She shook her head sadly. “Am I next, then? Has it really come to this? You want to take what is mine, just like every other man who’s come into my life. You’re just like your father.”

For once, her words didn’t cut the way she’d intended them to. Kaden thought he’d feel a little guilt, coming here to steal the one thing that had allowed his mother to get out from under her own father’s control, but she made it too easy to hate her.

Irene rested a hand on his upper back.

“It seems you’ve found something to like about Yarrow,” Sylvia said. “Maybe she’ll be enough to keep you here.”

He felt Irene stiffen beside him. He grabbed her hand. “She’s always been enough, but you knew that. Yet you still took her from me. I have a daughter, mom. A daughter I never knew.”

“I told you I’d do whatever I had to do to protect this family,” Sylvia said.

“You did. And so will I,” Kaden said. “It’s time for you to forget how to use your magic.”

She turned away from them.

“No…” A soft whimper escaped his mother’s lips, but Kaden didn’t comfort her. Instead, he wrapped an arm around Irene’s waist and waited.

When Sylvia turned back toward him, her eyes gleamed with tears, and he felt a sick sort of satisfaction. He’d wanted to believe it would be hard, that stripping his mother of her magic would’ve broken something in him.

But after everything, he found betraying his mother was the easiest thing of all.

Chapter 43

Irene

“It’s over,” Irene said, breath rushing out of her. She slipped from Kaden’s grip and started for Addison. “Please tell me you didn’t do… whatever Sylvia was asking you to do to the garden.”

Addison pushed herself up from the ground, brushing dirt from her hands. When Irene got close, she pulled back and wrapped an arm around Sylvia. She glared at Irene with barbs in her eyes, her aura a tangle of emotions. Doubt and abandonment strangled her love like kudzu in a forest.

“Get away from her, Addison,” Irene said, but with each word that slipped from her lips, her daughter’s gaze grew harder.

“Why? So you can hurt her more?” Addison asked. “She was only here to help us, and you… What did you do? Other than accuse her son of murder?”

Sylvia leaned against Addison for support.

Maura came to stand beside Irene. “We stopped her from hurting Yarrow, from hurting this family, ever again.”

Addison shook her head. She turned to Quinn. Betrayal burned bright in her eyes. “I can’t believe you told them. I trusted you.”