TRADING MY CHEATING HUSBAND FOR THE LYCAN KING novel Chapter 45

< CHAPTER 29: SEVENTEN AND AUCTIONED–1

Clamm

CHAPTER 29: SEVENTEN AND AUCTIONED–1

EMBER’S POV

My baby girl. Like she didn’t cut me off without a second thought eight years ago.

Like she didn’t ignore every call, every text, every desperate attempt I made to reach her during the worst years of my marriage.

“Mother,” I say, and even I can hear how flat it sounds. “We are already scheduled for lunch. What are you doing here?”

“Spending time with my daughter, of course! I thought we could have a spa day. Just the two of us.” She finally notices Queenie standing beside me and her smile tightens almost imperceptibly. “And your… friend. How nice.”

“Queenie,” I say. “She’s staying.”

Something flickers in Devika’s eyes–irritation, maybe, or calculation–but she recovers quickly.

“The more the merrier! Now, I’ve heard the hot stone massage here is absolutely divine. And the caviar facial! We simply must try everything.”

She’s already steering us toward the treatment menu, already ordering the most expensive options, already waving her hand dismissively at staff members who try to ask questions.

I watch her operate and try to remember a time when I found this charming rather than exhausting.

During the treatments, she talks. Goddess, does she talk.

“So tell me about Knox Volkov,” she says while getting a body wrap. “I’ve heard rumors, of course. Everyone has. But I want the real story. How serious is it? Is he good to you?”

“It’s complicated,” I say carefully.

“Complicated how? Is he rich? Well, obviously he’s rich, he’s the Lycan King. But how rich? Has he mentioned marriage? You know, if you played your cards right, you could be Queen of the entire North American kingdom.”

I close my eyes. “We’ve only been together a few days, Mother.”

“That’s plenty of time to secure a proposal if you’re strategic about it. You should get pregnant. Accidentally, of course. Men like Knox respond to permanence. Give him an heir and he’ll never be able to leave you.”

CHAPTER 29: SEVENTEN AND AUCTIONED–1

“You always were too romantic, Ember. This is business. Marriage to someone like Knox is business. The sooner you understand that, the better positioned you’ll be.”

I think about Knox’s black card in my locker. About how he told me to use it for anything I needed. About how this is probably not what he meant, but also how I’m too tired to fight.

“I’ll cover it,” I say.

Devika’s smile widens. “Such a generous daughter. You know, I always said you were my favorite in that goddess–forsaken family. Didn’t I always say that?”

You cut me off for four years, I want to scream. You didn’t return a single call while Gale was beating me. You told me I’d made my bed and I should DIE in it.

But I don’t say any of that. I just follow her to the register and hand over Knox’s card.

The total is staggering. Tens of thousands of dollars for treatments and products that Devika will probably use once and forget about.

The staff member processing the payment can’t quite hide her reaction, and I feel a flush of humiliation crawl up my neck.

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