The Alpha's Unwanted Bride

Chapter 734: A SAD HOME

RUBY’S STORY

It was evening by the time I arrived home, I had put penny in the stables to sleep before heading to the door.

“Ruby.” I heard my mother call as I stepped in.

She was making some notes over her book on her favourite reading table.

The one father had made before his accident.

“Hello mama.” I said with a weak smile.

I shut the door behind me.

“How was Mrs Martha. Is her daughter well?” Mother asked me looking over her book.

“She was.” I said with a shrug of my shoulder as I sat down beside her.

I tucked my wild red curls behind my ear.

I had hoped that mother hadn’t heard of my shenanigans at the pack house.

And from the way it seemed none of the sort had happened.

Even though I expected them to march in anytime soon and arrest me for harassing the rich spoiled relative of Ashton.

I chewed on my bottom lip.

“Is there something I should know?” Mother asked and I jumped up.

“What?” I asked.

She paused from her writing and looked up at me. “Is there something I should know?”

“No, why would there?” I asked.

“Well it’s just that you’re chewing your lip and you usually do that when you have something to hide.” She pointed out to me.

“Oh.” I mumbled to myself. “I was just wondering why you didn’t take the job offer Mrs Martha had for you.”

She paused from her writing and looked up at me.

The way the lie had immediately come out.

So quickly.

I didn’t like lying to her, but if she hadn’t already found out what I had done, then she didn’t need to know.

She sighed and gently dropped her quill.

“I mean. The pay is going to be good. They don’t have any reliable healer in the pack.” I said with all seriousness now. “I had always assumed someone else had taken it.”

“I don’t think working directly under anyone would be so good for us right now.” Mother said.

For as long as I could remember, my mother had never liked working for anyone.

Strictly for herself.

At a point it felt as though she was running away from scrutiny of people.

I loved our home here.

It was everything to me.

Growing up here, my nostalgia.

The happy moments we had with father before he lost his leg.

They were all stuck in this very place.

And as much as I didn’t like to leave, the extra money wouldn’t hurt.

I helped healing some people in neighboring packs for extra money to support the house, but it barely went anywhere.

We had so much debt because father kept on gambling and borrowing.

Mother and I were forced to pay them off to save our self from being harassed.

No matter what mother said to him, nor I, changed father’s opinion.

He had gone down that dark path and refused to come out of it.

“I’ll hate to leave here mother. But it could help with our debts.” I stated matter of fact.

Mother was quiet, refusing to say a word and my heart fell causes I already knew the answer to my unanswered question.

The fire in the fireplace cackled.

“Ruby It isn’t that simple.” She said to me.

“But why not?” I asked heartbroken.

She sighed heavily. “This is our home. We don’t need somewhere else to go to. Don’t you love it here?”

I walked over to where she was.

I knew that the piling bills were making her sad.

I could tell.

I gently took her hand and covered them with mine.

“I do mother. Very much.” I said. “But this is always going to be our home. No one is taking that away from us. Ever. Look I don’t even need to come with you. I could stay here. Father and I while you go there and work. It will be much easier for you.”

A weak smile spread on her lips.

“You make everything seem so easy.” She said to me as she gently touched the side of her my cheek and then my hair.

“Because it is.” I insisted.

She laughed softly.

She gently played with the little strands of my red hair in between her fingertips.

“You hair used to be straight when you were much younger.” She remarked. “Strange how it just changed overtime.”

That remark took me off guard because I had never known such a thing.

I had assumed my hair to always be wild and curly.

But instead of giving me answers, she changed the subject. “I appreciate the concern, but I can’t take that offer up.”

I sighed heavily. “Mother.”

She gave a light chuckle. “We are going to be fine Ruby.”

“You always say that.” I mumbled.

“You sound exactly like your father used to.” She said

The smile faded from both our faces at the same time.

The mention of Father always did that lately.

A loud crash sounded from outside.

Then another.

Mother and I both turned toward the door.

A second later the cottage door burst open.

Father staggered inside.

His face was flushed.

His clothes were disheveled.

And from the look in his eyes, he had been drinking again.

My stomach sank.

He slammed both hands onto the table.

“I need money.”

Mother immediately closed her eyes.

The exhaustion on her face was instant.

“Thomas…”

“I said I need money.”

“There isn’t any.” She said. “Even if there was, why do you think I would give you?”

His jaw clenched.

“There has to be. I’m your husband!”

“There isn’t.”

I watched the familiar argument begin.

The same argument.

Again.

And again.

And again.

Father laughed bitterly.

“Of course there isn’t.”

He pointed toward Mother.

“Because you keep every copper locked away.”

Mother rose slowly from her chair.

“No. There isn’t any because I spent the last of it paying the debt collectors who came looking for you.”

Silence.

Heavy.

Dangerous.

I swallowed.

Father looked away first.

For a brief moment shame flashed across his face.

Then it disappeared.

Replaced by anger.

“You think you’re better than me now?”

“No.” Mother said quietly. “I think you’re destroying yourself.”

The words struck harder than any slap.

Father froze.

Then without another word he turned and limped back toward the door.

Before leaving he stopped.

His gaze landed on me.

Then on Mother.

Something broken flashed through his eyes.

And then he was gone.

The cottage fell silent.

I looked at Mother.

Mother looked at the closed door.

For the first time in my life.

She looked tired.

Not physically tired.

Defeated.

And suddenly the offer from the Pack House no longer seemed like a possibility.

It felt inevitable.