Chapter Forty-Seven

Chapter Forty-Seven
Isabelle stood, her feet rooted to the ground, her eyes wide open in shock as she heard the familiar voice behind her. Isabelle slowly turned around to see her mother standing next to the large bed, dressed in the same pristine white dress as her portrait. Isabelle’s brows furrowed in shock as she looked around the room. It looked the same but different. There was no dust, the room sparkled, and everything was in order. It looked like she had been taken back in time to an era when things were different.  
Isabelle turned back to her mother; the smile on the other woman’s face seemed to fuel her fury. She looked happy, nourished. She looked at peace...which was the last thing that could be said about Isabelle. In her mind, her mother had been the catalyst for the disastrous life she had had to endure...and yet she stood in front of her, smiling at her as though all was well with the world, as though she wasn’t the primary cause of all the pain and suffering she had endured.  
“You...you caused all this!” Isabelle yelled, causing Mira’s smile to immediately drop from her face.  
“I can explain...” Mira said, panic settling in her hazel eyes at her daughter’s anger.  
“Explain what?! This is all your fault!” Isabelle yelled again, tears flowing down her cheeks.  
“Isabelle...” 
Isabelle began to pace the floors, holding her face in the palms of her hands as tears flowed freely down her cheeks. No matter how many times she managed to convince herself that it was all in the past, the memory of the pain she had endured would continue to resurface in her mind. And she hated that now it made sense to her that she would be treated with disdain, anger, and hatred. She hated that she had to understand...she hated that she understood.  
“The man I had called my father for all these years...” 
Mira reached out to touch her, her eyes filled with pain and panic, but Isabelle pulled away, out of her reach.  
“I am sorry...” 
“This is all your fault!” Isabelle yelled as she continued to pace, threatening to wear a hole in the floor.  
“Isabelle, please...” 
“You were selfish!”  
Mira shook her head vehemently, tears flowing down her cheeks at her daughter’s anger. She hated that she had a hand in the pain she felt; she wished she could turn back the hands of the clock so she could change a lot of things...make different decisions. But this was the hand they had been dealt, and she could only hope her daughter would forgive her.  
“I promise it’s not what you think,” Mira pleaded. “If you would just let me explain!” 
“There is nothing to explain!” 
“Please, Isabelle...” Mira continued to plead. “Forgive me!” 
Isabelle stopped pacing and turned to face her mother with angry eyes. “Forgive you?” she asked, her face contorted in anger and disappointment. “What would forgiveness do? Would it make all the anger and the pain go away?!” 
“No...but if you let me explain, it might at the very least lessen it,” Mira replied. “You’re very angry because you do not understand what happened.” 
Isabelle scoffed. “All my life...all I ever wanted was to be loved and accepted by my father...” she started, her voice barely above a whisper. “Only to find out he was not the man that I had thought him to be. All these years of begging and pleading...and he’s not even my father!” 
Mira had the good grace to look ashamed. She looked down at the floor and took a deep breath. Her daughter’s anger at her triggered pain long past. Pain that she dreaded having to revive.  
“Just let me tell you my side of the story, Isabelle,” she pleaded. “When I do, it would all make sense to you...” 
Isabelle stared at her mother, at her tear-stained cheeks, at the pleading look in her eyes. She felt as though she was looking at a mirror...her mother’s pain mirroring hers. Isabelle sighed and looked up at the ceiling, saying a silent prayer to whoever was listening to make this cup pass over her. She hated this...she hated having to go back and live through the pain of her childhood. And most of all, she hated having to understand her stepmother and father.  
Isabelle began to pace again, gripping her head in her hands. “Why should I listen to you?!” 
“Because it did not happen the way you’re thinking that it did.” 
Isabelle stopped pacing and turned to face her mother. “Fine...” She said hesitantly. “Let’s hear it.” 
Mira sighed heavily and walked down to the window, staring down at it. “I know it may be hard for you to believe me when I say that I loved your father...I truly loved him.” 
“Then why?’ 
“With that man...with your father, I had no choice. I...I had to go with him.” 
Isabelle’s brows drew down in a frown. “I don’t understand...what do you mean?”  
Mira sighed and turned to face Isabelle with her eyes heavy with sadness and tears. “Isabelle, I need you to understand that the truth is heavy.” 
“Just get on with it,” Isabelle urged impatiently.  
“I had met your father at a royal ball. I and Zane had gone together. After all those years, I never expected that I would see my mate. I had assumed that he had died. I...I was in shock. We were outside in the garden...” Mira said as a small smile played on her lips. “It was love at first sight...But I also knew that the only man I wanted to be with was not standing in front of me in that moment.”  
Mira’s eyes held a faraway look in them, as though she had been transported back in time, back to the garden, back to the life she had once lived. She allowed herself to remember the first time she had met Zane, how he had been awkward and shy. She remembered how far they had come and hated that life didn’t accord them the opportunity to go further.  
“And then what?” Isabelle urged impatiently.  
“Then we kissed...” Mira said in a breathless whisper. “It was magical. He wanted to mark me then and there, but I had to stop him. I had told him that I already carried the mark of another. Oh, he didn’t like that very much.” 
Mira sighed heavily and moved away from the window, striding across the room to sit on the bed. As she sat there, she thought back to that night, to the way his face had contorted when she had told him that she could not be with him, that she had promised herself to another. If only she had not been blinded by the mate bond, if only she had seen the murder in his eyes, maybe she would have managed to avoid the pain and anger she had left behind.  
“That night, he threatened that if I didn’t go back with him, he would find whoever he was and kill him.” 
Mira sighed heavily as she thought back to that night, to the seriousness and anger in his voice. He was a proud man, conceited. And the mere thought that something destined for him was being blocked by someone else had made him so irate. At that moment, Mira remembered that she had been scared for her life, scared that he would do something stupid and drastic like going into the royal ball and finding who she had come with. He scared her, terrified her even.  
She knew that she could not allow herself to end up with a man like that.  
Isabelle gasped. “What?!” 
Mira smiled wryly. “He meant it. A week later, Zane was attacked. He barely lived. I didn’t need to be told who did it. So...I went to him. I had to leave your father because I loved him. That crazy man would have killed him!”  
Mira choked on her tears as she remembered the pain of leaving Zane sleeping on the same bed she sat on as she snuck out of the house and out of his life.  
“How did dad...Zane...find out?” Isabelle asked, her heart dropping into her chest as she called the man whom she had known all her life as her father by his first name.  
“He tracked me down. He told me not to forget our promise to each other. I had to tell him about him...Zane told me not to worry, that if he came for me, he would protect me,” Mira said with a smile on her face. “By then, I was already pregnant with you. Zane gave me the strength to reject that man.” 
“Did Zane know that you were already...” 
“No, and neither did I. But when we found out, he promised me that it would not change anything between us.” 
Isabelle nodded slowly. It was on the tip of her tongue to tell her that things had certainly changed in her absence, but she held her tongue. 
“This man...my biological father...what’s his name?”  
Mira took a deep breath and let it out slowly, as though the mere mention or even thought of his name brought her such distress...and it did. She looked up at Isabelle, who stared down at her with curiosity, confusion, and anger hidden in her brown eyes. Mira thought absently about how she had her father’s eyes.  
Mira sighed again as she saw that Isabelle was still staring at her intently, waiting for an answer. In that moment, she realized that the chicken had come home to roost, and that if she was not careful, her child would tow the same path, and end up just like her.  
However, seeing as there was no escape from the tight spot her daughter had forced her into, she dragged air into her lungs and delivered an answer.  
“Carter. Carter Romano.”