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“Mark or not, I will always be your matron. Do you honestly believe that I’ll let you waltz back onto the estate after a nice, long vacation and become chief again? That you’ll pick and choose how you’ll serve the family?”
“No. There are—”
“I’ve tried to be patient, Elizabeth. I’ve tried to endure your incessant faffing about, but your antics have harmed the family now. You will return to the compound at once.”
“Have you forgotten—”
“Have I forgotten about your threat to tell the world about Jewel?”
Her father shuffled to the window and turned his back on both of them, once again choosing to stay out of Randolph business.
Lila wished she had the same luxury.
“Go ahead, Elizabeth. Do it. I’m tired of the threats. Senator Dubois will never be elected to the senate again if you do, and he’ll have to answer a host of uncomfortable questions about why he has not been forthright with his brothers about his sterility. He put his name down for election two weeks ago. Most senators would view that as a crime.”
“It’s not a crime.”
“It’s a misrepresentation. I might not know as much as you about Bullstow, but I know it’s more than just frowned upon. All it will take is a rumor in the right ear.”
“I shouldn’t be surprised you’d stoop to that.”
“I also have it within my power to ensure that Pax never becomes the surgeon he longs to be. I’m done playing games.”
“You’ll never be done playing games, Mother,” Lila said. “Threatening to destroy Pax’s happiness? Stealing every credit in my accounts? I hadn’t even been gone a week.”
“I didn’t steal anything. I protected you. If you’d been given a sentence, then Bullstow would have cleared your accounts—”
“To pay for my mark.”
“Yes, and the families would have found out how much money you had to cover it. I took your credits so that they would not drive up your sell price. I was in the process of investing the money and setting up a trust for you.”
“I’ll bet.”
“I spoke to the Massons. I ensured Senator Masson treated you fairly during the trial. I made sure someone favorable would buy you at auction. I shouldn’t have gotten involved at all, but I stuck my neck out to provide for your future, and this is the thanks I get?”
“I provided for my own. We’ll talk about how I might serve the family another day. In the meantime, I expect you to return my money.”
“Or what? You’ll yell at me some more?” the chairwoman muttered, uncrossing her legs. “I can’t believe that you have the audacity to make such demands.”
“You have until the end of the week.”
“I should have stopped trying with you a long time ago. I should have given you up as a lost cause. I’m done chasing you, Elizabeth. If you want to go so badly, if you want to run away from the family and shirk your duty, then fine. Go. But you won’t leave the family in a state of uncertainty. If you go, you can’t have me, my money, or the family any more. If you go now, you’ll go on your own and you’ll face the consequences of that decision. No more playing militia chief. No more playing the favored heir. No more chats with Pax or anyone else in the family. No more nights spent inside the great house. No more dinners with Chef. No more Randolph money. You’ll be on your own. Creditless. Exiled.”
There it was. The ultimatum Lila had known would come from her mother’s lips someday if she didn’t accept the prime role.
The ultimatum she’d been given once before.
Regardless of how anxious she’d been about her future in the cottage by the lake, regardless of how sad she’d been about Tristan, regardless of how bored and lonely and hungry she’d been, it was the first time in her life that she’d felt truly free. No one had made any demands upon her for an entire month. No one had spoken to her at all.
Yes, she’d been lonely. But as practice runs went, it hadn’t been all that bad.
She’d never become one of those heirs who hanged themselves after being exiled.
No, she’d live.
She’d thrive.
Lila leaned over her mother and grasped the back of the couch, boxing in the chairwoman between her arms. Her voice was calm now, quiet, smooth. She wasn’t even angry anymore. She was just tired, like the morning after a long crying jag. “If I don’t leave now, Mother, you’ll just pull my strings again. And you’ll keep doing it every time you don’t get your way. You’ve never wanted a daughter. You only ever wanted a successor.”
