Chapter 822

Madeline:

Whenever someone knocked on our door while we were about to receive some happiness, it only ended in misery and pain.

So the three of us stood up at the simple knock as if we were at war.

I watched my mother reach the door and turn around to give us a single nod before she darted it open.

The minute she did, Livia gasped so loudly that even I flinched.

My mother turned around to look at her, frowning.

“I’m so sorry. I was just expecting a monster,” Livia commented before our attention moved back to the door, where Baxter stood with his hands clenched at his sides.

He was wearing a black shirt and black pants.

His hair looked messy, like he had been through something.

“Where is it?” I asked him, walking around the table to close the distance between us.

“I’ve been texting you. Why weren’t you texting back?” he complained, rushing inside, closing the door, and locking it.

“What is going on? I was having a little conversation here,” I said, wiping my cheeks. He noticed.

“Have you been crying? Did they make you cry?” Baxter asked, pointing at my mother and then at Livia before looking back at me.

Then he did a double take at my mother.

“Who are you?” he asked, pointing at her.

“Hey, don’t you fucking point at my mother.”

I didn’t know what happened to me, but saying that out loud just for the sake of it felt so different.

I wanted to experience it.

I wanted to be able to tell someone that my mother was here and that I wouldn’t

allow anyone to point at her, even when I knew Baxter would never mean her any harm.

“Okay, I get it.” Baxter lowered his finger and turned to speak to me, but then he stopped.

This time, when he did a double take at my mother, he looked back at me as if confirming something.

“What did you just say?” he asked me.

“I found my lost family, Baxter.” I let out a whimper, immediately wrapping my arms around him.

“Really?”

I had only been hugging him for a second when I pulled away, raising my hands in defense.

“Of course, you don’t even know what that means for me, right? Because you don’t have your memories.”

Oh, the bitterness hit me again. I didn’t know what was going on with me. Why couldn’t I just appreciate something in the moment?

“Why are you here?” I asked him, pulling out my phone.

“Wait, what is going on? You have a family here? So you’re her sister?” Baxter continued questioning Livia while I checked his message.

I snapped my head toward him.

“What do you want to talk about,

Kaylee? Don’t tell me you went

downstairs to see her!” I yelled

almost instantly catching his attention.

He scratched the back of his neck, and that gave me my answer.

“Oh, come on, Baxter. I expected you to at least trust me with my decisions.”

I didn’t know why I panicked, but the reason was that I wanted to mentally torment Kaylee so badly that she would go nuts.

And for that, I did not fucking want Baxter to go and show her that he was alive.

“I didn’t speak with her, okay? I just went downstairs, saw her, and then rushed upstars when she started to

cry and everything. Baxter explained, trying to reach for my arm, but I pulled away.

“Okay, you two need to sit down and talk,” my mother yelled, making him stop trying

to reach for me.

“And you let him speak,” my mother said to me sternly.

He looked at her and then back at me. Then I watched a little smile curve at the corner of his lips.

“Thank you, mother-in-law.”

The way he said it, it was as if he was already planning to get her on his side.

“No, don’t listen to him. You know his wolf hates me,” I said to my mother, pointing at my chest.

“No, it doesn’t hate her,” he defended himself while I rushed behind my mother, trying to get her on my side.

“I mean, I guess he does,” he then added under his breath, biting his tongue.

“Why does your wolf hate my daughter? Isn’t she the best woman and the best mate he could ever find?”

Thankfully, like a mother would, she began to defend me almost immediately.

“It’s a long story. But I want to know first, how are you guys family?” Baxter asked again, but it didn’t really mean much.

He didn’t have his memories, so he didn’t know what I had been through, desperately wanting to know where my family was.

“What did he want to talk about?” I asked him, adding my own question in the middle.

My mother gestured to Livia and then gently squeezed my elbow.

“Speak with him like a civilized person,” my mother warned me with her eyes.

Before I could protest, she added something that changed my outlook on everything.

els

“I wish I had spoken more with your father. It’s been years since we last spoke. You’re lucky you got a second chance to be with you mate.”

My mother’s words really, really rang in my heart.