Chapter 88

Alaric’s POV

“You don’t want me bonding with your wife.” Those were the words my mother said to me the moment I slid into the driver’s seat of my car.

My jaw clenched as I turned on the ignition. “Because I know you want to do anything BUT bond, Mutti.” I paused. “Did you say anything to her in there?”

Something had seemed off earlier when I returned to the kitchen. And when I asked Meadow, it felt like she had lied to me. But I didn’t push.

“I did not,” my mother answered firmly. “I already told you, Alaric. I asked her to come have dinner with me and Clarissa sometime.”

She fastened her seatbelt as I reversed out of the garage, clearing her throat, and then she turned to look at me. “You seem to only think the worst of me these days,” she murmured. “When did your plaything become more important to you than your own mother?”

Plaything.

There she went again with the fucking nicknames.

My grip tightened around the steer