"Is that blue invitation for Sienna?" I asked, blocking Eli’s path to the front door.
He gripped the straps of his backpack, his knuckles turning white. "I don't know what you're talking about."
"The paper that fell out of your bag yesterday," I pressed, keeping my tone steady. "The Mother's Day Showcase."
The heavy oak door swung open. Carter stepped inside, brushing morning dew off his leather jacket.
Eli immediately darted behind Carter's legs, peering around his father's knees. "The school said anyone who takes care of me can come," my son muttered, his eyes darting to the floorboards. "I didn't want you to make it a huge deal."
Carter rested a heavy hand on Eli’s shoulder. "He needs space, Lena. You’ve smothered the boy ever since the wolf fever three years ago."
My fingernails dug into my palms. The sting grounded me. "Smothered him? He spent three weeks in the isolation ward. You were busy securing council votes. I sat by that glass every single night. I hand-sewed the blue plush wolf sitting on his pillow right now."
Carter sighed, adjusting his silver watch strap. "No one denies what you did. But you can't expect him to only need you forever."
"I expect him to not replace me with a houseguest," I shot back.
"She isn't just a houseguest," Carter warned, his voice dropping an octave. "She is pack. And she is grieving."
The words stripped my past sacrifices down to an expired service contract. I stared at my husband, the man I gave up my future for, and found only mild annoyance in his eyes. He didn't see a mother fighting for her son. He saw a nuisance.
"The event is canceled anyway," Eli told me an hour later, right before running out to Carter's truck for school.
At noon, my phone vibrated on the kitchen counter. A notification from the academy parent portal flashed across the screen. New Photos Uploaded: Mother's Day Showcase.
I tapped the alert. A picture loaded on the screen. Eli stood on a stage, holding a microphone, smiling next to a woman in a silk blouse.
I grabbed my keys and drove straight to the school.
Parents already filled the folding chairs in the auditorium. The room smelled of cheap floor wax and stale perfume. I slipped through the double doors just as Eli climbed the wooden steps to the stage for the final presentation.
Sienna walked right behind him. A handmade paper badge rested against her chest. The crayon letters read: Mom for a Day.
"This is the family who came with me today," Eli announced into the microphone, grinning up at her.
Mrs. Gable, the homeroom teacher, spotted me standing by the exit. Her smile faltered. She stepped away from the podium and hurried over, her flats squeaking on the linoleum.
"Luna Lena," she whispered, glancing between me and the stage. "Was there a mix-up with the invitations? We had a seat reserved for you."
Eli dropped the microphone. The feedback shrieked through the speakers. He jogged to the edge of the stage, glaring at me. "She's very busy. Sienna volunteered to come."
I didn't correct my son. I didn't march up and rip the badge off the intruder. I walked to the last row of metal chairs and sat down. The cold steel chilled my legs.
For the next hour, I watched them. I watched Eli laugh at Sienna’s jokes. I watched him hand her a folded piece of construction paper.
The bold marker writing on the front was large enough to read from the back row. To the mom who actually listens to me.
The double doors creaked open during the final applause. Carter walked down the aisle, holding a bouquet of white roses.
He handed them to Sienna the second she stepped off the stage. "To celebrate a not-so-painful first Mother's Day," he told her, his voice carrying over the chatter of departing parents.
Sienna buried her face in the petals. "They are beautiful, Carter. Thank you."
I stepped out from the shadow of the back row.
Carter froze. The roses dipped slightly in his grip.
"Did you know he lied to me?" I asked, keeping my voice deadpan. "Did you know he told me this was canceled?"
Carter checked Eli’s reaction. My son shrank behind Sienna’s skirt, hiding his face.
"He was afraid you'd get mad," Carter said, stepping between me and them. "And interrogating him in public proves his point."
"I am asking you, Carter. Did you know?"
He didn't answer. His silence was a confession.
Sienna touched Carter’s arm, offering a soft, apologetic smile. She held out the construction paper card toward me. "He just feels bad I don't have kids of my own to celebrate with. You should take it."
Before my fingers could brush the paper, Eli snatched it away.
"No," Eli snapped, clutching the card to his chest. "I made this for her, not you."
Carter’s brow furrowed, but he didn't tell Eli to apologize. He didn't correct the disrespect. Instead, he grabbed my elbow and pulled me toward the exit.
"Drop it," Carter warned under his breath. "Don't force an eight-year-old to pick sides between two women."
I yanked my arm out of his grip. "He didn't pick sides. You chose for him."
The Alpha House felt suffocating when we returned. I walked straight to the kitchen and ripped the handwritten dinner menu off the refrigerator door. Beef stew. Eli's favorite.
Carter tossed his keys into the ceramic bowl on the counter. "Don't bother cooking. We're taking Sienna out to The Rusty Anchor. It was her late husband's favorite spot."
I crumpled the menu into a tight ball and dropped it in the trash.
Eli ran into the kitchen, his backpack slung over one shoulder. He avoided my gaze, staring at the tile floor.
"Do you want me to wait up and read your story tonight?" I asked him, leaning against the marble island.
Eli shook his head. "No. Sienna is going to tell me stories about sneaking over the Pack wall with Dad when they were young."
"Those aren't bedtime stories," I said.
"They are better than yours," Eli fired back.
He turned toward the hallway. Sienna stood by the front door, wearing Carter's oversized jacket. The sleeves swallowed her hands.
Before stepping outside, Eli paused.
He unzipped the front pocket of his backpack and pulled out a spare Mom for a Day paper badge, handing it to Sienna with a bright smile.
"You can keep this," Eli told her. "Wear it next time."
Carter stood right beside them, watching the exchange, and didn't say a single word.