One last attempt.
She looked at me with pity.
“Even if I don't believe it, Bayla. I hope it with all my heart.” She sounded remorseful, sad. “I want nothing more for you than a normal life, away from this society, away from all these circumstances here in Blairville.”
She looked down.
“Mum, if you want it so much, why did you move back here with me in the first place?”
“I had to, Bayla. The Circle doesn't give us a choice. I am a registered Quatura, and we aren’t allowed to live alone for too long.”
She looked at the ground, away from me. Her gaze lingered on the blue leather book with the gold engraving on the coffee table.
“Where did you get that?”
Suddenly, she didn't look so embarrassed, but tense.
“One of your old friends gave it to me,” I joked, trying to lighten the mood a little. The exact opposite happened.
“Bayla...” She sat up straight, ready to take the book.
I quickly grabbed the copy and slipped it into the large belly pocket of my dark pine green Vanderwood hoodie.
Mum's eyes widened.
“Who gave you this book?”
“My English professor,” I admitted meekly, without mentioning his name.
“What's your English professor's name?” she asked me tensely as if she had forgotten the letter from a few weeks ago in which he had already appeared once.
I was silent for a little too long. “Um...” And I hated that I was so bad at lying. “Professor Copeland?”
Mum's face filled with horror.
With my hands up, I jumped up and stepped back.
“I know you want me to stay away from the Copelands. But the professor is actually quite nice, and we had a conversation about books... And he said he knew you...”
My attempt to talk my way out of it had failed. I had only made it worse.
“Give me the book!” she said, demanding as if the professor had given me forbidden literature.
“No, Mum, it's a special copy, and the professor wants it back, and besides...”
“No, not besides. If he wants it back, he shouldn't have given it to you.”
She stood up and came toward me.
“Mum!” I gasped, overwhelmed by her sudden change of mood.
“Bayla Adams! I said, give me the book! Now!”
I was startled by her harsh tone and the way she spoke to me. It was another one of those sudden personality changes and it upset me.
My headache came back.
I didn't know what to do, so I just let it out.
“No, Mum!” I replied in a sharp voice. I was sorry to have to talk to her like that, but she couldn't always dictate the world to me. “You can't always make decisions about me. I'm an adult, and you shouldn't care who I talk to and whose books I borrow!”
Mum was about to say something when the front doorbell rang.
“You have your life, so respect mine too!” I snapped at her, my anger growing.
Mum's eyes had become a little watery, and I immediately felt sorry that I had spoken to her like that. Ready to apologize, I wanted to go to her and hug her, but she just walked away, leaving me in the living room to open the front door.
Chapter 53
Larissa
“Good evening, Diana,” I said with my best smile to my friend's mother, whose jaw dropped.
She seemed upset, which certainly wasn't my fault. The last person who could make Diana emotional was me.
When it came to the feelings I triggered in her, the list was still very long. It ranged from anger to worry to mistrust. And it had been like that ever since the day I had turned up on her doorstep without Bay, even though I had gone to the playground with her. I didn't know if she still hadn't forgiven me for that, but hey, I'd been eight years old and shit happened.
“Larissa,” she said, a little taken aback. “What are you doing here?”
