In Their Shadow: The Daughter They Forgot Chapter 08

In Their Shadow: The Daughter They Forgot Chapter 08

One thought had been buried inside me for years, never spoken aloud.

Now I wanted to say it.

“Last time, you said that if you’d known how I would turn out, you never would’ve had me.

“That wasn’t just anger talking, was it?

“Because from the start, you never wanted to keep me.”

Her expression changed.

“You were at the peak of your career when you got pregnant. You took pills to end it. I survived

anyway.

“Then, so a baby wouldn’t disrupt your career, you scheduled a C-section a full month before your due date. I was born premature and spent my first month in a NICU incubator. You weren’t willing

to wait even one more month for me.”

Leander and Corwin both looked up.

Clearly, this was the first they’d heard of it.

I felt strangely calm.

As a child, I’d once found my birth records in Mom’s study.

They listed the medication she’d taken during pregnancy and my condition at birth.

Over time, I’d pieced together the truth.

Something in Mom’s face cracked.

For once, she looked neither arrogant nor angry. She looked pale and exposed.

I looked at her. The tears didn’t fall. They simply gathered, as though twenty years of grief had

finally found a way out.

“So everything after that makes perfect sense.

“Why you never remembered my birthday.

“Why I was put in a storage room instead of a bedroom.

“Why you could forget me when I had a 104°F fever.

“Why none of you cared when Mirelle said I wasn’t a Dacre.

“You gave up on me the moment I was born. Didn’t you?”

The yard grew so quiet that even the wind seemed to stop.

Mom swayed.

Dad reached out to steady her.

She only stared at me, her lips trembling.

“Tamsin…”

For the first time that day, my name held no order and no blame.

But it was too late.

I’d waited more than twenty years to hear her call me that way.

Now that she finally had, I felt nothing.

“Enough,” I said softly. “Go home.”

Dad frowned. “Tamsin, we came here to fix Mirelle’s…”

“Then go home and fix her problem.” I cut him off.

“I won’t publicly condemn the Dacre family. But I won’t lie for Mirelle either. The day I stopped

letting you into my life was my answer.

“Don’t come back.”

Briony stood in the doorway behind them, a sprig of rosemary in her hand. I had no idea when she’d

arrived, but she said nothing.

They lingered for a moment, then left in silence.

I stayed where I was until Briony’s gruff voice came from the kitchen.

“What are you still standing there for? There’s beef stew on the stove. Get a bowl. Do you expect me to serve you too?”

A steaming bowl of stew and fresh-baked bread waited on the table.

I sank to the floor and sobbed.

Brony came over and sat beside me.

After a long while, she draped a blanket over my shoulders.

At that moment, my wolf finally stopped whimpering

It slowly leaned toward her.

After wandering for so long, it had finally caught the scent of home.