Transmigrated To A Beastworld As The Lazy Wife Of The Fox Lord-Chapter 41: Between sacred and prison.

Early in the morning, Sienna went for a run at the beach. She opted not to livestream it because she wanted to focus and it was a success, thanks to the 10% mental strength she was borrowing from Elias.

Her minds had been so focused that the pain on her joints did not register for two whole miles. But now, as she slowed down near the path that lead back to the cottages, it was kicking in.

That’s when she saw her mother. She was sitting on a bench that the guards had carried out as early as 6:00 AM because the fragile woman wanted to watch the sunrise. Her thin frame was wrapped in a shawl. Though sickly, her eyes were sharp as she watched as she watched Ali crouched in the sand, shaping a fox figure with Soren’s help.

The boy was laughing as she showed her how to pat the sand into ears and a tail.

"It’s 7:38 AM," Pam said as she squeezed onto the bench, heaving tiredly. "Do you all have something against sleeping in?"

Soren laughed and carried Ali off to find the best sand for the tail. Sienna turned to her mother. She could see disapproval etched into every line of the older woman’s face. She knew what was coming. "Spit it out before breakfast, mom."

"You’ve moved out of your husband’s house," her mother cut to the point. Her voice was frail but firm. "Is this what you meant by that divorce talk?"

Sienna exhaled. "It wasn’t talk, and he was the first to propose the divorce. I kept putting it off until I realized that I was deceiving myself. We can’t pretend anymore."

Her mother’s gaze did not waver. "Marriage is sacred among beast men, Sienna. It is not something you can discard when its inconvenient."

Sienna’s jaw tightened. "We married because I was pregnant and Elias was against the termination. We married so that the children would be legal. We were not in love, it was simply duty. And that duty has become a cage."

Her mother shook her head, her shawl slipping slightly from her shoulders. "Duty is the most important part of a marriage. It is what binds families together. Love is fickle, take it from me. Duty endures."

Sienna’s voice rose, sharper now. "Endures? Endures like years of silence. Endures like coldness. Endures like loneliness. Do you know how I have been living, mother? Elias barely tolerates me. His mother cannot stand me. He is the fox lord and most of the foxes I have met disdain me. And I---" She stopped, pressing her lips together, "I cannot keep living in a house that is suffocating me. In a place where laughter is treated like a crime. My presence out of my bedroom is a bothersome eyesore."

Mrs. Miller’s eyes glistened, but her tone remained stern. "You think you are the first woman to endure a loveless marriage?"

Sienna blurted. "Obviously you are the expert on the subject of endurance so I will go ahead and say no. Does this have anything to do with my father? Are you finally going to talk about the figure you cut out of some pictures you keep. What happened to him? Were you married to him at all?"

The question hung heavy in the air. Her mother’s hands trembled, clutching the shawl tighter. Sienna recalled the doctor’s words so she she sighed. "Sorry mom, I took it to far."

For a long moment, Mrs. Miller said nothing. The sound of Ali’s laughter carried across the path, innocent and oblivious.

Finally, her mother spoke, voice low. "Your father was...not a man I could marry. I loved him and he loved me in his own way. But he was a wanderer, secretive. Like he had no past or tribe and he could not stand beside me. When were together, he gave me more joy than I had ever felt. But it was joy without roots.

He stayed for a while when I was pregnant with you and he seemed excited. But just after you were born, he left. I met him again one day, in a moment’s excitement, I lost myself and Soren came along.

I never saw your father since then. I called and told him about Soren and he apologized and said he could not make it back for a while but asked me to wait. To give him a month to settle everything and he would come back to us. When I called again, the number had been disconnected.

In the end, I was alone. And I bore the shame and joy of raising you both without a husband."

Sienna’s breath caught. "So you were never married to him."

Her mother’s eyes closed briefly. "No. And I paid dearly for it. The Beast continent is not kind to females that get pregnant out of wedlock and choose to raise those children. It is also unkind to divorced women. That is why I tell you--marriage is sacred. It protects. It gives a woman standing. Without it, you are vulnerable."

Sienna’s anger flared. "Sacred? You call it sacred and I call it a prison. A woman with means can survive well on her own even if she is divorced. Elias assured me that I will be protected even after we separate."

Her mother’s frail hands reached for hers, gripping tightly despite their weakness, "But you don’t have to be. All I want is for you to be safe. I want my grandchildren to to grow up with both parents in the house. I want you to have protection, even if it cold."

Sienna’s eye burned. "Protection without love is no protection at all. It is just a shadow that can disappear at any time. And I don’t want to live in a shadow." The old Sienna had lived in one.

Her mother’s lips trembled. "Then you will walk the same path I did. Alone."

Sienna shook her head, tears threatening. "No, I will walk a different path. I will walk with my head upright. I will walk with strength. I will tell my children the truth when they are old enough to understand--that their parents married because they loved them but not each other. I will teach Ali that love cannot be forced. And I will show her that freedom, even painful, is better than chains."

The silence between them was heavy, broken only by the sound of waves and the laughter of the children.

Her mother looked at Ali, with softness in her eyes. "You are stubborn, I hope your stubbornness won’t break you for the sake of that little girl." She leaned back against the bench, her strength waning.

Sienna squeezed her mother’s hand gently, "And you should have dated and found love with someone else. You are beautiful. It is not too late for you to meet a proper man. The right man. My father was jerk that played you. As soon as the doctor gives you a clean bill of health, you are going to learn how to fight and swing a pan so that you knock his teeth out if you ever see him again."