“For revenge,” Erin says softly. “You arranged for Bianca to marry into the Crowning family because you wanted revenge on the McCarthys. That's one theory, anyway. But the truth is that it had a lot more to do with you wanting to be with Marcus Crowning Sr., didn’t it?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” My mother shakes her head. “You're a liar. I only wanted what was best for you, Bianca.”
“Best for me?” I say. “You came here begging me to go back to a man who was trying to hurt me.”
“You're being dramatic again.”
“Stop telling me I'm dramatic! Everything about me is wrong, isn't it? I'm too dramatic. I romanticize everything. I'm too—” I swallow the word. “Fat.”
“Bianca,” my mother says. But she no longer has the power to still me with one word. “This is all dramatics. Marcus wouldn't have killed you. You're too valuable to his family.”
“His dead girlfriends say otherwise,” Ashland growls. “And your welcome here is wearingverythin.”
“You used me.” I'm shaking now, anger and betrayal roaring in my chest. “Even now, you're here because he sent you, aren't you? You sold me to a killer for your own gain. You let me believe we were poor while you lived off the McCarthy money. You let me hate them for something they had nothing to do with.”
“I did what I had to…” My mother's voice breaks. “For justice.”
“Justice?” I laugh. It sounds harsh even to my own ears. “You call arranging your daughter's marriage to a murderer justice? You call selling your daughter to someone for your own gain?—”
“He loves me!” The words burst out of her, raw and desperate. “He's been courting me for months. Wants to marry me. Once you married Marcus, we would have been a family again.”
The room goes deadly silent.
“There it is,” Erin says quietly. “That's what I thought.”
My mother's face crumples. “You don't understand. After your father died, I was so alone. For years, I’ve been alone. And then, Mr. Crowning started paying attention to me. Made me feel special again.”
“So you sold me to his murderous son,” I finish, hollow.
“It's not… it's notlikethat.”
“It's exactly like that.” Ashland's voice could cut stone. “You sacrificed your daughter for your own happiness. Even now, you want to deny the truth about who he is and what he would do.”
“I would never let anything happen to my daughter,” my mother says, but her theatrics are wearing thin.
“You arranged for her to marry a man who's killed.” Ashland flexes his hand on the table, and my mother flinches. “You knew what he was. You let him belittle her. You let him ridicule her. Don't stand there and pretend you're anything but selfish in your own desires.”
“How dare you?—”
“No. You raised me to be dutiful, to sacrifice for my family, to put others first, reminding me every damn day how much I owed you. And all along, you were the most selfish one in my life.”
“Bianca—”
“I have witnesses from the restaurant,” I say, my voice shaking. “Bruises on my wrist and evidence that Marcus threatened to hurt me and tried to keep me from leaving.If he comes after me, if any of them come after me, I will testify in court, and I will tell them exactly what kind of man you tried to force me to marry.”
My mother's face goes white. “You would testify against him?”
“In a heartbeat. You made your choice,” I say quietly. “And it wasn't me.”
The words seem to echo in the silence. My mother's eyes narrow on me, and for the first time, I don't see a mother feigning love. I see calculation and resentment… disappointment that I didn't play along with her plan.
“You've changed,” she says, her words like an accusation. “They've turned you against me.”
“No.” I shake my head. “They helped me see the truth.”
Ashland's hand finds mine under the table and squeezes in reassurance.
My mother straightens, gathering her purse. “Fine. That's how you want it. Don't you come crying to me when this falls apart, Bianca White. Don't expect me to pick up the pieces.”
