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—
Ciel quickly dressed herself and then went to tend Mina.
The bluenette fed and changed her baby, helping her tiny daughter get ready for the day.
Once Mina was happy, Ciel padded downstairs to the kitchen with her baby in her arms.
The bluenette was hungry and she was looking forward to breakfast, even if that was just going to be some microwave waffles and bacon.
Or….
Maybe Evelyn cooked?
As the hopeful omega neared the kitchen, she heard a noise…..
Crinkle, Crinkle…..
Ciel recognized the sound as the rustling of a bag.
With Mina in her arms, the bluenette stepped into the room and saw Evelyn Michaelis seated at the bar.
In front of the female alpha, on the table, was a small, disposable cup that held a miniscule amount of orange juice and a plastic bag.
….of cotton balls.
"Good morning." Evelyn greeted Ciel, flashing her deep, amber eyes over to the bluenette.
"Good morning." Ciel replied politely.
The bluenette felt her cheeks pinken.
Ciel had brushed her hair and teeth and put on a loose t shirt and some yoga pants, that was it.
As a new mother who had just woken up, Ciel didn't see the need for anything else in her own home.
But Evelyn looked covergirl ready, with her voluminous blonde hair already blown out and her makeup flawlessly stage ready.
Evelyn wore a long, blue silk nightgown and a matching long, silk robe.
Oh well….
Apparently, Evelyn didn't cook, but maybe she still wanted something to eat?
"Would you like some breakfast?" Ciel asked her mother-in-law with a smile.
Evelyn scoffed at the question. "I'm eating it, right now." She replied.
Ciel looked on in horror as Evelyn's tapered fingers reached into the plastic bag, plucked a single cotton ball from the rest, dipped it into the orange juice, and popped it into her mouth.
Ciel's eyes widened in disbelief.
The bluenette clutched her baby tighter as if the unsafe practice she was witnessing was going to somehow harm Mina.
"Would you like some?" Evelyn asked nonchalantly, noticing Ciel staring at her.
"No!" Ciel said quickly. "I mean, um, no thank you. I have some things in the freezer. Sebastian usually cooks."
That answer didn't seem to please Evelyn, but Ciel wasn't sure of which part.
Ciel took out some heatable waffles and bacon and placed them intow the microwave.
Behind Ciel's back, Sebastian's mother watched the bluenette with narrowed eyes.
"Why don't you try one? I promise it's safe. I've eaten these since the 80's. You'll feel full without the calories. Why don't you try it?" Evelyn coaxed.
Under the kitchen cabinet where Evelyn could not see what she was doing, Ciel quickly googled "eating cotton balls."
A dangerous habit adopted by many fashion models to control appetite and weight gain.
Complications include: necrotizing of the bowel, bowel twisting, bowel obstruction.
…..Can lead to surgery and death…...
"Um, no thank you, really." Ciel said, discreetly slipping her phone back into her pants pocket and reaching to grab her food from the microwave once it finished.
Evelyn looked at Ciel as if she were a roach when the bluenette came and sat down across from her with Mina napping in her arms.
Ciel could feel Evelyn's eyes searing into her while she began to eat.
It was a very uncomfortable sensation.
Ciel had only eaten one and a half strips of bacon and a quarter of her waffle when she found that Evelyn placed her lacquered nails upon the plate and began to drag it away.
Ciel looked up at her mother-in-law. "What are you doing?"
"Ah, Ah, Ah, my dear. Do you think my son will stay with a fat heffer?" Evelyn asked.
"I only had four bites." Ciel frowned.
"And that's three bites too many." Evelyn sighed. "Really, what kind of slobby omega has my son bred with?"
Ciel willed herself not to become angry.
"Sebastian's never had a problem with the way I look or how much I eat." Ciel frowned. "Quite the opposite, actually. I love your son dearly, just as he loves me."
Evelyn sneered at Ciel and for a moment, the bluenette was afraid the female alpha might reach across the table and smack her.
Instead, Evelyn's perfectly painted lips cracked into a cheshire-like grin, then she chuckled…...then she broke out into a fit of laughter, as if Ciel's statement had been a very funny punchline.
Once Evelyn calmed down, she composed herself and said, still smiling in her cruel way, "My poor, innocent little girl. Is that how you think an alpha loves, unconditionally?"
Ciel was a little taken back. "I…..I suppose."
Of course that was how Sebastian loved Ciel...he would do anything for his precious kitten.
Evelyn poked Ciel in the nose with her finger as if the bluenette were a pitiful puppy.
"Wrong." Evelyn said, her smile twisting into a dark scowl. "Alphas only want what they can get, look at what's happened to drag myself and Sterling here. Does that look like unconditional love? My son only "loves" you for what he can get out of you, and as soon as you're ugly and used up, he won't want you anymore. That's how a true alpha loves, and if my son is anything, he is a true alpha."
Ciel felt hot tears of pain and rage well in her eyes as Evelyn's scathing gaze bore down upon her.
The bluenette knew that her mother-in-law's words weren't true, but Ciel was still dazed and hormonal and….
And…
"So, then," Evelyn said after Ciel tried to hide it as she wipe her eyes.
From the young models she mentored to her new daughter-in-law, it gave Evelyn such satisfaction to make younger women cry.
Perhaps she wouldn't have been so cruel to Ciel if the bluenette wasn't an omega.
Evelyn hated omegas.
She saw them as weak, silly, useless things.
It was an alpha's world, so then why had Sebastian lowered himself so?
Disgusting.
"Let me help you, my poor dear." Evelyn frowned, feigning sympathy as she spoke to Ciel. "We can go out today and I'll personally see to it that you feel like an entirely new person."
"Really?" Ciel asked.
The bluenette's instincts told her to distrust such a sweet gesture from someone that had essentially just stated her intense bond with Sebastian was a sham, but in the moment, Evelyn's offer sounded really lovely.
"Really." Evelyn said with emphasis, giving Ciel a sugar-sweet smile, flashing her perfectly veneered and bonded, unnaturally white teeth. "You really should care more about your appearance, I'll show you how."
"Alright." Ciel agreed reluctantly.
The bluenette was clean and her short, bluenette hair was neatly combed.
Ciel was wearing casual but expensive clothing and her complexion still had a healthy glow.
Really, for a mother to a three-day old infant, Ciel didn't feel like she looked that bad….
Apparently, she was wrong.
"And while we're at it, we can work on your weight problem too!" Evelyn chirped with a snide cheerfulness.
That made Ciel scowl.
At the hospital, upon her dismissal, Ciel had been weighed.
The scale read 121 lbs.
For someone who had given birth so recently, Ciel didn't feel that number qualified her as having a "weight problem".
Not that Evelyn asked or cared.
In fact, Evelyn was currently sitting across the table from her brand-new, only grandchild and she hadn't even looked at the infant.
Ciel was beginning to be less offended that Sebastian had never invited his parents for a visit or to their wedding…..
As the bluenette omega watched Evelyn munch down a few more cotton balls, Ciel realized something.
Everyone's scales were weighted differently…..
—
"That's what I'm telling you though, son!" Sterling exclaimed with vigor as he paced the floor while Sebastian had his head between his knees and a cold, wet rag held on the back of his neck. "The more you drive the last percentile of your foremost companies, the more profits will expand in the final quarter of the fiscal year!"
Quality control….
Supply and demand….
Profit margins….
Sebastian was a business man and like his father, he was quite skilled at the art.
Sebastian wouldn't have minded their current discussion so much if he didn't feel so absolutely terrible.
Between the pounding headache, the nausea, and the heart palpitations, Sebastian just wasn't really in the mood to discuss how best to steer the Michaelis empire.
"Perhaps we can dwell on something else for the moment?" Sebastian asked quietly.
"Something else?!" Sterling asked in disbelief. "My boy, I gave you total control over everything, the companies, the stocks, the boards, the international accounts…...and you've done so amazingly well with it all! How can we not talk about this?! I'm so proud of you!"
"Thank you, Father." Sebastian murmured, closing his eyes as his throat tightened up.
A knock came at the door suddenly and Sterling walked over to answer it while Sebastian swallowed the bile that threatened to creep up into his mouth.
Sebastian heard the door crack open, then his mother spoke, next he watched as his father held out his arms….
Sebastian's eyes widened when Sterling closed the door and turned around holding baby Mina in his arms.
"Here we are, sweetheart! Going to spend a little time with daddy and grandpa, eh? We'll have lots of fun together!" Sterling said cheerily to the baby.
Mina giggled adorably and Sterling's eyes softened.
"Where is Ciel? She shouldn't be separated from the baby. Not yet." Sebastian said, narrowing his eyes quickly.
"Your mother has—-" Sterling started to say but then he cut himself off, realizing the weight of the rest of his statement.
"My mother has what?" Sebastian demanded, finding the strength to rise to his feet. "What's going on, Father?"
"Your mother has taken her out." Sterling said, his voice faltering a little.
"What?!" Sebastian gasped.
Sebastian stumbled over to the large window in his room just in time to see his black limousine pulling away and Ciel looking up at him with red, tear-stained, panicked eyes.
Sebastian's heart pounded….
Ciel was in trouble and Sebastian couldn't help her, he felt completely helpless and alphas despised feeling helpless.
"They'll be gone for hours! Mina needs her mother!" Sebastian gasped.
Sebastian saw the look of grief and horror on Ciel's face.
The bluenette had been taken by Evelyn and separated from her baby against her will.
Sebastian frowned in sympathy for his poor omega!
The forty-right hours wasn't over and if they broke the time now, they'd have to begin all over again…..
"Father, stop her! Make mother bring Ciel back this instant! What are we going to do when Mina gets hungry?" Sebastian snapped.
Mina's cute little smile began to dissolve into a frown as she sensed the tension in the room.
While she squirmed in Sterling's arms, he pulled out his phone. "Alright, son, alright, calm down. I'll call your mother. Really, it's not an issue. You need to relax."
While Sterling waited for Evelyn to answer his call, Sebastian sat down on the bed and put his hands over his face, rubbing his eyes.
What a disaster…...
When Sebastian got back to his office, the first thing he was going to do was fire his assistant.