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"You really don't know me very well."
"No, I don't suppose I do, but that doesn't stop me being very glad you are happy now."
"Thank you." Rowan didn't know what else to say.
"Your father is very regretful that he backed the wrong horse in this race." Her mother's tone was almost gleeful.
"What do you mean?"
"He supported Cyrus's attempt to get you back, and even when he knew you were with Lysander, he assumed a man like him wasn't going to marry you."
"Now that we're engaged, he tried to leverage my relationship with Sander into a business opportunity, didn't he?" Lysander hadn't said anything, but Rowan could easily imagine how that meeting had gone.
"Yes. Your fiancée made it clear that he'd happily see your father begging on a street corner rather than ever go into a deal with him. Your father was livid."
"Sander is very protective of me."
"I am glad. You deserve that."
"This is weird," Rowan couldn’t help saying.
Her mom's laugh was different than usual. It actually sounded like she was amused. "Yes. I imagine it is. It's taken me thirty years and being made a pawn by yet another scheming businessman to realize you were never the problem in my marriage."
"Uh…I'm glad."
"So am I."
Even after that phone call, Rowan was shocked when Lysander pointed out an article from a newspaper back home about her mother and father separating. Vanessa Johnson had moved out of the family mansion and filed for divorce.
She hadn't heard from either of her brothers in a couple of years, but the oldest sent a text demanding Rowan talk some sense into their mother. Her second brother sent her an email telling her that it was Rowan's fault their mother was doing something so bad for the family business.
If Rowan hadn't divorced Cyrus, apparently none of this would have happened.
Considering that both men had shown not a single iota of concern for their mother, Rowan ignored both the text and the email.
She kind of liked thinking her actions had spurred Vanessa's behavior. Rowan certainly wasn't ashamed of it. Maybe her mom would finally find some genuine happiness in her own life now.
~ ~ ~
Feeling bone deep contentment, Lysander cuddled his soon to be wife on the den sofa. Instead of a stock report, the television played a nature documentary about monkeys.
Rowan loved any kind of animal documentary and Lysander loved Rowan. Ergo, his unlooked for education about monkeys.
She shifted against him, unbuttoning his shirt so her hand could slide over his stomach. Usually, by halfway into whatever show they were watching, she had his shirt open and at least one hand on his bare skin.
It was a game he played with himself to see how long he could last before either pulling her to straddle him or throwing her over his shoulder and taking her to bed. Her complaint that she never got to see the end of her shows wasn't much of a complaint when accompanied by the heated look in her beautiful blue eyes.
"Have you figured out how Adele Fournier stalked us to Mexico?" Rowan asked, surprising him.
She hadn't seemed inclined to discuss the doctored images after the night they got engaged.
Lysander ran his fingertip over her ring. Soon it would be joined by a wedding band. That couldn't happen fast enough as far as he was concerned.
"She had a sexual relationship with one of my personal security detail and managed to put a tracker in his tactical watch."
Rowan sat up and climbed astride Lysander's thighs, her face filled with shock. "How did you find out?"
"Klaus discovered it after scanning every item the security team brought with them to Mexico. There is no way of knowing how long it had been in there, but they'd been having sex for months."
