Page 96 of His to Own

“And as my mother, you owe me the right to the truth. What do you know?”

“Are you going to drop this?”

“No. I’m going to fight. Tell me.”

She sighs and looks around the room before shutting the door. “I never wanted you to know. I don’t want you to know.”

“To know what?”

“The reason your father hates you.”

I gasp. “What reason is that?”

She runs her hand over her face, which ruins her makeup. I know she’ll be horrified when she looks into a mirror later. “I had an affair.”

I can’t even process her words. They sound like nothing. “A… an affair?”

“After Lana was born, your father became even more controlling. I… I hated him. I was lonely. I met a man and I fell in love and I had you. But then your father found out and…”

“And what?”

“What do you think?”

Father had the man killed. “What happened after?”

“I convinced your father that you were his child. You look enough like him. Your father and… my lover shared similar features. But it’s why your father has always hated you more. I never had another affair after it.”

“So… Lana and Adriana are Father’s daughters? And I’m… not?” I sink onto my bed as all the energy leaves me.

“Your dress, Elena. It’s going to get all wrinkled. You have to go back down stairs down. Please. For your own sake.”

“You had an affair and had me and my father isn’t even my actual father and –,” I gasp, clutching my chest. The panic all comes right back.

Mother’s expression hardens instead of softens. “This is why I didn’t want you to know. It would only upset you. I made a mistake. I care for your father now. It’s all in the past. Put it behind you just like I have.”

“Put it behind me?” I huff and gasp at the same time. It makes my throat sound strangled like an animal getting its own throat slit. “How? My own sisters are not my sisters.”

“Of course they are. I’m your mother. All three of you are my daughters. I don’t have time for your hysterics. Go back downstairs. Now.”

A knock at the door makes me tense.

“Elena?” It’s Maxim. He opens the door and lets himself in but stops when he sees my mother. “What’s going on?”

The sudden appearance of my husband makes something inside of me crack. Completely break.

“You didn’t tell me that you and Alisa had an affair,” I say before I can stop myself.

He goes still before he nods. “You know?”

“She told me. She told me how you slept with her when she was already married. And you let me spend time with her without telling me that you had slept with her. Why did you keep that from me?”

“Alisa always has ulterior motives. I told you. I know she convinced you to find me at my work because she wants to break us up. She wants to get back together but I don’t. It’s why I didn’t tell you. I only knew it would upset you.”

His words sound exactly like my mother’s. I look between them and laugh but there’s no humor to it. “I’ve heard that twice tonight. What are the chances?”

“Is this why you’ve been so upset?” Maxim asks. “Why didn’t you just ask me about it?”

“Why didn’t you just tell me that you had slept with Alisa when I first met her?”