Chapter 5
1105 Words
My heart and head hurt from all of the crying I did the night before. Of course, I came second. That's how my life has always been. I even was second choice in this mating.
I swiped angrily at another tear as it rolled down my cheeks. I wasn't going to back down from any fight when it came to my marriage. I would make sure that Lilith knows her place and goes back to whatever hellhole she crawled out from.
As if on cue, the demon heiress strolled into the kitchen with a plastic smile on her face, Frederick right behind her. The bastard who hadn't even bothered to share a bed with his mate on their anniversary and her birthday.
"Hi, Selma." Lilith's voice was sugar sweet as she called out the fake greeting. "I hope you're feeling okay this morning?"
My eyes scanned the full extent of her slender body and I smiled. "Yes, thank you. How are you feeling now? Less poisoned?"
She laughed softly at my jab. "It wasn't necessarily poison. I think my system just didn't agree with something I ate. I don't believe you'd have any reasons to poison me." She paused for a beat and amped her smile up a few notches. "Or do you?"
Frederick's gaze bounced between both of us, a frown marring his forehead.
"Absolutely not. What reason could I possibly have to poison a guest? That's what you are, isn't that right?"
The smile on her face faded slightly and she cleared her throat, then reached into her pocket and pulled a piece of paper out.
She extended it to me. "Here. I made this to help us both avoid accidents like that a second time."
I narrowed my eyes but refrained from taking the paper. "What is this?"
"Just a list of things that I eat to avoid poisoning from ingredients I don't agree with." Her explanation held a smug note to it. "Also, there's a list of the things I don't eat so you don't include them in my meals by accident."
"That list would better be given to the cook."
This time it was Frederick that spoke up. "But the cook has barely cooked anything besides large meals in a really long time."
I turned to him, hurt and disbelief coursing through me in a violent wave. "That's because I chose to cook the meals that my family eats. If she has reservations about the things that my family eats, then it'd be best if the cook attended to her needs."
"That's completely unreasonable, Selma. She's a guest in our home. Would you have her eat food made by the help while the rest of us eat food made by you?"
"Unreasonable?" I shot right back. "What's Unreasonable is you trying to make me a maid in my own home because your ex-lover showed up out of the blue."
"So that's what this is all about? You're jealous of Lilith?"
Disbelief rang in my ears. "Are you for real right now?"
"Oh, come on, Selma! We both know that if it were anyone else you wouldn't care about the list."
"I wouldn't? Tell me who else you've ever put my birthday and anniversary aside for."
"This isn't Lilith's fault! She was sick."
"Oh, was she? Very convenient."
He ran a hand through his hair, an obvious sign of frustration. But even with the familiar gesture, nothing of the man I love was staring back at me.
"Selma, just take the damn list and make what she wants. I won't have a cook making meals for my guests."
"There's no way in heaven, he'll and everything in between that I would slave away for your ex-lover, Frederick. I deserve..."
"For f***s sake, Selma, I am your Alpha and that is a command."
My mouth snapped shut following his command, his aura of authority cloaked the room with an intensity that left me shaken.
"You don't have to do that, Frederick. It's totally fine if the cook handles my meals. No need to put Selma through the stress." Lilith finally decided it was time to make an attempt at diffusing the situation.
My tear-filled eyes stared back at Frederick and he looked at Lilith. "It's not stressful. She can handle it."
Just then his phone started ringing and he walked out of the room with his hand fishing for the device in his pocket.
Lilith looked over her shoulder to make sure that Frederick was well out of earshot before she spoke up.
"Selma dear, I hope you finally realise that fighting is not going to get you anywhere?" She took slow steps towards me until she was right in front of me then patted my hair down softly. "Frederick is mine, he always has been. I'm here to take back what's mine."
She turned around and walked all the way to the door before she threw over her shoulder, "Get breakfast going as soon as possible, please. I don't like eating late."
As she strutted out of the room, I slid down the island and let the tears fall down my face in violent torrents. All of the pain I'd been holding down came rushing forward with the speed of light, stealing my breath and leaving me broken.
*******
We sat around for breakfast, everybody except Lilith and me oblivious to the commotion from breakfast this morning. Frederick was nowhere in sight, I assumed he left immediately after the phone call he received in the kitchen.
From the look on Verlyn's face she assumed that something was off, and she seemed really pleased about it.
"Thank you so much for the breakfast, Selma. This is really tasty, and I appreciate you going out of your way to make this for me." She gestured at the omelette in her plate, complete with the vegetables of her choice.
Spring onions. Bell peppers - only yellow. Carrots - shredded. Everything just made with the intention to wear me out.
"Selma." Frederick's voice carried over to me from the door he walked in through.
Ah. No wonder she was thanking me. Frederick is here.
"Yes, Alpha." I responded, my voice devoid of emotions.
"I want to apologize for the way that I spoke to you earlier. It was wrong of me to..."
A tiny voice interrupted his speech. "Mommy!"
All our heads turned in the direction of the voice, following the little boy Lilith came with yesterday claiming to be her nephew as he ran up to give her a hug.
Wait... did he just?
Frederick voiced my thoughts. "Did he just call you mummy?"
- Writer
