My General Mother Ruined Me For My Cousin—Then Regretted It Too Late Chapter 02
Back at the Hart estate that night, my mother summoned me to her study.
She poured a glass of water and slid it across the desk toward me—a rare gesture that almost passed for maternal.
“At least you showed enough judgment in the end to know what not to take from Sienna.”
I heard my own voice shake. “You told everyone in that room that I am unstable, troublesome, unworthy of standing beside Adrian Caldwell. By tomorrow morning, all of Washington will know that my own mother thinks I am worthless. “
“Mom—you destroyed me. Did you ever stop to think about what happens to me after this?”
Her patience was utterly spent. She looked at me coldly.
“Sienna has no mother, no one to rely on. You have the Hart name, you have parents, you have a starting point most people can only dream of. Why must you be so selfish as to fight her for this?”
I stared at her, speechless.
I live in the rooms Sienna rejected. I use the furniture she no longer wanted. I wear the clothes she dismissed as ugly. What exactly do I have?
When I was ten, I heard my mother tell the housekeeper: “Sienna’s got no mother. Take good care of her. Mia can do without.”
So, to spare Sienna’s feelings, every birthday gift my father sent home from overseas was handed straight to Sienna. Anything Sienna liked was off-limits to me. On Sienna’s eighteenth birthday, my mother dropped an urgent assignment and rushed back to throw her a grand party.
When I turned eighteen, I waited from sunrise until midnight.
She never came.
She just sent an email: “I’ve got a lot on my plate. Don’t make this hard for me.”
That night, I sat alone in the dining room and cried through the night.
My mother’s heart held her country, her soldiers, and Sienna—there was no place left for me.
My mother sighed. “The Caldwell situation is settled. You turned down Nathan yourself. Stop pining for Adrian.”
From inside her blazer, she produced a folded document and slid it across the desk.
“I have already selected a match for you. A junior military liaison. Solid, unambitious, no political entanglements. A quiet, stable life. Most people would consider themselves fortunate.”
I looked at the paper.
Sienna was marrying into the kind of family that gets its own spread in Vanity Fair. And I was being told by my mother that Owen Pierce—a junior liaison no one outside the Pentagon circle had ever heard of—was the best I could hope for.
“No. I’m not marrying him.” I threw the paper back across the desk.
“Father is still overseas. You can’t force this through without him.”
Her hand cracked across my face. I stumbled into the bookshelf, cheek blazing.
“We’ll see about that.” Her voice was flat. “The engagement announcement will go out before Jonathan gets back. By the time he lands, it’ll be too late to undo.”
Tears spilled from my eyes, and I ran back to my room.
Tessa saw my face, her voice breaking as she pressed an ice pack to my swollen cheek.
“She hit you? You’re her own daughter. How does she do this to you?”
She holding an envelope. “Helena Blackwood’s driver dropped this off.”
I tore it open. A ruby brooch slid into my palm—antique, oval-cut, the deep red stone set in platinum with tiny diamonds around the edge.
Tucked behind it: a short note in handwriting.
“Wait for me. —D”
I closed my fingers around the brooch.
The following week, every room in the estate overflowed with flowers and engagement preparations for Sienna. Tessa stood at my window, face blotchy with fury.
“She emptied the family safe.” Tessa’s voice shook. “Your great-grandmother’s jewelry. The fur coats. The vintage watches. Three cases of it dragged into Sienna’s room. It should all be yours.”
Once, that would have destroyed me. Now I barely felt it.
The housekeeper appeared at the door. “Miss Hart, the General would like you downstairs.”
The moment I stepped through the door, a teacup shattered against the wall inches from my head.
My mother roared at me in fury:
“Apologize to Sienna. Now!”