Chapter 13
Evelyn’s final defense was sacrifice.
She waited until most captains had left.
Then she looked at me and said:
“You have no idea what I gave up for this family.”
I believed her.
That did not help.
She had buried friends.
Managed old rivalries.
Kept households running through years when men with titles were too proud to admit they needed her.
She had been strong.
That was never the question.
The question was what she thought strength entitled her to do.
“I gave you everything,” she said.
I looked toward the garden doors.
“You tried to take my child.”
“I tried to preserve you.”
“No.”
“You think that woman will stay when the pressure becomes real?”
Maya sat beside me.
My mother pointed at her.
“Look at her. Three days in a shed and she’s trembling at doors.”
Maya’s face went white.
I felt myself move.
She touched my wrist.
I stopped.
Maya looked at Evelyn.
“Yes.”
My mother smiled.
Wrongly.
Maya continued.
“I tremble.”
The smile faded.
“I wake up when Caleb gets out of bed because for three nights I didn’t know if anyone was coming back.”
Silence.
“I still feel thirsty even after I drink.”
Evelyn looked annoyed.
Maya’s voice strengthened.
“And you think that makes you powerful because you caused it.”
My mother said nothing.
Maya leaned forward.
“It makes you small.”
That landed.
Evelyn’s face twisted.
“You ungrateful little—”
I stood.
“No.”
One word.
My mother stopped.
I had heard her use obedience as a weapon my entire life.
Now I used authority for something different.
A boundary.
“You do not speak to my wife like that again.”
Evelyn laughed bitterly.
“Or what?”
I looked at her.
“Nothing dramatic.”
That unsettled her.
“You lose command access. You lose household authority. You lose every crew contact that came through my chair. You will not be alone with Maya. You will not be near our child without her permission.”
Her face changed.
“You cannot cut your mother out.”
“I’m not.”
I held her gaze.
“You remain my mother.”
Pause.
“You are no longer my ruler.”
That hurt more.
I saw it.
Because blood without control was useless to Evelyn.
May you like
She had spent a lifetime confusing the two.
And I had finally separated them.
