Fiona’s POV
When I come inside the cafe, Rowena is already there. She looks at me with derision clear in her eyes. There is a haughty look on her face that says that I am not deserving of being in her presence.
“Thanks for taking the time to meet with me like this, Fiona.” She says, poison dripping from her words.
I stop myself from rolling my eyes. Feeling exhausted, I take a seat next to her.
“You know I didn’t come here by choice. Now, tell me what you want.”
“You know when the King told Micah he had to marry to have a chance at throne, it was clear that I was the only right choice there was. He was supposed to marry me, and we were going to be together forever. But then you meddled in with your pathetic self.”
Her mouth twists with resentment as she gives me a judgmental once over.
“As if you would ever be good enough for my Micah.” She hisses.
I can’t help but narrow my eyes at her terrible attitude. Still, I try to make her see reason.
“Rowena, the King wanted Micah to marry you. For the King, it would be the perfect marriage because of your prominent bloodline. You probably could produce good heirs too. Yet, Micah decided to marry me despite all of that. I can imagine how bad that must have hurt you, but please understand there is nothing I can do about it.”
I say the words woodenly, knowing that I am saying them just to save face. Micah has already left me for her in his heart, but I cannot let her break me more than I already am.
“Oh please, you know that he only chose you so that he could spite the King. It was never meant to be forever. Just a short time before he could divorce you and marry me, his true mate.”
As she sees the hurt her words cause, her smile stretches into something sinister.
I take a deep breath.
“What makes you believe that you are Micah’s true mate?” I ask her to try to keep the irritation out of my voice.
She smirks at me, and I grip the edge of the table tightly.
“I’ve always known that he is my true mate. My wolf told me many years ago, but you wouldn’t know what that means considering you don’t have one.” She gives me a smile that is sharp around the edges.
“I know that the popular opinion is that I don’t have a wolf because I don’t shift, and I lack a body scent. But everyone is wrong. My wolf is dormant. I don’t know why but I can feel her.”
Rowena snorts, “Are you sure that isn’t a delusion? Wishful thinking?”
“No. She actually came out of dormancy once, soon after I married Micah. He is my fated mate. I felt as soon as she awakened. Then she went dormant again and has stayed that way since.”
Rowena’s eyes go round with shock and then narrow, “That seems very convenient, if that is true, why didn’t she stick around?”
I just look at her, “You can mock me all you want and say he is your true mate but that doesn’t make it true.”
Rowena rears back as if I’ve slapped her. The gleam in her eye tells me her next words are going to be ones I don’t want to hear.
“It doesn’t matter what you say or do. He is going to divorce you and marry me. You see I’m pregnant with his child.” Rowena rubs her hand down the small bump under her dress. “And you should know how important a child is to the royal family. The King once told both the brothers the first one to produce an heir would be the one more likely to inherit the throne.”
I give her a bland look. I knew this information already, I’m not going to give her the satisfaction of seeing me crumple at the mention of the child. She doesn’t know that her carrying Micah’s baby is like a knife through my heart.
“You can be pregnant with his child Rowena, but he is still married to me. If he remains married to me, the child that you’re carrying will just be another illegitimate whelp.”
Rowena bares her teeth at me. She’s angry that I’m not hysterical about this turn of events. But I refuse to let her get the upper hand. I might be a gentle person but under that is a backbone of steel.
Then, suddenly Rowena gets a maniacal look in her eyes, and she laughs cruelly as her voice raises in volume.
“You can’t even prove that he is your true mate. Your wolf isn’t even strong enough to come out and show him what is true. And you will see that he is going to be mine. I have sacrificed so much. I-”
Just like that, she cuts herself off, almost as if she was about to say something she shouldn’t. When, sits back in her chair, taking a deep breath and her vicious mask is back. She soothes down her hair and composes herself.
“You can say what you want Fiona, but I have proof that Micah loves me. See, you can have one person be in love, but a marriage is hard when the other person in the relationship is in love with someone else.”
I roll my eyes, “What proof do you have of this great love that he has for you?”
The wicked gleam in her eyes should have warned me, but the blow that comes next rocks me to my core.
“While I was abroad for the past three years, I’ve built up my reputation as a perfumer. A few months ago, Tamed Passions reached out and offered me a lucrative package to come back to Alastair and head their perfumery lab. To help solidify my position, Micah has agreed to invest in our company.”
Her words hit me hard, and my thoughts start spinning. If what she says is true, my career is over, and I will never get a chance to start my body scent line. I won’t even get a fair chance to fight for the investment she already has it locked in. Everything that I want is slipping away all because Rowena waltzed back into my life.
“This has been fun, we should do it again.” Rowena says, standing up and walking out of the coffee shop, leaving gutted.
My phone buzzes and I look down to see Micah is calling.
Of course, he has the best timing.
“Yes, Micah.” I sigh out, closing my eyes as the sound of his voice washes over me.
“Fiona, I just found that Silver Moon Scents in the running for the funding we are offering. If you believe that you are done with your fits, then we can get on with things. Silver Moon Scents can get the funding they requested, and we can go back to normal.”
I close my eyes and will the tears back at his words. Why is he torturing me this way? I was a good wife to him, and we were doing well until Rowena came and ripped my world apart.
Does he have to be so vindictive? Why does he want to hurt me this way? He has already given the contract to Rowena, he is deceiving me, torturing me just to make me stay in this sham of a marriage.
“I don’t think that my ‘fit’ as you call it will be ending soon. I will start the formal divorce proceeding in the morning. The sooner we get this over with, the sooner we can go on with our lives.” The words feel like shards of glass scraping my throat raw. They are the last things I want to be saying to him, but I will not look the other way when he and Rowena have an affair.
“Is this really what you want Fiona? You are going to throw away everything that we’ve built because of some fit you are having? I don’t understand this.”
“Rowena is back, and I know that you want to be with her.” I tell him, thinking back to her rubbing her belly, and the moaning I heard on the phone.
“What does Rowena have to do with our marriage?” Micah says, his voice ending in a growl.
I smile bitterly, he is deceiving me again.
“Enough Micah, our marriage is over. Meet me at 9 am at Gloucester and Harbinger’s law office so we can get this over with and we can both move on with our lives.”
“Fine Fiona. Hope you don’t regret this decision.” Micah says in anger before he cuts the call.
I end the call and sit down hard. I look at the clock, in twelve hours I will no longer be Mrs. Lancaster.
