TEMPORARY MATES PERMANENT CRAVINGS novel Chapter 261

Two hundred and sixty one

Lisa POV

The hours crawled by, and I’d never felt more restless than I did after Joanna’s visit. I couldn’t bring myself to imagine seeing Evangeline again.

I hadn’t realized how deep the damage ran until now. The memories came all at once, like somebody had thrown open a door I’d fought to keep shut.

Her calling me her sister, agreeing to make me her surrogate through natural conception, the guilt that followed, the attraction I never wanted to feel toward Cameron, finding out she wasn’t who I thought she was, running from one safe house to another, almost losing the baby and my own life because someone poisoned me.

Every road seemed to lead back to the day I signed that surrogacy contract. And now they expected me to sit there and listen to her confession, as though hearing her side could undo any of it.

They’d spent so much time protecting my body that they’d forgotten what this had done to my mind. I wasn’t even convinced I’d make it through childbirth without someone trying to come after me again.

My reputation outside these walls was already ruined because of everything that had happened. If I ever returned to my birth pack, people would point at me and whisper that I was the woman who stole another woman’s mate.

So what exactly was there to hear or reconcile?

My mother noticed I wasn’t sleeping. I kept turning from one side of the mattress to the other, unable to settle.

“Do you want us to talk?” she asked softly.

“There’s nothing to talk about.”

“You don’t have to solve anything. Sometimes it helps to let off some steam.

I stared at the ceiling.

“I just don’t get it.”

She moved closer.

“Neither do I, darling. But sometimes things don’t make sense until much later.”

The following afternoon, just as Joanna had promised, they came for us. My mother and I climbed into a black- tinted minibus where three Daughters were already waiting. I assumed we were heading back to the chapter house, but after almost half an hour, the driver turned into a compound I’d never seen before.

The building looked strange, too plain to be a residence and too welcoming to be a prison. I couldn’t decide what it

was.

Someone escorted us into a waiting room furnished with a few chairs, a coffee table, and shelves lined with books that looked as though no one had touched them in years.

“If it gets too much,” my mother said as we sat down, “you can stop. Nobody is going to force you to stay.”

I nodded, though I wasn’t sure I believed that.

The door opened, and Cassidy walked in. Our eyes met. Relief hit me so hard my chest tightened.

She walked over wearing a smile.

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I’d been worried sick about her. Under any other circumstances, I would’ve gotten up and hugged her. Instead, I stayed where I was.

“Someone’s being salty,” she said, completely ignoring my mother, the usual wall going up between them.

“I’m glad you’re okay,” I said. “But I’m not okay with this. Are you helping Evangeline for personal reasons?”

She shrugged.

“I’ll help anyone if it means Meridian loses.”

Her answer wasn’t really an answer. I thought about pressing her, but I stopped myself when someone stepped into the waiting room.

“We’re ready for you upstairs.”

I looked at my mother.

“You can come with her,” the woman added, “but only as far as the observation room. Lisa goes in alone.”

“Fine,” I muttered. “Let’s get this over with.”

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Two hundred and sixty two

Evangeline POV

The days had blurred together until I no longer knew who I was, what I felt, or how to keep my thoughts from slipping away.

Even though the rational part of me knew my mother had chosen to sacrifice me instead of saving me, I still wished it hadn’t been by my hands. If I could turn back time, I would.

The guilt stayed with me, and no amount of justification made it easier to carry.

Cassidy, the woman I was supposed to kill, had taken me to an ordinary house. That surprised me. After everything she’d said about Meridian coming for me, I expected hidden bunkers, armed guards, and rituals carved into every wall. Instead, I’d spent two nights in a normal home.

Even stranger, nobody whispered inside my head. The only thing destroying me was what I’d done.

Now I was about to stand before Lisa, confess everything, and ask for forgiveness.

The woman I used to be would’ve laughed at the idea. She would’ve dismissed Lisa as nothing more than a cheap surrogate, mocked her to her face, and walked away convinced she’d won.

That woman no longer existed.

I had nothing left.

No authority, title, or place to stand.

A prickling sensation crawled across the back of my neck as old instincts tried to rise.

I forced them down.

I’d already lost. Lisa had survived, and I’d helped destroy my own life. Everything that had defined me was gone, including my mother, who had shaped every decision I’d ever made.

I knew nothing outside Meridian. Now I was walking into the home of the people I’d called enemies, hoping for mercy from the woman I’d reduced to little more than a vessel.

Before they took me into the main building, they led me into another one. They searched me thoroughly, then handed me a basin filled with a clear liquid that wasn’t water and instructed me to wash my hands and feet. Only after that did they escort me inside.

We walked down a hallway with vinyl floors and identical doors lining both sides. Most of them stood open. One room held armed security waiting beside the entrance, close enough to intervene if anything happened.

Even after we’d passed, I could still feel their eyes on me.

The interview room itself looked ordinary. A thick glass partition divided it in half. Muted laughter drifted through the walls from somewhere deeper inside the building.

My heart refused to slow. Whatever confidence I’d convinced myself I still possessed disappeared the moment I stepped inside.

Lisa wasn’t the prisoner anymore.

I was.

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Several women stood behind me, watching without trying to hide their caution. I couldn’t blame them.

Footsteps stopped outside the opposite door. Lisa walked in wearing a yellow sundress and blue heeled sandals.

Our eyes met.

The hatred in hers settled over me without a word.

I didn’t blame her. I would’ve hated me too.

She remained standing before finally lowering herself into the chair opposite mine.

The glass left nowhere else to look. The fluorescent lights caught strands of gold in her hair as she waited.

She didn’t speak.

She wasn’t going to make this easier. Neither was I.

There were too many things to confess. I didn’t know where to begin.

Cassidy had already told me what they expected from me, but now that I was here, every word lodged in my throat.

I lowered my eyes to my clasped hands.

“You look well.”

She rolled her eyes.

“I can’t say the same.”

I let out a sigh.

“I was told to confess.”

She waited.

“It was never the plan to kill you.”

Her expression didn’t change.

Even to my own ears, my words sounded pathetic.

“The baby wasn’t part of it at first,” I said quietly. “Cameron’s governing council wanted an heir before next winter, so I suggested surrogacy. When Meridian learned about it… they decided the child could be used.”

Her face twisted with disgust.

“So my womb became collateral.”

I couldn’t deny it.

“Yes.”

“Bloody coward.”

The word landed hard. She was right.

Meridian never took what it wanted openly.

It hid behind friendship, love, family, and kindness.

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It let people believe they still had choices long after every path had already been decided.

“So what changed? When did poisoning me become part of the plan?”

I wished I were anywhere else.

“The pregnancy succeeded before Cameron fell in love with you. After that…” My throat tightened. “Meridian claimed the child.”

“But why? Why an innocent baby? Why not anyone else?”

I looked down. I had no answer that didn’t sound monstrous.

“You wrapped everything in surrogacy,” she continued. “You took from me. Then you planned to take my child while destroying my life.”

Every sentence struck exactly where it should.

“So what now?” she asked. “How do I know this isn’t another trick?”

Something hot flared inside me before I could stop it.

Didn’t she see what I’d lost? Didn’t she see there was nothing left to gain?

“You don’t deserve redemption,” she said. “Killing your mother doesn’t erase everything else you’ve done. You’re still responsible for all of it.”

The words hollowed me out. I couldn’t speak.

“I don’t owe you forgiveness,” she continued as she stood. “I don’t even care about you anymore. You’ve taken enough from me.”

“You can have him.”

She laughed harshly, her face reddening as she did.

“You idiot! You still think this is about Cameron? If all I wanted was him, I already have him. He loves me, and I love him.”

My chest tightened.

“This stopped being about him a long time ago. It’s about the child in my womb. It’s about my future, and about feeling safe again.”

Every failure I’d buried was being laid in front of me by the woman I’d spent months looking down on.

“I’m trying not to become the person Meridian made me,” I whispered. “Doesn’t that matter?”

She shook her head.

“Oh please, you can’t fool me. You’re here because Meridian turned on you. If they’d chosen you over me, you wouldn’t be sitting there apologizing.”

I opened my mouth. Nothing came out.

“Nobody’s left on your side,” she continued. “Now you’re trying to survive by standing with the Daughters.”