My Sister Stole My Mate And I Let Her (Seraphina) novel Chapter 532

Chapter 532: Chapter 532 A NEW CHALLENGE (BONUS Chapter 2)

MAYA’S POV

I’d been in a lot of high-stakes, stressful situations in my life, and none of those were as daunting as looking in my mother’s eyes and knowing I was about to change her life forever.

At Sera’s quiet gesture, everyone else in the bridal suite silently excused themselves, the door clicking shut behind them until only my mother and I remained.

She pulled a seat towards me and sat, frowning with concern.

“What is it, honey?” She reached for my hand and squeezed. “You’re scaring me a little.”

She was scared? I was terrified. What I was about to tell her would change—or, more accurately, ruin—her life forever.

I looked down at our joined hands and tried to figure out how to condense over a decade of fear into a single sentence.

Just get it out, Maya.

So I did.

“I came home in the middle of the day one time in Sophomore year,” I began quietly. “I’d forgotten notes for a test.”

Her brow furrowed. “Okay?”

“And I...I heard Dad in your bedroom.” I forced myself to look into my mother’s eyes, the same warm brown eyes I’d inherited.

“With another woman.”

My mother froze, her grip on my hand tightening.

I watched the realization creep across her face, watched those identical eyes widen in horror.

“What?” Her voice was soft and small.

I forced myself to continue before I lost my nerve entirely.

“H-he called her Sasha. I didn’t see anything, but I heard enough, and I remember standing outside that door thinking that your whole life was about to fall apart and that somehow it was my responsibility to stop it."

The words kept pouring out as if a tap I’d kept tightly shut for years had suddenly burst open.

"I’m sorry I didn’t tell you, Mom. I know keeping it from you was wrong, but I was sixteen and scared, and I didn’t want to be the person who destroyed your happiness. I kept thinking I’d tell you tomorrow, or next week, or the next time I was sure something had happened, and then somehow years had passed and I was still carrying it around."

For a moment, my mother simply stared at me, her lips parted and eyes wide. I braced myself for her reaction—for disbelief and anger and sorrow.

Then, to my absolute bewilderment, she laughed.

Not the brittle, disbelieving laugh of someone trying to process betrayal, and not the sharp, angry laugh of someone who had just discovered her daughter had hidden something life-altering from her for years.

It was a genuine burst of amusement that made me question her sanity.

"Mom?"

She pressed a hand over her mouth, but it did little to contain the manic giggles spilling from her.

"Oh no."

"Mom."

"Oh, sweetheart."

Alarm rang through me. Had I broken my mother?

Tears gathered at the corners of her eyes as she shook her head and tried, with very little success, to regain control of herself.

"Oh, your poor father."

"My poor father?" I repeated incredulously. "He was the one cheating on you with a bitch named Sasha!"

That sent her over the edge entirely.

She bent forward, laughing so hard that I genuinely considered summoning medical assistance.

Eventually, she managed to pull herself together enough to draw a steadying breath.

"Oh my sweet girl,” she said, her voice still trembling with the remnants of laughter, "Sasha isn’t another woman."

I frowned. "What do you mean?"

Her expression shifted from amusement to slight embarrassment.

"Sasha is me."

I blinked at her.

"Uhm...what?"

"If you’d stayed outside the door another thirty seconds, you probably would have heard me call your father Dimitri."

My mind went completely blank.

I stared at my mother while she stared back at me with cheeks that were rapidly turning pink.

Slowly, horrifyingly, understanding began creeping over the horizon of my confusion.

"No."

"Oh yes."

"No."

Her lips twitched. “When you’re married for so long, you get the urge to try new things.”

"Oh, my gods."

"We’d watched a movie, and it involved Russian spies and accents—"

I clamped both hands over my ears.

"Nope."

"It wasn’t even our strangest one—"

"Nope!"

"—there was also a brief Italian phase—"

"ABSOLUTELY NOT!"

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