"You came here because you need something from me," Elka said firmly. "Not because you missed me. Stop deluding yourself."
Laena's expression flickered with something close to irritation before she smoothed it away. "Elka, darling—"
"Get out."
The words left Elka's mouth before she could reconsider them. They felt strange on her tongue, raw and final. She had never spoken to her mother this way before.
Laena blinked, genuinely startled. "You would turn away your own mother?"
"I am turning away the woman who watched my father flog the skin from my back and said nothing," Elka replied, her voice low and trembling with fury. "The woman who gave me to a man who couldn't care less about my existence. Leave. Now. And do not come back."
For several heartbeats, the two women stared at each other. Something dark and ugly passed behind Laena's eyes before she lifted her chin.
"Very well," she said softly. "But this is not over, Elka. Your father will not be as… understanding as I am."
