Family

Chapter 20

The elevator ride was quiet and long. The atmosphere hung heavy in the box, neither Reed nor Ariadne speaking as we went down. I, too, held my peace, with nothing left to say that hadn’t already been said. When the tone dinged to let us know we’d reached the first floor, it startled me, sounding more than a little like a chime that precedes a bad announcement, like an impending execution.

I walked out the front doors of the headquarters building and saw a small assemblage waiting on the lawn. My mother was there, standing just behind Kat Forrest, who looked to be perfectly coiffed, her blond hair in order, her makeup applied like usual, her clothes in fine form.

I, on the other hand, was wearing the same clothes I had worn yesterday. My hair was mussed because I hadn’t bothered fixing it since I slept on it earlier. I didn’t wear makeup, so there was that.

My mother looked vaguely bored, studying her hands as though she were about to do her nails. Her dark hair was bound in a tight ponytail, just like she always wore it when we were sparring. She wore a black leather coat over a dark shirt, and tight jeans, much tighter than I would have felt confident wearing. Actually, they reminded me a little of Charlie. I realized with a shock, after a moment, that the reason she was looking at her fingernails was because she wasn’t wearing any gloves, which was highly unusual in my experience. Breaking a house rule; not at all like Mom.

The four members of M-Squad were spread out in front of her, from Clary at the farthest left to Bastian next to him, then Kappler, and Parks at the far right. Every one of them was on edge, standing tense, except Clary, who was already shifted into a rocky skin, presumably to counteract my mother if she tried to touch him. Mom, for her part, seemed unconcerned by this show of force against her, and I wondered what sort of ace she had up her sleeve that allowed her to be so indifferent to the overwhelming numbers against her.

“Hi, sweetie,” my mother said as we approached, looking up from her nails and giving me a fake smile, presumably more for the audience and less for me since I knew she was being false. “I was close by, so I figured why wait three hours when I could free my precious little baby now.”

“You are such a bitch,” I told her as I walked between Clary and Bastian to stand opposite Kat. I looked around my blond colleague to look my mother in the face as I said this.

“And you are awfully ungrateful seeing as how I’m getting you out of this little jam that your own bad decisions have landed you in.” She said it mildly, without much concern either way. In the past, the level of smartassness I exhibited with the one sentence I had uttered to her would have landed me in the box for days without much in the way of leniency.

“Because you’re playing at something else,” I said, letting my recklessness run away with me again. “You don’t care about getting me out except for as a means to an end. So what is it? You want Andromeda’s autopsy report? Want to see the body yourself? What is it about her that’s so important to you that you’re willing to come out of hiding and move heaven and earth, break onto the Directorate campus over and over to find out?” I blinked at her. “What is it about her…” I choked and hated myself for feeling this much emotion and letting it come out in front of everyone. “…that’s so important?” That’s more important than me? – that was what I wanted to say.

I saw the slight wash of emotion over Mother’s face, followed by the red flush of embarrassment. “This is not the time or place for…any of this.” She cocked her head and looked past me. “What. The. Hell…are you doing here?”

I followed her gaze to where Reed stood not far behind my shoulder. “Confabbing,” he said. “Trying to establish a tie between the Directorate and Alpha. What are you doing? Other than being a frightfully underwhelming parent to your daughter?”

I watched my mother’s complexion turn even more scarlet as she reacted stronger than I would have imagined. “Oh, that’s just…rich.”

“I’m sorry…” I said, not actually apologetic so much as confused, “…but you two know each other?”

“Oh, I know him,” my mother said, her face becoming a mask of barely controlled anger. I recognized it only because she was starting to get her emotions under control. She was usually cooler than that, but she had let slip, Reed’s appearance causing her to let out something she hadn’t intended to let out. “I doubt he’d remember me, since the last time I saw him was about twenty years ago.”

“I remember you,” Reed answered, stone-faced as well. “I’m kinda surprised you recognize me. It’s been a while. I was just a kid, after all.”

“You look just like him,” my mother spat back at him. She seemed to calm. “Why do you remember me?”

I watched Reed as his eyes narrowed, and I saw a flicker of genuine pain cross his face. “I know I was young, but it’s kinda hard to forget the day your dad introduces you to his new wife.”