Chapter 191: Mother and Daughter

Rachel's POV

Draco's intense gaze stopped me as I pulled the car door to jump after Logan.

“You can't come with us, Rachel. Luca might be there. You don't want him to abduct you again.”

Logan, who had already sat in the passenger seat, leaned out his head. He gave a smile—a fake one—just a stretch of his lips and nothing more. I could see through his tactics. He was trying to be placating.

“Truly, you can't come with us, Rachel. We don't want Luca getting his hands on you. And we need you to keep an eye on Briella and the baby for us until we are back.”

I scoffed slightly, with a sharp, ludicrous exhale. If he thinks he could pin me down to the estate to babysit Briella and her baby, then he was wrong.

“Briella is your headache, not mine. Leave enough men in the house to guard her.” I said, and jumped into the car. The most they could do is throw me out anyway.

“Rachel, please be a little understanding. I don't want to lose you like I lost Mariah. Just please stay in the estate. You don't need to come with us.” Draco pleaded. He tapped the steering wheel continuously with his fingers while he stood outside the car, his eyes fixed on me in the backseat, dank, pleading, willing me to leave.

I wouldn't tell him that it was happening the other way around already. That I was slowly losing him to my own mother. But I held back on those words, swallowing it as it formed a lump in my throat. I threw my eyes away from him before he could spot the tears beginning to well up in them. I turned to stare through my window at the guards jumping into their own vans.

“I am not coming down from the car, Draco, only if you will throw me out yourself.”

Logan chuckled from his seat, shifting on his seat to look at me at the rear seat. “It's been a while since I have seen this stubborn side of you. I thought—”

“Don't indulge her,” Draco grunted. “We both know she shouldn't come with us. She’s safe in the house.”

Logan shifted back to stare beyond the windscreen. “Actually, I think she is safest with us.”

Draco's face tightened to a mask of fury. He tried to speak but then hesitated. He seemed to read a message in Logan's sudden placid expression, and he dropped quietly into the car, starting the engine.

The car bounced a little on some of the loose cobblestone on its way out of the estate. His hands still firm on the steering wheel, he glanced back at me.

I quickly snatched back my eyes to stare through the windows at the fading silhouette of buildings as he sped down the road.

He threw his eyes back to the road to drive, but sometimes later, he glanced back again at me. This time I didn't turn away; he did. He snapped back to the road quickly as if something in my stare was about to get him.

Not long after, he made another quick glance at me. He met my gaze unflinching again. His lips moved to speak, but then they closed back slowly without a word. He bit down on his lips and turned back to the road.

Another time, he glanced back again. When he returned his eyes to the road, a car was coming from an intersection. He steered the steering wheel fast to his right, skidding into the sidewalk. The car braked with a sudden halt that spilled the three of us forward.

I collapsed back onto my seat, the sudden movement sending a rush of shivers through me. My head rang for a moment.

He moved to start up the car again, but Logan grabbed his arm. “For fuck's sake, tell her what you want to fucking say before you drive again. Don't drive us to our fucking death,” he snarled at Draco.

Draco turned back to me now, just as I was recovering from the mild concussion his driving caused. Without a word, he drew closer and sealed his lips on mine.

My eyes opened wider to see him firm on my lip. Yet, I didn't move. I was too stupefied too. I just stared down blankly at him while he kissed me.

He grabbed my head with his large hand to keep me steady for his kisses. His lips lashing at mine hungrily, tasting, licking, and kneading mine. He was so hungry that he was a little rough. But I didn't complain or push him away. I had longed for him for months now to just give him up because he was rough. Instead, I succumbed fully to his lead, letting him continue to guide me to the level of passion he wanted.

He eventually realized I wasn't moaning from his kisses, and he lifted his head, pulling slowly from my lips.

“I am sorry, Rachel. I didn't mean to hurt you,” he said. He shifted further back so he could cup my face with both his hands.

He brushed off a loose tear from my eyes with his fingers.

I didn't know what to say. I just stared at him speechless. “I promise, Mariah doesn't change anything between us. I will always love you,” he said. He sounded so genuine that I would have believed him if I hadn't known that wasn't true, if I hadn't witnessed his strange behavior for the past two months.

Things were going to change. We both knew that. Yet, I didn't know what to feel or even what to do. I didn't want to appear selfish and hateful, knowing Mariah has endured worse than I did, knowing that she deserved to be loved more than I do, knowing that she was my mother—that she was Draco's original wife.

I looked away from Draco again, shifting from the reach of his hands. “Just drive, Draco. Let's go get my mother. We will talk about this later.”

He didn't move and kept staring at me. His face tightened in pain.

“Remember, Briella said we have to get there fast.” I said with an edge of urgency when he still didn't move.

“Fuck, yeah.” He screamed, and immediately, he set the car, kicking back onto the road.

I relaxed into my seat, looking away from them to the window, at the fleeting images of buildings on that side of the road. I let the tears flow freely now, emptying my heart out to the window quietly so they wouldn't hear me. Everything was going to change now. And I couldn't stop it because I was the imposter, the enemy, the tainted seed, the intruder. I was the one who had no place here.

I had no idea we'd reached Sumpter County until the car suddenly braked to a halt in front of a small farmhouse, with an empty cattle ranch structure before it. The animal excrement from the neighboring houses wafted in through the opened front windows. Draco and Logan both stepped down from the car, following after their men, who had begun running fast into the farmhouse.

Reports of gunshots and grunts and yells from fighting echoed their way to me. So loud and vivid, I could picture the mess and fighting going on in the farmhouse in my mind. I pressed my palms on my ears, shutting my ears to the noise and my eyes to the gory images playing in my mind. It worked—at least to some extent, because the less I heard, the less the gory details in my mind became.

But then, I heard something thudding against the window, making me shake as I rested just on the door.

I dropped my hand and opened my eyes, turning gently to the window. The noise had stopped, but then the thudding against the door continued.

I started back, sucking in a long, cold breath, a sudden nausea rolling at the pit of my stomach. A woman that looked just like an older version of me, deep lines of worry etched on her face, was thudding heavily at the window, her dry, aged lips muttering continuously, begging me to open the door. She had the same toffee brown eyes, same auburn hair, same features, just as me. Her face was just like mine, except hers was older and tougher and held more character and strength.

I opened the door, and she flew fast into me, almost knocking me into the car seat. “I am sorry, my child.” She cried repeatedly, but that was soon blurred out by the loud, harsh noise that seized the car as she sobbed, squeezing me tight in her arms.

I just stood limp around her, unable to move. I tried to speak, my mouth moving, but nothing came out, as if a huge lump in my throat was forcing them back. Finally, a word made it past the lump in my throat, and I whispered, “Mother,” feeling hot tears slowly blurring my vision.

As if moving of their own accord, my arms wrapped around her bigger body, and I hugged her too, while she squeezed me tighter and tighter. Still repeating amidst her sobs that she was sorry—sorry for losing me as a child—sorry for not finding me sooner.

At some point, she slipped from me. She turned fast to Draco standing behind her, with Logan. She kissed him on the lips while he held her tight to himself, as if she meant the world to him, held her just like he has always held me before he found out she was alive.

“Thank you for finding her, Draco. Thank you for finding my daughter,” she said, and then she threw her arms around him, hugging him as tight as he held to her.

I sat in the car, watching them, unable to do anything but watch. Hotter tears burned my eyes, stinging so bad, my eyes became itchy. But I couldn't scratch it. I just watch, knowing my life was never going to be the same again because of one of the most important people to me—my mother.