300 Days With The Alpha Beta Triplets

Bella:

"Good riddance to bad rubbish," my mother said, and for the first time, I felt relieved standing close to her.

Emily had said a lot about her last night. She had sent Emily's mother to rescue me, and although it didn't seem like much, I was grateful she was willing to save me even after all her threats to hand me over when I got discovered.

As soon as the Stormclaws exited the school, I turned to leave, but my mother reached for my hand. "We are going for a drive," she said, and I swallowed hard.

This time, I didn't pull away violently. I allowed her touch to seep in, and it felt a little less cold than it always had.

"It's Saturday, and I need to study," I said, and she shot me a death glare before cocking her head towards her car, which stood in the parking lot.

I took a deep breath, walking towards it. As soon as we got into the car and the doors were locked, she placed both hands on her lap, gripping them tightly. My heart raced as I expected her to do something drastic, but she turned to face me, pulling me into a hug.

At first, I couldn't get over the shock, which left my hands hanging in the air, but after a while, I wrapped my arms around her. For the first time since I'd known my mother, I was hugging her. It felt good, and I could feel the tears threatening to fall, but I pushed them back. She pulled away, then threw her head back in her seat, grabbing a tissue from the center console, dabbing her eyes gently. Afterward, she crumpled the tissue, and her brows furrowed.

"What the hell were you thinking?" she yelled, shattering the brief image of sweetness I had of her. I straightened up, staring at the mother I knew.

"I was only trying to save myself since you refused to do that for me," I said, and she scoffed, turning on the ignition in a bid to ignore me. "So you're not going to say anything?" I asked as she reversed her car out of the parking lot and headed towards the gate.

Since she wasn't willing to speak, I stayed silent too.

"I told you that everything has principles. Did you see how Fae's father was calm about her expulsion? Did you think it happened overnight? I made a bet with him, and we go way back as kids. I told him that if Fae tried one of her dumb tricks again, I was going to come at her with everything I had. When I sent Millie to rescue you, I was going to go forward with my plan," she said, then came to a halt at a red traffic light.

you

She turned to me. "I'm not a child who can be excused for acting on emotions. Everything has principles. Did expect me to slap her in front of the entire school? When I gave you a suspension, it was because I wanted you to take a break from everyone."

The light turned green as she said this, so she moved the car forward.

Why was she trying to act nice? We saw her do so many things.

"What about Noah? You all made it look like..." I placed a hand over my mouth at once when I realized what I'd said. "You know about Noah?" she asked, coming to a screeching halt.

I shook my head, and she raised a brow.

"Why am I even hiding it? You all hid his death from us, and we watched you impersonate him. But it's a good thing you did, because I wouldn't have known about shapeshifters," I said, and she took a deep breath, placing a hand on her forehead.

"If I had a choice, I wouldn't have done what I did, but it wasn't entirely my plan. When Noah passed away, we called his parents, and they said they didn't want to talk about it. His parents asked that it be kept a secret, because, let me tell you, Bella, not all parents want to see kids lying around their house mourning their own child," she said, tightening her grip on the steering wheel. "You will never understand the pain because you've never lost a child, and I pray you never do, because I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy."

That last sentence sounded personal, and a wave of guilt crossed my chest. Had I been wrong all this time? Was she truly trying to protect me? She placed her head on the steering wheel for a moment, taking deep breaths before turning on the ignition again, continuing the drive while I sat quietly.

"You don't know how many times I considered withdrawing you from Howlstone. Watching you go through everything with Fae... I hated Ryder at one point, because he just couldn't wait for his mate. I told Fred when Ryder started his journey to become the most popular kid in school, but Fred said he was growing."

She hated Ryder?

"What are you talking about, Mother? You always chose Ryder every single time! You chose him and never me." She sighed when I said this.

"Because what's happening now is exactly what I was trying to prevent. I didn't want you to be friends with Ryder because of the kind of people in Howlstone's social ladder. But somehow the moon goddess designed it this way. I only kept you with him at first because I knew there would be a clash, and I needed you not to like him. He never hated you. In fact, he was in love with you as a kid. The first time you came to Frost Pack, if you remember, he was all over you, and you two got along fine. But you didn't stay for more than a day because you came with your father for a meeting. You were like five," she said, and I tried to recall but couldn't remember.

"I didn't see anything wrong with it at the time, and I thought it was cute since you were step siblings. But one time, I was cleaning out his room, and I found his diary where he talked about dreaming of his first kiss with you. He was six, and it was alarming. Plus, you are step-siblings. I spoke to him about it and promised not to tell Fred, then I explained to him you couldn't be his girlfriend. I thought it would end there. But then, when he was about ten, he got into a fight with the Lycanthals. He told them he was going to ask you out when you visited that year. They told him he would have to share you with them if he thought you were his mate, because they would have to share mates. This infuriated him, and they fought badly, so I had no choice but to tell Fred what happened. Fred punished Ryder for fighting, and he was grounded."

She paused to catch her breath.

"You can call me a terrible mother and everything else, but that was all I could think of at the time. Ryder was scared of his father's temper, so he came crying to me, and I comforted him. I told him he was punished because he loved you, and it would all go away if he stopped loving you. But he misunderstood as a child. I should have known better. When the mate bond was revealed, we regretted our actions, but we couldn't undo them."

I had no idea Ryder had gone through something like this, and he had kept it from me. Was he really ashamed of opening up to me? I questioned myself as I sank back into the chair, taking in everything she had said.

"This story is messed up, Bella, and if you try to connect the dots, it gets worse. You'll be stuck at a dead end, but it will make you realize one thing: we're all villains in someone's story."

Villains in someone's story. That reminded me of Carmille, and I glanced at my mother's sorrow-stricken face.

"I've made mistakes in the past as a young girl. I got married early, and I'm only thirty-five. Some of those mistakes I wish I could undo, and others, I really don't care about," she said.

She stopped in front of a restaurant, and as she opened the door, I spoke my mind.

"The mistakes you wish you could undo... am I part of them?" I asked, keeping my eyes on her.