Chapter 89: Clarity

  Ellie watched Rudolf Kaine Algreil walk back to the sleek red mecha looming over them in its berth, Boss and Milissa Kyrillos flanking him – the former walking straight as a board, the latter casting sad, nervous glances over her shoulder and quickly looking away.

  Ellie tried to see what Milissa had said she would in the young man in the red flight suit. What Chloe obviously saw.

  Principle knew, Ellie tried.

  Principle knew, she failed.

  All she saw was arrogance and anger, fire and ice, a too-sharp tongue and too-sharp wit. Otto Abeir Algreil, mark two.

  “Mom,” Chloe said.

  Ellie's gaze shifted back to her daughter. The tension and anger she'd willed into her voice faded as soon as she saw Chloe's face.

  Principle! Chloe's face.

  Ellie hadn't realized how little she'd expected to see her daughter again, to hear her voice.

  Face and voice alike trembled now, though with tears or rage, Ellie wasn't sure.

  Did it matter? She'd needed to confront Rudy Algreil, because if half of what Milissa Kyrillos said was true, the young oligarch was far too close to Chloe for Ellie's comfort. She'd needed to know why he would drag her daughter into such danger.

  She had not needed to confront him in front of Chloe, though. She had not needed to confront him within minutes of a reunion she'd prayed for, and knew Chloe had, too, for six months.

  “Chloe,” she said, “I'm sorry.”

  She reached out to fold her daughter into her arms.

  Chloe pulled away.

  Ellie looked up, stricken.

  “I've missed you,” Chloe said, “for so, so long. Every day, I prayed I'd see you and dad again, find a way to save you. Every night, I dreamed it would actually happen and woke up believing those dreams could come true.”

  “Chloe...”

  “Then, this –!” Chloe's voice broke off into a sob. “How could you, Mom?”

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  How indeed? Ellie should have kept apologizing, but she said, “Honey, I had to know what kind of man he is.”

  “You could have asked,” Chloe said. She turned away and sank to her knees on the floor of the mecha bay. “You could have asked.”

  Ellie knelt beside her. Chloe flinched when Ellie's arm curled around her shoulders, but after a second she leaned back into the hug. Ellie embraced her daughter and leaned her cheek against the top of her head. “And I should have.”

  Chloe nodded.

  “I'm sorry,” Ellie said.

  Chloe nodded again.

  Ellie didn't prompt her for more. It was enough she could hold her daughter in her arms again, even if her daughter was neither ready nor right to forgive the mess she'd made of their reunion.

  After a moment, Chloe spoke. Her voice was quiet, almost monotone. “He saved my life,” she said.

  Ellie couldn't help but look away. Certainly she approved of the action, but it was no reason –

  “I saved his, at least once and maybe a couple of times,” Chloe continued, “but there's sure no balance between us. If he'd never met me, he'd still have his job and his family and his company, and no senate breathing down his neck trying to take away what they hadn't already. He wouldn't have had to walk through dead ship's halls and ride away from fission bombs and sleep on couches and jump off buildings and dodge bullets and turn away fangirls and fight nobs one-on-one.”

  Ellie said nothing.

  “He wouldn't have had to come here and risk it all even worse than before to save a man he'd never met. To save Dad.”

  “Chloe...”

  “You know what Rudy's gotten for all that, Mom?” Chloe wriggled around to face her.

  Ellie had an all-too-good idea.

  It must have shown on her face, because Chloe shook her head. “You're wrong.”

  Ellie winced.

  “Rudy's gotten a kind word once in a blue moon to go with all my carping,” Chloe said. “He's gotten a smile, usually when he had to crack a couple-three jokes beforehand. He's gotten to hold my hand and touch my hair. Twice, he got to kiss me.”

  Stiffly, Chloe got to her feet. “And that's it, Mom.

  “That's the kind of man he is.”

  Ellie did not believe Chloe would lie.

  She did not know how to believe she was telling the truth.

  “How can that be, Chloe? He's an oligarch's son – Principle, an oligarch himself now. Where is the equivalent exchange in that arrangement?”

  Silently, Chloe held up her hand. A simple gold engagement ring glimmered there, twin to one Ellie remembered on Rudy Algreil's finger.

  It startled a laugh from Ellie, though she knew she shouldn't have allowed it.

  Chloe's eyes blazed. “What?”

  Ellie rose, hugged her again and kissed her on the cheek. “I am so, so sorry. You could have said so, honey.”

  Chloe blinked.

  “I could never trust an oligarch who wasn't getting his time's worth,” Ellie said. “But it makes sense, now.”

  Chloe blinked again. “It does?”

  “Of course,” Ellie said. She kissed her daughter's forehead. “Your dad could hardly be expected to tell the man who saves his life he can't marry you, right?”