Chapter 34

"I know," ignoring the glare that Inez shot her way, her mother patted her on the shoulders and stated, "But rebellious kids like you need some stern talk. Unless your weak pulse is pinched, kids like you just won t listen."

Inez sucked in a cold breath. She tried to ease the subtle burn in her chest but nothing eased the anger after listening to the cold and heart-chilling words of her mother. That was all she was and would be in the eyes of her mother a rebellious kid who didn t know anything better.

Just because she had the blood of a siren in her veins, her mother had determined that she was a lost cause and there was nothing that she could do about it.

Her words were hurtful but not enough to make Inez lose her calm. She pursed her lips and spat, "Fine."

She then spun on her heel and ignored the triumphant smile on her mother s lips. Just one more night, tomorrow she would be free of this nonsense. Though she knew that her sister would have to suffer quite a lot of injustice because of her actions, Inez knew that Scarlet was made of tougher shit than her mother.

She stepped outside the room and walked to the living room, where Blaise was waiting for her.

"What do you want to say?" she asked with a stern note in her voice. Inez didn t wish to waste any more of her time than she already had. She could be getting ready to escape this prison of hers but no, things just had to go south and in a way that she didn t like.

Blake studied her carefully before saying, "Can we talk in the garden?"

Inez studied him right back. Though she didn t know why this man wanted to drag her to the garden, she nodded. Anyway, it wasn t as if he could kill and bury her in the garden of her own house and even if he did try, she would have a better advantage of running away from him.

The two of them stepped out of the porch and walked down the stairs before stepping down the freshly mown grass. Just like everything in the house, it was perfectly trimmed without any signs of overgrowth. The shrubs and bushes were neatly cut and little fairy lights glitter all over the garden.

It looked pretty but it was not something Inez would like. She had this artistic streak that poked her from within and told her that she could do much better but in the eyes of her mother it would turn into nothing but a wasteful effort; thus, Inez never tried.

"It is quite nice here," Blake praised but Inez didn t take the bait. She stayed quiet, waiting for the man to tell her what he wanted to tell her. Since he certainly didn t come here to praise and admire her mother s gardening skills.

Inez watched him walk over to the old tree in the corner of the garden and then heard him sigh, "I remember planting this here with you and the boys." He touched the trunk of the tree with a reminiscent look in his eyes and spoke, "Do you still remember how we used to climb this tree to get into your room?"

She did. But since she didn t want to shake her resolve to escape this place and leave these people behind, Inez crossed her arms and stated in a cold voice, "It s going to be cut down in a few days, so you might as well take a snap of it."

Blake stiffened as he turned to look at her; he looked visibly confused and asked, "You are cutting it down?"

"Yes," Inez replied coolly.

"Why?"

"My mom keeps yapping that this tree has gotten old and doesn t suit well with the look of the garden. So I let her cut it down," Inez lied. Though she hadn t given her permission to her mother to cut down the tree, it was true that her mother didn t like this old and gnarled tree and had been asking Inez to let it be chopped and removed.

Hmm. Maybe she would let her mother have it removed. Maybe that would soothe her mother a little once she found out that her daughter had run away from the pack.

"And you agreed?" Blake looked at her as if he was looking at someone else other than Inez and honestly, she understood his surprise. In the past, her mother had asked her to cut down the tree and she had never agreed. Even when her mother gave a long lecture on how the tree was ruining the entire vibe of the garden, she fought with her mother tooth and nail.

For Inez, this tree was the proof of their friendship that she and the boys were once together. She kept the tree safe and protected because Inez thought that she was protecting their friendship but now she thought of her actions as silly.

Neither Dominic nor the rest of the boys cared about her, much less about this tree and yet she had gone to war after war with her mother for it. She was just defending their friendship alone and it was about damn time she stopped it. noveldrama

"Yes," Inez answered without putting much emotion in her response. She had given too much and now she was taking it all back.

Blake slowly raised a brow at her and turned around. "Luca said that you were behaving abnormally. I thought that he was thinking too much but it seemed like he was right. You really did seem weird?"

"Then when do I not look weird?" Inez asked with a light-hearted smile. "When I m crouching on the ground, letting the entire pack beat the shit out of me?"

"You deserve it."

She had heard these words so many times that they were getting boring.

"Okay. So what of it?" Inez asked without questioning Blake. "Did you come here just to tell me that I deserve being treated like a doormat by the entire pack?"