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“I really don’t think there’s anything to talk about.”
“Everything I’ve done has been to protect you, and after all that, you’ve still become…”
“Say it. Say what I’ve become,” I hissed, leaning forward.
Her face scrunched up, pure, unadulterated sorrow oozing out of her features.
“A monster.”
The word didn’t have the effect that it used to. I was a monster. And so were my men.
That was my identity, carved into me at an early age. And it wouldn’t do to hate something I couldn’t change.
“You don’t even care,” she murmured, sounding slightly hysterical. “You’re—you’re proud of it.”
““Proud might be a strong word,” I answered, lounging back in the cushions. “But I’m certainly not trying to throw myself off a bridge. Sorry if that disappoints you.”
Her silence was deafening. My eyebrows rose. “Oh, sorry, did you want me to throw myself off a bridge?”
“Monsters weren’t made to exist with everyone else, Aurora. Your soul is corrupted. It’s black. You’re a danger to everyone around you. It’s…devastating. After all I’ve sacrificed for you…” Tears filled her eyes.
“After all you’ve—you do remember you left me on a bench, right? And after that, I was put into abusive foster homes until the Demon found me and spent years trying to mold me. Any of that ring a bell?”
She scoffed, like all of that meant nothing compared to her sacrifice. It felt like we were having the same conversation over and over. Like as a child, I should have had this moral compass that defied all odds.
It all felt like a joke at this point.
I shifted in my seat, pretty well done with this whole conversation. “Well then, what’s your plan? Where are you going to go? What will you do, now that you’re…free?”
Again, her eyes spoke for her. She wasn’t going to tell me where she wanted to go. She just wanted to get away…from me.
“We’ll drop you off somewhere, I guess.”
For years I’d just wanted her to be here with me. And now I hoped I never saw her again.
Judging by how “disappointed” she was with me, I would probably get my wish.
She leaned towards me. “You can still change though, Aurora. You can still choose from here on out to be a better person. You can shed this persona. You can still be the woman I’ve always wanted you to be.”
I stood up and brushed off imaginary lint from my jeans.
“The problem is, Mother, I’m no longer interested in that. Grab your stuff; we’ll drop you off right now.”
I exited the room without a look back, feeling a burden leave my shoulders I didn’t even know was there. Evidently, the Demon wasn’t the only weight I needed to shed. She’d been a bag of rocks on my back this whole time, and I hadn’t realized it until today.
After today, she would only be Nina, I decided right then and there. I’d never call her Mom again.
Cain was waiting in the hallway for me, leaning against the wall, his arms crossed in front of him like a brooding, golden god.
“Do I need to kill her?” he asked casually, and I snorted.
Cain and I were really fucked up.
“No. She’s going to leave, and this time, she’s never going to come back.”
I strode down the hallway, a tension under my skin. I couldn’t wait for her to leave.
“She upset you. What happened?”
