“I always thought Carla hated me. But I wasn’t a person to her.”

Jolene sighed. “When you were eighteen months old, we came across Carla in a store. It was one of the times Lucian came to visit. He was holding you, laughing at something you’d done, when Carla rounded the aisle.” Jolene looked at Knox. “Whatever you might think about Lucian, he loves Harper. He truly does. And right then in that store, Carla saw that. She hated it.” Jolene moved her attention back to Harper. “She started yelling that children should be with their mothers, she tried to grab you. You slapped her hand. And then she was sobbing on the floor.”

“I used my ability?” Her inner demon was seriously smug about that.

“At eighteen months old, you reduced the bitch to tears. That day, she was forced to see you as a person – a powerful child that couldn’t be manipulated and used against Lucian. A child even more powerful than she is. She wanted to hurt your soul, and instead you were able to hurt hers. Ironic, really.” Jolene paused. “You understand why I didn’t tell you?”

“I’m not mad at you. I get it. I would rather have known the truth, but I get why you didn’t tell me.” She gave Knox a half-smile. “Thank you for ensuring I knew the truth.”

Knox frowned, once more surprised by his mate. She wasn’t crying, she wasn’t yelling, she wasn’t condemning Jolene, and she wasn’t vowing to see Carla dead and buried. She just wasn’t normal. “I expected tears. A little ranting.”

“Why? It’s not like I didn’t already know that Carla’s twisted. Am I upset? A little. I mean, no one wants to hear that their mother tried to abort them, do they? But honestly, I always thought it was kind of odd that she didn’t abort me, considering that would have hurt Lucian more than dumping me on Jolene’s doorstep. It made no sense to me that she went through the birth. So I’m not really that surprised by all this.”

“You’re not upset about the soul-trapping part?” Knox fucking was.

“Well, yeah, but how can I take it personally when she didn’t see me as a person? The fact is that a demon that’s lost its mate is a very dangerous thing. She considered Lucian her mate, and he rejected her. He didn’t even want her as his anchor. Everything she did as a result of that wasn’t about me, it was about her. And look, it’s all backfired on her, hasn’t it?” So much so that her inner demon was smirking.

Gazing at his mate, Knox shook his head, musing, “So unpredictable.”

Harper shrugged. “I just think that if someone has a problem with me, well it’s their problem to deal with. Why should I feel bad about it? I’m not responsible for what other people do or don’t feel. Carla didn’t want a child – that’s not my fault. She craved vengeance – also not my fault. So why torment myself with it?” As her cell phone started ringing, she grabbed it from the table in front of her. “It’s Devon.” No doubt Raini had told Devon and Khloë that Harper had taken Knox as her mate. Harper hadn’t wanted them to find out from the grapevine. “I’ll be back in a second.”

When Harper shut herself in the bedroom, Knox turned to Jolene. “She has a very unique way of looking at things. I like that.”

“Lucian’s partly responsible for her outlook on life, you know,” Jolene told him. “He’s aloof to anything that doesn’t directly affect him, he isn’t personally threatened by the opinions or actions of others, and he doesn’t take life too seriously.”

Knox growled, “He’s an asshole.”

Sighing tiredly, she shook her head. “You insist on seeing him as this evil person. Harper didn’t have a terrible upbringing, it was just different. He passed on a lot of good traits to her – the independence, the confidence, and even the directness.”

“He’s selfish and ignorant.”

“He is.”

“He put his own needs before hers.”

“In some ways, yes. You’ve heard all about Lucian the partying playboy. His playboy-ways stopped the moment he took Harper to live with him. He also stopped doing drugs and partying too hard. Yes, he dragged her around the world with him. But Lucian loves traveling – it’s the only thing in life other than Harper that brings him any joy. Sharing that with her was really the only thing he could give her.

“He honestly believed that exposing her to different lifestyles and cultures would be good for her. If at any point I’d thought she was unhappy, I’d have insisted he return her to me. But she liked to travel, even though it had its ups and downs. She has little knickknacks from all over the world. They’re all important to her, because they all have good memories attached to them.”

“She deserved better,” he insisted.

“But she might not be the person she is today if it wasn’t for the upbringing she had. There are so many people out there who’ve had horrific childhoods filled with abuse and neglect and cruelty.”

Knox knew that too well.

“Harper never suffered any of that. Lucian is self-centered and has the emotional age of a kid. But he never hurt her. Never will.”

Knox leaned forward. “Jolene, if I thought for even a second that he had, he’d be dead by now.”

Jolene actually cackled. “I really do hope I’m present when you two meet.”

“When who meets?” asked Harper as she reentered the room.