All Chapters of HER MOTHER’S LOVE: Chapter 11 - Chapter 13

Elena’s POVI didn’t go back to the office right away.Instead, I drove. Just drove with no destination, windows down, music too loud. Trying to drown out the noise in my head.Marcus’s business card sat in my cup holder. I grabbed it at a red light and tore it in half. Then in half again. And again. Until it was just tiny pieces of paper that I threw out the window.Littering. Great. Add that to my growing list of bad decisions.By three thirty, I couldn’t avoid it anymore. I had to go back. Had to face whatever lecture Adrian was planning about professionalism or boundaries or whatever excuse he’d come up with for summoning me to his office.The building felt emptier than usual. Most people left early on Mondays if they could. I took the elevator up, each floor making my chest tighter.His door was open when I got there.I knocked anyway.“Close the door,” he said without looking up from his computer.I did, then stood there waiting. He kept typing. Making me wait. Power play.Final

Elena’s POVThe second day of the conference was worse than the first.Maybe because I’d spent all night listening to muffled sounds through the walls. Not loud. Just enough to remind me that my mother and Adrian were in the next room. Together. Doing things I couldn’t let myself think about.I’d put in headphones and turned the music up until my ears hurt.Didn’t help.By morning, I looked like death. Dark circles under my eyes. Skin pale. I covered it with makeup as best I could, but my mother noticed anyway.“Honey, are you feeling okay?” she asked over breakfast in the hotel restaurant.“Fine. Just didn’t sleep well.”“The jet lag,” she said sympathetically. “It always hits me hard too. Maybe skip the afternoon sessions and rest?”“I’ll be fine.”Adrian said nothing, just sipped his coffee and read something on his tablet. But I caught him glancing at me when he thought I wasn’t looking.The morning sessions dragged. I sat in the back again, pretending to take notes while my mind