Free Web NovelChapter 45: A WOMAN NAMED VANESSA
KEISHA’S POV
I stared at her.
"Your father is going to what?"
"Remarry." Nadia said again. "Or get mated. Whatever you want to call it." She pulled her knees tighter to her chest. "The elders arranged it apparently. Called some unauthorized meeting at the mansion tonight and basically told him he had no choice."
I opened my mouth then closed it. Slowly, I sat down on the other end of the sofa because my legs had decided they were done holding me up and decided to be wobbly instead.
"They chose someone already." Nadia continued. "A woman named Vanessa. Daughter of Elder Declan, the war supplies coordinator. There’s a lunch tomorrow apparently. Here at the mansion. So they can meet formally."
"Tomorrow." I frowned.
Why that early?
"Tomorrow." She confirmed, then she looked at me. "Keisha?"
"I’m listening." I adjusted in my seat.
"You look—" She frowned slightly. "Are you okay?"
"I’m fine." I said. "Just—" I gestured vaguely. "That’s a lot of information to process."
She looked at me for a second longer than felt comfortable and then went back to picking at the sofa cushion. "I know. It’s a lot." She exhaled. "I always thought when it happened it would be his choice. Someone he actually—" She stopped. "You know. Wanted."
"Right." I nodded.
My voice sounded normal. That was good. That was something that didn’t reflect how I truly felt.
Callum was getting mated. freeωebnovēl.c૦m
There was a woman named Vanessa and there was a lunch and in approximately sixteen hours Callum was going to sit across a table from someone the elders had selected for him and I was—
I was fine. I was absolutely fine. This didn’t matter.
"You’re doing that thing." Nadia said.
I looked at her. "What thing?"
"Where you go somewhere else in your head and your face goes very still." She said, "You’ve been doing it since I told you."
"I’m just tired." I forced a smile. "It’s been a long day."
She studied me with those eyes that always saw too much. "Are you sure that’s all it is?"
"Yes." I said too quickly before I made myself slow down. "I’m just tired and it’s a lot to hear and I’m— I feel for you, Nadia. I really do. I know this isn’t what you imagined."
She was quiet for a moment but seemed to accept it and went back to the subject. "I don’t know anything about this woman." She said. "Vanessa. I don’t know if she’s kind or terrible or somewhere in between and the fact that I’m supposed to sit through a lunch tomorrow and smile at her while she auctions herself off to become my stepmother is—" She made a sound. "I can’t even explain what that is."
"You don’t have to like it." I smiled lightly.
"But I have to show up to it." She said. "Because if I don’t it reflects badly on Dad and he’s already being pushed into something he doesn’t want so the least I can do is be there and be—" She waved her hand. "Civil."
"He doesn’t want it?" I asked.
The words came out before I decided to say them and Nadia looked at me with a slight frown.
"Would you?" She asked. "If someone sat you down and told you who you were marrying?"
"No." I said. "Obviously not."
"Then." She shrugged.
I looked at the wall.
He doesn’t want it.
That was— I didn’t know what that was. I didn’t know if it helped or made it worse or if it was even relevant.
Because wanting and doing were two different things and Callum would have to succumb to the idea.
A Luna.
Someone who would stand beside him at pack functions and be introduced by name and hold a formal position that I would never—
"Keisha." Nadia’s voice was softer now.
I looked at her.
She was watching me with an expression I couldn’t fully read. "Is there something you want to tell me?"
My heart stopped for a second. "No." I said.
"Because you look—" She paused. "You look like this is about more than being tired."
"I’m fine." I said. "I promise you I’m fine." I reached over and squeezed her hand. "Tell me what you need right now. Do you want to talk about it more or do you want to be distracted?"
She looked at our hands for a moment. Then she exhaled and leaned her head on my shoulder. "Distracted." She said quietly. "Distract me."
I put my arm around her and started talking about absolutely nothing while she laughed at the right moments and I kept my voice even and my face forward.
For a long time, I just sat there holding my best friend while my mind raced with different thoughts.
When she finally left it was late. She hugged me at the door and I held on a beat longer than usual before she was gone and I was alone.
I stood in my hallway, thinking about it.
Callum is getting mated.
I went to the sofa, sat and stared at the wall. For a while, I waited for the feeling to make sense but it didn’t make sense and I didn’t know what to do with it so I just sat there with it in the quiet of my empty house and let it be as awful as it was.
Because it was awful.
It was completely awful and I had no right to feel that way but I felt it anyway and that was the most honest thing I could say about it.
Diane was very still inside me and for once she didn’t say anything after hearing shocking news.
Neither did I.
I lay down on the sofa eventually and closed my eyes. Maybe I would feel better if I slept.
****************
My phone woke me.
It was a notification from the pack communication system. All staff were given the day off. Private lunch event at the mansion at noon. Non-essential staff not required on site.
I read it and put my phone back down. We were the non essential staff. While Callum met his potential wife and Dane looked back at me, unable to do anything.
Why did it feel like hell to lose either of them?
I pressed my hand flat against my stomach, stared at the ceiling and breathed through it slowly and told myself it was fine.
It was fine. freēwēbnovel.com
It was going to be fine. It had to be.
