled back from the man and allowed her eyes to dance up and down his figure, taking in the firm muscle that made up the shoulders of the head of the pride.But then again, all things considered, El knew that she couldn't fault her for it.Her mates were uncommonly attractive, and it was very evident that Annabel had a thing for attractive men.
“Well, I am just so pleased that you could make it,” Annabel said, her voice sliding into that southern lilt that El’s mother utilized every so often when she wanted people to think of her as a quiet, unsuspecting wallflower.One could consider it another weapon in the woman's well-stocked artillery.Annabel knew how to handle herself in society, and she also knew exactly what people wanted from her.To be honest, El envied her for that.“You two must be so busy, what with that daughter of yours and all,” Annabel said, and again, El had to wonder when she’d told her about her, her mind coming up empty.
Surely, she must have mentioned Destiny before.
El did her best to avoid the questioning look in Ryan’s eyes, the one that seemed to ask her why she had tensed up so much and what exactly was wrong.Annabel was no threat, after all.El had known her all her life, and if she was going to kill the girl, then she had had plenty of opportunities to do so over the years.Plus, it was normal to mention Destiny to Annabel on the off chance that someday in the future, when she least expected it, some reporter would catch El unaware.
El grimaced at the mere thought of her mother discovering the existence of an unnamed granddaughter in such a way if she thought that Annabel was unfriendly, to begin with, then she struggled to imagine what Annabel would be like if she were to have another unfortunate journalistic surprise.It was like when El had gone out for her party the day after her 16th birthday, deciding that the Sweet 16 that was thrown for them was decidedly more for her father's business partners than for her.The moment that the paparazzi had caught her, her mom's name had appeared on her cell phone screen, reminding her that there were expectations for people like her and that her behavior, as of lately, had been far less than acceptable.
Sometimes, when she closed her eyes, El could still hear her mother's voice echoing off that very entryway’s walls, reminding her that she had been born a Forsythe-Drew and that such a title came with expectation.At the time, her mom had seemed exceptionally cruel, practically punishing El for wanting to be a kid for once.But now that she was older and a mother of herself, she understood.Sort of.
Annabel’s largest concerns in the world were about what other people thought of them and the effect that it would have.This was obvious and also explained why she reacted to why she had at the time and had begged El to show up then.If the world caught wind of the fact that Annabel's daughter was on a no-contact basis with her, that would reflect poorly on the woman, and Annabel had made it clear that the last thing she wanted was for anything to reflect poorly on her.
And therefore, the plastic smile that was painted across her features and the perfect wave of her hair.A part of El almost wanted to ask Annabel if she had had work done recently, her face seeming a little too smooth for the age that she was supposed to be and her body too skinny, but she knew that was rude.You didn't ask anyone if they'd had any plastic surgery or been on any binge diets, nor did you hint after an invitation to their Ozempic parties or ask which personal trainer had locked up the cookies in the cupboard.
Instead, you stood in the entryway of their gorgeous house, took in their Tuscan walls and Turkish carpets, and regarded it with a certain sense of wonder that was both complementary and diminishing, reminding them that while they were rich, you were rich as well, and trying to imply that you had more money than they ever would.The only difference was, in the case of El, that was right.
“Your brothers have already arrived.Michael and Jonathan are in the lounge with their wives; try not to say anything to Meredith, darling.She’s a little sensitive about her weight at the moment.Pregnancy is terribly wearing, as you know,” Annabel said, and with that one hushed statement, El suddenly remembered everything that she didn’t like about her mother.
Like the fact that she considered pregnancy to be such a dreadful, wearing thing that cannibalizes the body, this was Meredith’s second child, and far from the first time that Annabel had cared to comment on how much the young woman weighed.Annabel viewed the slightest bulge of the stomach to be an affront to humanity and much preferred her other daughter-in-law, Claudia.Claudia hardly carried at all when she was pregnant with her one bundle of misery, and Annabel made sure that everyone knew it.
“How was your pregnancy, El?”Annabel asked as she led them down the long, wide hallway that fed into the lounge, a hint of judgment residing in the back of her tone that El supposed she should have expected.Really, it was too much of her to believe for a single second that Annabel had changed.Evidently, the Southern belle still had a bit of bite underneath her face.“I know that you’ve always struggled with your weight, dear, so I’m just wondering how that went,” Annabel began, her voice making it clear that she wasn’t just wondering how it went but rather once again trying to appeal to Ryan.
