Chapter 22

TESSA POV

"Who wants to expel my daughter, and on what basis?"

The voice cut through the hall, and it was so familiar my entire body froze. My fingers trembled. For a moment I couldn't breathe at all. I knew that voice. There was no mistaking it.

Slowly, I turned around.

And there she was. My mother. The one person I had wanted to see more than anyone else in this entire life, the woman whose voice I had missed so badly it had become its own kind of ache, the woman whose arms I had wanted to fall into for months now.

"Mom—" My lips barely managed...