After her last morning class, Maeve got a video call from Naomi.
The moment the screen connected, Naomi got straight to it. "Sienna got kicked out of the Lowell family by my cheap excuse for a mother."
For a second, Maeve thought she'd misheard.
She found a quieter corner on campus and stared at Naomi on the screen. "Your parents finally grew a conscience?"
Naomi gave a small smile. "I heard about you slapping Sienna at the Imperial Grand yesterday."
Maeve couldn't have cared less. "I can't stand that pathetic-little-victim act. I gave her what she earned."
Naomi's mother moving that fast was… impressive, in a bleak kind of way. Maeve's opinion of Mrs. Lowell rose by half a notch.
"She raised her for over twenty years," Maeve said. "Your mom really had it in her to throw her out?"
Naomi snorted, eyes full of mockery. "It's not conscience. It's profit."
Compared to the real power players, the Lowells barely ranked in Aethelburg.
When Maeve went after Sienna, Mrs. Lowell saw how protective Maeve was of Naomi—and she also saw that Andres and Maeve weren't just acquaintances.
After she got home, she told Mr. Lowell exactly what happened.
When he realized the daughter they'd raised for two decades would turn around and betray them, and when he imagined the White family turning their attention toward the Lowells because of Sienna's stupidity—husband and wife reached the same conclusion:
Cut ties. Quickly.
Why risk the entire empire they'd built for an adopted daughter who could drag them into a war?
"My so-called mom called yesterday," Naomi said. "She apologized, said she 'owed me' for twenty years of parenting."
"She wanted me to forget the past, come back to the Lowell house, let them 'make it up to me.' I told her no."
Naomi was past the age of needing parental affection.

VERIFYCAPTCHA_LABEL
Comments
The readers' comments on the novel: Divorce Failed My Wife's Secret Identities Shock the World