Chapter 629: Questioned Parenting

"Mother," Kaiden called out after watching them leave for a few seconds. "Wait."

Vespera stopped without turning.

"I have a question," Kaiden said.

The silence stretched. Alice hung from her mother’s grip, feet barely touching the ground, still squirming but quieter now, as if sensing a shift in the air.

"Do you think this is okay?" Kaiden’s voice was calm and steady, but there was an edge to it. Not anger, per se - it was something gentler, but no less immovable. "Alice deserves to be comforted. Her very first friend in her whole life is having one of the most emotional moments of her life. Are you sure dragging her away by the collar to be disciplined is the right move?"

Vespera turned. Slowly. Fully.

Her expression was unreadable, carved from stone, but her eyes found his with the kind of focus that could strip a man down to his core. When she spoke, her voice was winter incarnate.

"Are you teaching your mother how to parent?"

Alice froze mid-squirm.

Julia’s breath caught audibly.

Kaiden, however, smiled. It was soft and warm, the kind of expression that belonged to a son who genuinely adored the woman standing before him. "I love you, Mother."

He paused.

"But..."

Vespera’s eyes narrowed. Dangerously.

The temperature in the room plummeted. The air itself seemed to tighten, pressing inward with invisible weight. Julia felt her hands go cold, her body instinctively recognizing predator territory. Even Alice went still with her earlier defiance smothered under the sheer gravity of her mother’s presence.

But Kaiden didn’t flinch. He didn’t break eye contact. He simply held her gaze, that same gentle smile still in place, waiting.

The silence lasted five seconds.

Five impossibly long seconds.

Then Vespera’s lips parted.

"...Am I in the wrong?"

The words were quiet. Almost too quiet. The kind of thing spoken to oneself rather than to the room. Her brow furrowed, just barely, a hairline crack in the marble facade. She looked down at Alice, still dangling from her grip, then back at Kaiden.

Her hand loosened slightly.

Alice blinked, wide-eyed, as if she’d just witnessed an incomprehensible occurrence.

Vespera’s gaze drifted away from her son with uncertainty flickering across her features like a candle flame struggling against the wind. She was a mother who had conquered battlefields, dismantled terrible monsters, and crushed mighty awakened combatants without breaking a sweat.

But this?

This was different. Messier. Far too difficult for her cold heart.

She didn’t know.

And worse, she knew she didn’t know.

Her eyes landed on Julia, the only other mother in the room, the only one who might offer perspective untainted by family entanglement.

Julia startled under the weight of that stare. "O-oh. Um. I, uh... I’ve never had to deal with siblings being so..." She glanced at Kaiden, then Alice, searching for the right word. "... close to each other."

She hesitated, biting her lip.

"But..." Julia’s voice softened with her expression shifting into something genuinely sympathetic. "Alice seems really distraught. If hugging Kaiden like that helps her calm down, I..." She looked uncertain now, her gaze dropping briefly before lifting again. "...I don’t see an inherent wrongness?"

It wasn’t a declaration. It was a question wrapped in kindness, offered hesitantly, as if afraid of overstepping.

Vespera stared at her.

Then, slowly, her grip on Alice’s collar released entirely.

Alice stumbled, catching herself with a sharp breath, looking between her mother and brother like she’d just witnessed a miracle.

Vespera’s hand fell to her side. Her posture didn’t soften, not exactly, but it shifted. The iron certainty that usually defined every movement wavered, replaced by something far more fragile.

"...I see." Her voice was flat, controlled, but the crack was still there. Barely audible. Barely visible. But there.

Alice didn’t waste a single second.

"YES!" she squealed and launched herself forward. She crashed into Kaiden’s lap with the enthusiasm of a lost puppy reunited with its owner and wrapped her arms around his neck.

Kaiden caught her easily with one arm, settling around her waist to keep her from toppling sideways. "Careful. You’re going to fall."

"I don’t care!" Alice’s voice was muffled against his shoulder, but the joy in it was unmistakable. She pulled back just enough to look at him with wide sparkling eyes. "I can’t believe you stood up to Mother..."

She leaned in closer and dropped her voice to an awed whisper. "And more than that!! You made her see reason?! Bastard Father would never believe this!"

Vespera’s gaze shifted to her daughter.

Alice felt it immediately and went perfectly still, though she didn’t let go of Kaiden. Her smile turned sheepish, but she stayed defiant. "What? It’s true."

"I am not unreasonable," Vespera stated flatly.

Alice scoffed.

Loudly.

The sound was so full of disapproval that it bordered on theatrical.

She didn’t even try to hide it, and her expression screamed ’yeah right’ louder than words ever could.

Kaiden chuckled despite himself and rubbed the back of his neck with his free hand. He glanced at his mother with an apologetic smile that didn’t quite reach convincing.

Vespera’s dark gaze remained fixed on them both.

She walked back with measured steps and lowered herself into her seat. The Shadow Monarch’s posture was immaculate, with her back straight and shoulders squared. She crossed her legs with precise, controlled grace.

Then she reached for her teacup.

And sipped.

Aggressively.

The motion was too sharp. The porcelain made the faintest clink against the saucer as she set it down, only to lift it again a moment later for another sip. Her expression didn’t change, but the air around her practically radiated unsaid words.

Julia blinked and watched the scene unfold with growing warmth in her chest. A smile tugged at her lips. She’d entered this household all those days ago with a certain image of Vespera Ashborn as the terrifying woman who commanded respect and fear in equal measure. A monster in human skin, as Kaiden so eloquently put it, not long ago.

The kind of person who could end lives with a glance and dismantle threats without breaking stride.

Now she saw a mother.

A mother who was trying. Who didn’t always know the right answer, but one who could admit uncertainty even if it came wrapped in defensiveness and hostile tea-sipping indignation.

Kaiden looked at Julia, and the two exchanged a smile. His carried gratitude while hers carried reassurance. The kind of wordless ’thank you’ and ’don’t worry about it’ that needed no translation.

Then Kaiden chuckled and turned his attention back to his mother. "Mother, it seems Alice isn’t the only Ashborn lady who found herself a friend. Isn’t that right?" He looked between Julia and Vespera with clear amusement in his eyes.

Julia blinked. Then her cheeks flushed pink. Her? The friend of the world-renowned and feared Shadow Monarch?

Vespera looked her way and stopped sipping for a moment. Their eyes remained locked.

Then Vespera looked away and sipped again. "I don’t know what you mean."

Kaiden’s grin widened. "You know, I think it’s about time for Julia to move from the manor. She should have a life of her own, an apartment she calls home."

The temperature instantly dropped.

Vespera’s shadow energies flared outward in a wave of hostile pressure that made the air itself feel heavier. Julia’s breath caught once again. Even Alice tensed up on instinct.

"Son," Vespera decreed with ice in her voice. "You’re overstepping your boundaries."

But instead of backing down, Kaiden just grinned victoriously. His theory had been proven. Vespera didn’t want Julia to leave.