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The family gasped again, louder this time, and more than one muttered under their breath and shook their heads in disgust.
“Now, I don’t blame you, my dear,” Dyrel’s mom said. “You’re innocent in all this. The same way we are. He caught you in his web of lies. He took you and educated you in Titan customs. In exchange, you would get to return home. You’re not a scout sent here to look for trading opportunities. You’re here to fool me into believing you and he are in love.
“I’ll be honest. You had me fooled. I really did think there was something between you. But it appears I have been lied to yet again. That’s why, I’ve decided, to cut Dyrel off from his inheritance indefinitely but only if what I’ve been told is true.”
She turned her head slightly but didn’t look at Dyrel.
“Well?” she said. “Is what I said true?”
My mouth felt dry.
I wanted to answer for him, to make him tell the truth. But I knew that, after everything he’d gone through in buying and educating me, he would lie to his mother again if he had to.
He worked his mouth and took no notice of the dozens of disapproving eyes glaring at him. They were invisible to him.
He removed his napkin and placed it on the table. Finally, he nodded.
“It’s true,” he said.
The family gasped for a third time. Some of the women with a slightly frailer disposition fanned themselves for fear of fainting.
I’d never been so humiliated my entire life.
“I see,” his mom said.
Despite knowing in her heart what the truth was, she still looked disappointed. She wasn’t even angry. It was the look of someone who’d grown used to lies.
“Then you leave me no choice,” she said. “I will remove you from your inheritance. I will hire the best candidate we have for the job and put a warning out to the rest of the family here and now. Do not aid him financially. If you do, and I hear about it, you will also be cut off from the family. I don’t do this with any pleasure but I refuse to let family money destroy my one and only son. If he wants to destroy himself, he’s going to have to earn the money and do it himself.”
She stood up and turned.
Dyrel placed his palm on his mother’s hand.
“Please,” he said. “Don’t do this.”
“I’m not doing this,” she said, her voice ice cold. “You’ve done this to yourself. How far you’ve fallen, my son.”
Fearing she might burst into tears, she hastened toward the exit.
I could hardly breathe. My heart was in my throat and I was suffering from a panic attack. I had been exposed for the fraud I was. I placed my hands on the tabletop and pushed myself up onto my feet. I hurried toward the far door.
Dyrel couldn’t meet his family’s eyes. He followed after me. Within seconds we were out the door and inside the shuttlecraft, heading home.
The evening had been a complete and total disaster.
I didn’t feel sick once the entire way home. I was too busy dwelling on Dyrel’s mom’s words to even remember we were floating high in the air and heading back to the city.
The look of hurt in her face, the pain in her voice…
It was too much to bear.
We traveled in silence. Dyrel opened his mouth several times to speak but no words came out.
His mom was never meant to discover the truth. When Dyrel first told me about his mom cutting him off from his inheritance, I pictured a dragon lady. A terrible woman who breathed fire. I never expected her to be such a kind and considerate person.
But she was.
This was one lie of many he’d told over the years.
