FOR ONCE, MEREDITH STOOD in a corner, sipping champagne, without any coworker fawning around her. Malcolm held onto her arm, pressing a reassuring kiss to the top of her head. To the untrained eye, her mother appeared unbothered, being worshipped by the man hooked to her side, but Gwenn knew better: a frenzy was frying her nerves underneath the steady calm facade she cloaked herself with. It didn't help that everyone that made eye contact with the dazzling woman quickly diverted their gaze as if she were to turn them to stone with a quick glance.
But when she turned to Gwenn, those eyes melted into a pool of warm relief, like steaming water meeting chilled skin. Despite the last forty-eight hours she'd gone through, Gwenn managed a small smile.
Meredith took a step toward her, but froze, her face blanking. Gwenn didn't stop her pursuit. Chin held high, she sauntered toward her parents. Her father greeted her with a grin, though it lacked its usual welcoming charm. Her mother studied her from head to toe without saying a word.
Gwenn blinked at the realization that she had rendered her mother speechless.
"We have so much to talk about," she said. Those words broke the ice into sharp shards around them.
Her mother waved her hand around. "We have time to discuss...everything." Gwenn didn't miss the way her blue eyes hardened again, like she would pull out a pistol from a strap in her thigh and shoot at random, if only to alleviate the burning rage building up inside of her. "Right now, I need to be on the lookout."
She scoffed. "If Wolf bumped into me, that means Russell is out there. But they can wait. Your claws can go look for their necks after we talk."
"Excuse me?" her mother said. She tilted her head to the side, her platinum hair swishing about with the movement over the satin light blue of her gown. All traces of relief and welcome vanished into the air like a puff of smoke. "After going behind my back with that...pitiful man, you think you have the authority to dictate when we'll have this conversation?"
Her father squeezed her mother's arm in warning. Gwenn stood her ground, shaking her head at the red tainting her mother's cheeks at her outburst.
"Ronan is more of a man than half of the men here," Gwenn said. When her mother opened her mouth to continue, she raised her hand to silence her. The same restless energy that sprouted within her when Wolf cornered her came back, awakening every part of her body. She was not going to let anyone control her anymore. Her mother snapped her nude glossy lips shut. "We need to talk. And I know damn well I'm more important than Russell spreading lies, so this is happening now."
They walked to a deserted hallway separated from the public by a curtain of silver fairy lights. Jingle bells rang from afar followed by the rhythmic echoes of Santa's ho ho ho's as an upbeat Christmas song took control of the gala. As they went farther away, Gwenn noted the stripped walls and plain white tiles beneath her heels. When the bustling of chatter and dancing became but a mere whisper in their ears, they stopped and stared at each other in utter silence.
Her mother broke it. "I told you to stay away from him."
Someone might as well have shoved fairy lights down her throat. "This is not about Ronan, Mom," Gwenn let out. "Besides, he's helped me so much these last few months that your opinion of him isn't even true. You took one look at a photo of him and judged him unfairly. How about we talk about everything you lied about instead?"
Even as she spat the words, she faltered. Ronan had helped her through the fall semester, but withheld so much information. Gwenn still wasn't sure how to think about their situation. Everyone around her had lied. But she wasn't exempt from that either.
YOU ARE READING
Forever Luminescent
General Fiction"Just shine like you always do." Gwenn Davidson has always known she was adopted, but after clearing up her stuff for her first move out of her parent's house, she finds an old blanket gifted to her by her birth mother that triggers an avalanche of...
