~A Mother's Rebuke~

[Valerie]

I studiously ignore the flare of something akin to envy and the painful tug in my heart as I brush past the reunited lovers. Walking behind the King, my foot.

“Valerie, wait,” I hear Clyde from a distance but I don’t comply. I glower at the guards who lower their gazes but block my path. Excellent. Now I can neither go back nor enter the territory without the asshole hot on my heels.

“I asked you to wait,” he grits when he is within hearing distance, not that he wasn’t before, but now I can practically feel him breathing down my neck. I hold my ground despite having the urge to slap him or worse let Ruelle take over despite our ongoing differences, but I do none. I don’t turn around or acknowledge him either.

Clyde resumes walking towards the gate and I follow, ignoring the woman he left behind. Something cruel curls around my heart, a deep sadistic satisfaction, but I don’t choose to ponder on it much. And then like a mirage in the desert, Moran appears not too far aw