HIS DOE, HIS DAMNATION (An Erotic Billionaire Romance) novel Chapter 146

Alaric’s POV:

My gaze narrowed at the edges. “Is that a serious question?”

That was not a question I thought my mother would ever ask. She disliked Meadow, maybe even hated her. And she was the one person I thought would be the happiest about her leaving.

But now she was asking me why I let her leave?

Was this a damn dream?

“Does it sound like I’m joking?” she scoffed. “Why the hell did you let her leave if you love her?”

My eyes narrowed even further. This was completely out of character for her.

I shook my head, walking over to the fridge and pulling out a bottle of water. “Does it matter?” I muttered. “We’re not together anymore. You should be happy about that, not asking why I let her leave.”

“Look.” Mutti sighed, and when I turned around to face her, her hands were on her hips. “I know I may have given you the impression that I didn’t like her—”

“Impression?” Now it was my time to scoff. “I think you made it really fucking clear that you didn’t like her. I had to warn you severally to stop treating her like she was some-”

“I know!” she cut in, and the look in her eyes turned helpless. “I know how I treated her. But I also know how you felt about her. I know you loved her. And I’m ashamed to admit that I was only jealous of her.”

I slammed the bottle down onto the counter as a shiver ran through me. My brows drew together in confusion.

“Jealous? About what, Mutti?”

Why on earth would my mother be jealous of Meadow?

Mutti’s eyes watered and she started to step closer to me, her eyes dropping down to my hand again. And… all of a sudden, I understood–even before she told me.

She took my hand in her shaky ones. “She touches you…” she whispered. “She touches you and you can feel her. Meanwhile you haven’t been able to feel your mother’s touch in nearly ten years.” She sniffed, raising her other hand to my cheek. “Alaric, that breaks my heart, you have no idea.”

“But that doesn’t make any sense. You like Clarissa. And last I checked, I could feel her too.”

“Mm mm.” Ingrid hummed, shaking her head. “With Clarissa, it’s different. Safer. Easier to adjust to. But with Meadow, it’s… Gott…”

(Gott meaning ‘God‘) “I knew from the first day I saw you with her that you loved her-“9

“Stop-”

“And I wanted that for you, but I… I couldn’t just-”

“Mutti-”

“I know who she is, Mein Herz!” she snapped all of a sudden. I froze, feeling my eyes widen slightly. My mother paid no mind to the expression on my face. “I know who she is. I’ve known all along. Meadow Russell. Did you really think you could hide something like that from your own mother?” She stepped closer to me. “Nothing is hidden from me. Nothing.”

The intense expression on her face told me much more than I needed to know. And when the first tear dropped, the realization dawned on me.

She knew. She knew everything.

Everything. Even the things I hadn’t told Meadow. The things I couldn’t tell her. My mother knew it all.

And she never mentioned it to me.

My chest tightened.

“How could you fall in love with the woman whose father you put in prison?” she whispered. “How could you let her fall in love with you? I tried… I tried to get her to leave you, and I’m admitting it right now because I know there is nothing you can do to me. You let your guard down around her, but not me. Not your own mother but Meadow Russell. Clint Russell’s daughter. Do you have any idea how messed up that is?”

“Our marriage was fake,” I muttered. “It wasn’t real, Mutti. Whatever you saw wasn’t real.”

For the first time since she got here, Mutti seemed surprised. I caught her off guard. She didn’t say anything at first, and then she reached for a bag that I hadn’t really made much attention to until now.

“You must be hungry,” she murmured, pulling out a couple of tupperwares. “I brought you some food to eat. All you need to do is warm it up in the

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