He Gave Me Up, Now He’s Crying

"Charles, isn't this necklace beautiful? Sapphires, Vivian's favorite." At the counter, my mother turned the expensive necklace over in her hands, studying it from every angle.

I was biting down on my own finger and couldn't feel it. Minutes earlier I had heard the whole scheme they had planned so long ago. Now there was nothing left in me but hatred and a despair with no bottom to it.

"Vivian's only your foster daughter, Marlene, but you treat her so well." Charles handed over his card and had the necklace packed into an elegant box.

The care he gave that necklace said everything about how he felt for the woman it was meant for.

I didn't go over. I backed away one step at a time and felt along the wall until I was out of the store. The moment fresh air hit me my legs gave out, and I sat down on a stone bench by the curb.

I watched his car come up out of the parking garage. In the passenger seat sat a woman in sunglasses and a face mask. It was my mother.

To keep me from recognizing her, she had changed her hairstyle, dyed her hair, even changed the way she dressed.

She had gone so far as to ignore the blood bond between us and join forces with Charles. She would rather drive me sick and mad than let me stop believing she was dead.

All to protect the person who had wrecked my marriage. One of them faked her death and went into hiding, the other shared my bed and thought about someone else.

My mate's loyalty to me was zero. My mother's love for me was zero too.

And I had spent every day since living in guilt, because of their lies and their betrayal.

Back home I went straight into the bathroom and lay down in a tub of cold water without taking off my clothes, trying to calm down.

I stayed there until Charles came home. His face changed when he saw me soaked through. "Zoe, why are you drenched? It's freezing out. What if you catch a cold?"

As he spoke he stripped the wet clothes off me, wrapped me tightly in a towel and held me against him so I could feel his warmth.

Good acting. If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I would have gone on believing him forever.

I looked at him, and then at the gift bag beside him. "What's that?"

Charles kept toweling my hair, beaming as he put the gift bag in my hands.

"I remembered you liked this brand. I was passing by, so I got you something."

I was starting to admire how skilled he was at both acting and lying. His eyes were warm, and what came out of his mouth turned my blood cold.

"That store isn't anywhere near your office or our pack. Did you make a special trip just to buy me jewelry?"

The smile at the corner of his mouth froze for a second, and then he nodded. "That's right. You've been talking about it for ages. Open it and see if you like it."

My voice was quiet, but perfectly steady. Inside was a bracelet so thin it was almost invisible, set with a few tiny sapphires. "Charles, this was a gift with purchase."

The room went cold in an instant.

Charles closed the box almost at once, as if that could cover something up.

"This... Zoe, you know I don't know the first thing about jewelry. I had no idea it was a freebie."

I held his gaze and had no intention of letting it go. "Do you have the receipt? Let me see it. Don't you know what you paid? If the sales associate cheated you, I'm going back there."

"I lost the receipt!"

He answered almost before I finished, then threw the bracelet box in the trash.

Of course he didn't dare show me. One look and I would know he hadn't bought a bracelet at all, but a very expensive sapphire necklace.

He had given me the freebie that came with Vivian's necklace and called it a present.

I lowered my eyes and let it drop. "Fine, throw it out. I don't like sapphires, especially not tiny chips."

I started for the bedroom. Charles followed me, his voice gentle with a thread of impatience under it.

"Zoe, I just don't understand jewelry. I was careless. The way you're acting right now really hurts."

I stopped and turned around.

"Charles, what gives you the right to be hurt?"