Sienna followed after her mother, adjusting her clothes in a hurry. "Mom, wait."

Her mother would not hear of it. She marched to the kitchen and grabbed two lemons before pushing the door open. The image of the claw marks and blood on her daughter’s shoulder was fresh in her mind. Her eyes narrowed at Lady Cadelaria smugly nestling in her husband’s arms as if she were the queen of the household.

Without hesitation, Mrs. Miller hurled one lemon with the precision of a season warrior. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢

The lemon struck Lady Cadelaria squarely on the back of her head with a satisfying thunk.

Sienna gasped. Were were the quick beast man reflexes in this lemon battle.

"Ah!" Lady Cadelaria screamed.

Another lemon quickly struck her squarely on the forehead with a more satisfying thunk. By the time Lord Marius swung his hand to catch it, the sour fruit had done what it was intended for.

Lady Cadelaria sniffed, as if she had been felled bu a boulder instead of a small lemon. Lord Marius tightened his grip around his wife’s waist, glaring at Mrs. Miller as though she had committed treason.

Mrs. Miller did not back down. She folded her arms, her voice sharp as a blade. "That’s for laying your filthy claws on my daughter. You made her bleed! And don’t try to claim that it was an accident because we both know better than that. If you are brave, stop hiding in your husband’s arms like some fragile flower and face me."

Lady Cadelaria sniffled, her nose wrinkling in disdain. "Your daughter does not understand etiquette necessary for a lady. And she has no shame. She goes around seducing my son, flaunting her chubby charms like bait. If you defend her behavior then you are just as shameless as she is. No wonder she turned out this way. Like mother, like daughter."

Lord Marius put a hand over his wife’s mouth. It was obvious in his shocked eyes that he did not expect such a speech from his wife.

Mrs. Miller’s lips curled into a smile that was anything but kind. "Oh, here comes the most son obsessed woman in the world. So what if my Sienna seduced your son? At the end of the day, he chose her. He married her. I think you are jealous deep down because she has his attention more than you do. You claim not to approve of Sienna because she is human but I don’t think you will ever approve of any woman Elias married. And if you think that I will stand by while you claw at her like some jealous beast, you are sorely mistaken."

The porch became a battlefield. Lord Marius looked between the two women, wondering if he needed to raise his voice and put a stop to the argument, escape, or let them fight it out. He felt like a man caught between two storms. His tail flicked irritably, betraying his agitation.

Sienna herself lingered in the doorway, trying to hide the claw marks from her grandmother and aunts that had come running the moment they heard that she was bleeding. Even the children had been startled awake. They were peeking from behind Sienna, wide-eyed, sensing the tension but too young to understand the politics of mother versus daughter-in-law warfare.

Lady Cadelaria, still cradle in Lord Marius’s arms, strengthened her spine and sneered. "Jealous! Me--jealous of Sienna! She is lazy, indulgent, and worse, she is corrupting my grandchildren. She is teaching them entitlement and greed."

Mrs. Miller barked a laugh, sharp and mocking. "My daughter was perfect until she married into your family. Any shortcomings she has now, they are a side effect of being bullied by you Cadelaria. And we have all seen what you had turned Ali and Eli into. One used to cry at the drop of a hat and one was perfectly fine watching servants disrespecting his mother. Under our teaching, the children are changing for the better. They are thriving without your suffocation and endless rules. The problem was never my daughter, it was always you."

Lord Marius cleared his throat. "Enough. This is unbecoming of a noble household. How can we squabble like street ruffians?" He gestured to all the servants and guards that were watching. "Disperse, all of you."

Mrs. Miller was not cowed. She stepped forward, her presence as commanding as a human could get. "I don’t care if you think my behavior is unbecoming. What’s unbecoming is a mother-in-law who wounds her daughter-in-law and then hides behind excuses. What’s unbecoming is a woman who cannot accept that her son has a wife, a family and a life beyond her shadow.:

Lady Cadelaria’s face twisted, her pride wounded deeper than the lemon bruise. "How dare you?"

Mrs. Miller leaned in, her eyes blazing. "I dare because you made my daughter bleed. I dare because you have crossed the line. I dare because my daughter still has some respect for you so there are things she does not dare to say. I dare because someone needs to remind you that you are not the only matriarch here."

And suddenly, the porch erupted into chaos. Ali began crying. Grandma Byra slapped a tray of porcelain tea cups out of Shalin’s arms. She was glaring at Lady Cadelaria with the eyes of a hunter. Lord Marius pinched the bridge of his nose. Mija slithered away slowly, hoping that nobody would notice her in the mix of servants who were savoring the drama.

Lady Cadelaria sniffled again and turned to her husband, tears streaming down her face. "Marius, see how she humiliates me? See how she throws fruit at me like a common thief? Is this the family you want as our in-laws? Will you and Elias allow this insult? It wasn’t like I was trying to hurt Sienna deliberately. You know me...if I was such a person, wouldn’t I have hurt her when she lived on the estate with us? Why wait until now?"

Lord Marius sighed, torn between loyalty to his wife and reason. With all the eyes on them, he could not choose loyalty, or they would respect. Besides, he had seen that snake Mija in the crowd. She was probably going to gossip about the incident.

The further word traveled, the worse his wife’s reputation would become. They didn’t need people assuming that they were abusing their daughter-in-law.

And he knew Elias would be very angry when this reached his ears. His son was still working to wipe away the image of a wife strangler. His wife did not need his mother to cause more problems.

He clenched his fists and said to his wife, "Apologize to Sienna."