Kagome stared at the woman in the mirror. She was pretty, all dolled up. Somehow, that irritated her. This was her wedding. She didn't want to look like this. A knock on the door made her raise her brow. That would be Rin. Wondering why the girl simply didn't enter, she sighed, and grabbed her crutches. Moving carefully, she made her way to the door and opened it to look at a tuxedo clad man.

She gasped, but he simply covered her mouth, entered the room and turned the lock. Eyeing her up and down, he whistled, something which was completely uncharacteristic of her husband.

Kagome growled, "You're not supposed to be in here, Seshoumaru."

He raised a brow, arrogantly, "Why?"

"Becuase it's supposed to be bad luck." His wife hissed and grabbed his arm, glaring at the door suspiciously as if expecting someone to barge in.

"Why are you wearing so much makeup?"

The flat question made her wince, "I tried wiping it off, but it's not coming off. Inuyasha's girlfriend thinks it does something for my face."

"It makes you look like a drag queen."

Instead of getting upset over the crude comment, Kagome gave her husband a curious look, "And just how would you know what a drag queen looks like?"

Seshoumaru frowned, and muttered darkly, "Inuyasha."

"Ah." The raven haired woman nodded in sympathetic understanding and beckoned to him, "Help me wash this gunk off."

"With pleasure."

Fifteen minutes later, Kagome applied a nude shaded lipstick and some dark eye makeup. Turning to Seshoumaru, she awaited a comment. The darkening of his eyes was all the answer she needed. When ten minutes were left for the ceremony to start, she shooed him out, "Inuyasha will be here any moment now and I don't want to hear a lecture from him."

Reluctantly, Seshoumaru left and when two minutes later someone knocked, Kagome walked over with the aid of her crutches and opened the door. Her smile slid off her face as she stared at the woman she hadn't seen for over two years, "M - Mother."

Her mother sounded almost cordial, "Hello Kagome."

Kagome didn't know what to say or do. She simply stood there and muttered, "What are you doing here?"

"You should have told me you were getting married. Now let us in."

"Us?" asked Kagome, blankly.

"Yes. Totsatu and Souta."

The young brother she had left behind had grown in inches but he was wearing a curiously blank expression on his face. Kagome wanted to cry at the sight of him. She hadn't realized how much she had missed him. From behind him emerged Totsatu, wearing a distasteful expression, "Your duty was to inform us if you were ever to get married, Kagome. Still doing things behind our back, I see."

The minute Kagome laid eyes in him, the memory came rushing back when he had stood by her bedside and made that proposition to her. Suddenly, all the anger that she had never been able to express, all the pain, the fury, the injustice roared its head and she snarled, "Duty? MY DUTY!?"

Her mother snapped, "Watch your - "

"Stay out of this, Mother!"

Rounding onto her stepfather, she took a step forward, and spoke in a soft but deadly voice, "YOU are not my family. You are a parasite that broke my family apart. You took my mother from me. You took my brother from me. Tell me, do they know?"

Before the man could open his mouth, she whirled around, nearluy stumbling. Her laughter was humorless, hysterical, as she looked at the woman she called mother, "Do you know what you husband told me when I was lying in the hospital bed? He told me I could be his personal whore. He would fuck you at home and he would fuck your daughter when he felt like it. But wait - " She said mockingly, "You don't care. Did you ever care, Mother?"

Crack!

Kagome touched her cheek and looked at the horrified woman, and smiled, a broken hearted smile, "I loved you. I became your rock after Father died but you just used me. When your daughter needed you most. When I lost my baby, you wanted nothing to do with me. Not once did you come to see me in the hospital. Not once did you wonder what your daughter was going through. I needed my mother, but all I had was myself and the clothes that I had bought for my baby."

Her mother opened her mouth, her face red, and Kagome raised her hand, cutting her off, "You've never raised a hand on me your entire life, you've always belived me but when you 'husband', the man you've known for two years, told you your daughter was a liar, a whore, you immediately believed him. For God's sake woman, you had raised me! I had lived under your roof for twenty three years! I lose my fiance., I lose my baby and you send this man to tell me that I no longer have the right to lean on my family, that I am disowned? This man, this stranger? You think I'm lying, that I'm making all this up?"

She took a deep breath, and spoke quietly, "You believe what you want to believe, but you may be my mother, but he is not my father. And if my father had been watching what you did to me, his heart would have broken."

Her mother choked and stared at the woman in front of her. Crippled, broken, she stared defiantly at her. It was true, all of it. She had abandoned her, but Totsatu would never say that, he would never lie to her.

A voice inside her whispered, 'How do you know that?'

"You always were a whore, throwing yourself at every man you laid eyes on. You deserved what happened to you, girl!"

"Totsatu!" His wife whirled around to gasp at him, horrified. However, it was Souta's reaction that caught Kagome's attention. Totsatu ignored his wife and raised his hand to slap Kagome. However, someone interfered.

Souta stared at his stepfather like he was a stranger, "You said Kagome had abandoned me. And," He tightened his grip on Totsatu's hand, "I know for a fact that my sister does not lie."

Totsatu glared at the teenager, "You don't know what this girl has done, Souta! She spreads her legs for every man. She even threw herself at me, in the hospital, when I went to bring her home. That is why I told her that she had brought dishonor to our family. The fact that she says that I would ever hurt your mother like that is.."

"Is what exactly?"

Inuyasha and Seshoumaru turned around the corner, coming into view. Inuyasha tossed an envelope at Souta who caught it in his hand, deftly, "Why don't you open that, kid? See how many women your stepfather has slept with in these past two years."

The photos were recent, taken after Kagome's confession to Seshoumaru.

"Seshoumaru?"

Kagome looked confused.

Her husband came towards her, and tucked her into his side, "I hired an investigater., I had a feeling there would be a confrontation soon. I like being prepared."

Kagome's mother stared at the photographs and then at her husband. Tears were flowing down her cheeks. She staggered and Souta caught her before she could fall, "Mom!"

Her gaze was heartbroken. Totsatu looked furious, and fearful at the same time. Pulling away from her son, she looked at the pictures and then at her daughter. Then turning around, she braced her hand on the wall and walked away, a broken woman.

Kagome knew that her mother had abandoned her once, but she also knew the pain her mother was going through, and no child can bear a mother's pain. She made to move, but Seshoumaru stopped her, frowning, "What are you doing, Kagome?"

She smiled at him, a sad smile, "She's my mother, Seshoumaru, and she needs me right now."

He let her go. Kagome turned to Souta and put her hand on his cheek. He looked so lost and troubled that she touched her nose to his in a childlike gesture, "It'll be okay, little brother. You just get rid of him."

Souta nodded, bravely.

Kagome took a deep breath and made her way slowly in the same direction her mother had gone. She found her in the storage room, alone, sitting on a dusty box. Th elder woman looked blankly at her, "What are you doing here?"

Mindful of her crutches, Kagome sat down next to her, "Comforting my mother."

Her mother stared at her hands, "What mother? I was never a mother to you, Kagome. I abandoned you. Remember that, and go live your life."

Kagome choked between a sob and a laugh, "Ah. But I still love you. You could have thrust a sword through my heart and I don't think I would be able to stop loving you."

"You shouldn't."

Tears were flowing down the woman's cheeks as she stared at her trembling hands. She felt cold. Oh so cold, and alone.

Kagome put her arms around her mother and held onto her, "You made a mistake. You made several mistakes, but somehow I can't bear it if you cry. I never could." She rubbed away the tears from her mother's eyes and cupped her face, gently, her own tears falling, "So stop crying, Mama. You're breaking my heart."

An hour later, the beautiful bride emerged from the doorway on the arms of her brother and her brother-in-law.

The wedding was beautiful, everything was perfect but for Kagome it was like coming home, as she gripped onto her mother's arm and kissed her husband and danced with her two brothers.

A.N: There. Now if each and every one of you does not leave a review, I will be heartbroken. I had a lot of fun writing this and I hope you guys had a blast too.