Chapter 133: April Stand Up To Her Mother

April

I’m not going to lie, despite not being happy that my mother put me in the same mansion with someone who clearly hated my guts from day one, I kinda found a little bit of peace away from my mother during those years.

Her relentless years of trying to groom and manipulate me into her perfect, obedient tool had finally reduced. She focused far more of her daily energy on securing her position in her second marriage with Mrs. Morningstar than she ever did on me. I really thought that I was finally free from her endless years of emotional blackmail.

I’d much rather endure Angel’s daily hatred than hers.

Little did I know that my brief freedom was all just a calculating part of her master plan from the start.

From changing my last name without my real consent to making sure I studied at the specific city college she wanted, all the way to forcing me to live in that mansion where an unpredictable Alpha stayed.

Looking at her standing right by the open doorway with a fake, warm smile on her face made my own smile completely disappear into thin air.

"What do you want, Mom?" I said, keeping my hand on the edge of the door, desperately wishing she would just turn around and not come inside the private room.

Instead of taking the hint, she casually pushed right past me and made her way inside anyway. Her sharp, judgmental eyes were immediately scanning every corner of the room.

I couldn’t wait for her to just get out and leave me alone.

"Mom, I said, what do you actually want?" I asked again, closing the door behind her and standing my ground.

"Easy on your tone with me, girl," she said smoothly, turning her shoulder-length dark hair as she looked back at me. "I am still your mother. You should put some proper respect on my name."

Oh God, this heavy, exhausting routine is really not happening all over again.

"I’m sorry, Mother," I swallowed my anger, trying my absolute best to sound polite with her. "But do you actually need something right now? Is that the main reason why you are here?"

"I just wanted to come check on you," my mother said, stepping further into the space. "I honestly had no idea you were going to be on this cruise, especially with the Young Master... Where is she right now?"

My mother casually sat down on the plush couch right beside the bed, her calculating eyes actively scanning our combined suitcases placed around the floor.

"She’s out right now," I replied shortly.

"Okay, I see," she nodded slowly, leaning back against the cushions. "I have been hearing some very serious rumors about the Young Master lately, and knowing exactly what is at stake here... I really don’t think we should wait any longer to take action."

What on earth is she even talking about now? Is she suddenly changing her mind about my relationship with Angel after what she said on the beach?

"What do you mean by that, Mother?" I asked, narrowing my eyes at her.

"During my recent time spent with the Master, I realized that she is actively trying to get Angel married off to some politician’s daughter," my mother explained, her tone completely transactional. "The city’s mayor’s only child, to be exact. I need to make sure you get that Alpha to marry you officially before that powerful political alliance can happen."

I genuinely can’t take this sick manipulation anymore.

I am a grown woman. I’m not a helpless teenager anymore, nor am I a clueless minor that she can endlessly control just because she once fed and clothed me.

"Can you just stop right there, Eleanor..."

Yes, I am standing firmly on my own two feet and talking directly back to her. I don’t care at all what she thinks or says to me anymore.

I raised my arm and pointed my finger right at the cold woman who was supposed to be my mother.

"My relationship with Angel Morningstar is none of your concern. My love for that Alpha is completely none of your business. Wealth, status, or whatever financial security you are desperately trying to keep for your own personal well-being is not my concern whatsoever. I don’t give a single fuck about anything you are telling me right now. In fact, I want you to get the hell out of this room right this second."

My mother froze in absolute shock, looking as if she couldn’t believe those sharp words had just come straight out of my mouth. Even I was inwardly surprised that I could finally stand up and say something like that out loud to her face.

I finally spoke my true mind to her.

My mother slowly stood up from the soft couch, her expression twisting into dark disgust.

"You ungrateful, disrespectful brat," she spat, her voice dropping into a harsh, angry hiss. "Is this the thanks I get for constantly putting food in your mouth as a child, making sure you always slept under a good roof, paying for the private school you attended? Everything single thing that I have ever done for you in your life, is this really how you repay me?"

"Mom, please just leave," I said, my voice shaking with raw emotion as I held the door open.

"Answer me right now, you little delinquent!"

My Mom suddenly raised her open hand to slap me hard across the face, but my quick reflexes instantly got the better of her.

I reached up and caught her wrist firmly in mid-air before her palm could even touch my cheek.

"Ungrateful?" I growled out, staring directly into her dark brown eyes. "I am your daughter. You and my father are the exact ones who brought me into this world in the first place. I never once asked or begged either of you to do that for me. It was entirely your choice to keep me instead of getting rid of me back then, and it was your basic legal duty as my mother to feed and clothe me until I was old enough to feed and clothe myself. I’m not even going to bring up the basic parental love you completely denied me my whole life. You were just doing your bare minimum duty..."

I shoved her wrist away and let her go. My mother looked at me with wide, disbelieving eyes, completely stunned that I had physically blocked her swing.

Then, a cold smirk crept onto her face, and she began to laugh softly at me.

"April, look around you right now," she sneered, waving her hand toward the luxurious cabin interior. "Look at where you are standing right now. Do you really think you would be inside a place like this if it wasn’t for me, your own mother? You would have absolutely nothing to your name. You would still be living back in that dump with that wretched, broke father of yours, eating scraps out of the dumpster. Whatever I have done from the exact day I brought you into this world till today was my own brilliant choice, and now you have the nerve to talk back at me simply because I served a rich Alpha to you on a silver platter..."

"No, you did not," I said, stepping closer to her face. "Maybe it’s because of your selfish choices that I happened to meet Angel in that mansion, but it is definitely not because of you that I am deeply in love with Angel. And I really, truly wish you had just left me with my father back then..."

"You know, it’s actually a very good thing that you are not the only child that I will be having in this life," my mother said coldly, adjusting herself with complete indifference. "I don’t care at all if you end up losing that Alpha now... You are on your own.."

And with those final venomous words lingering in the air, she turned on her heel and walked straight out of the room.