#Chapter 128: Recompense

Olivia POV I had thought I might go to my mother, but as much as I was dedicated to Claudia, as thrilled and elated as I was that she was back with us, I could not see the mother who had held me as a child long ago in the political creature who walked and talked and orchestrated events now. Instead, I went to Iris. She was Elroy’s mother, smart and sharp and (justifiably) ruthless. I knew I would get the truth from her. And if it were not the whole truth, it would be more than I would get from my mother. I went to her quarters early in the morning after a more than stilted and forced “domestic” breakfast with Elroy. I was unsurprised to find her hard at work in her lab, her apprentices scurrying around her and watching everything with wide eyes and almost flapping ears. At my request to talk, she took me into her private parlor, which I found calming. The fireplace made the room pleasantly cozy, the art on the walls was neither challenging nor saccharine, and the coffee she ser