[Being an adult sucks more. And she's trying not to rip into him with the force of all that emotion she's still feeling, but it's like trying to hold back a hurricane. Constance stands again, pacing a bit, and there go the tears, at least some of them. It's not right to be the one crying in front of a teenager who doesn't actually know any better, though, and she manages to pull it together after a moment.]

The world is not a simple place. Relationships are not simple things, and telling someone that you love them doesn't mean they will return the feeling. If that alone were enough, then there might have been a wedding before school began. I don't know. Or perhaps the winter wedding might truly be a thing to celebrate, rather than one people are actively looking to disrupt.

...as much as I would absolutely love for you to call me mum, Eridan, right now, it's a reminder of something very painful, something that I very much wanted to happen, but didn't. It's nothing to do with you at all, and everything to do with the way that your father hurt me.

And I don't know for certain, because I don't often speak to him these days, but I think it would hurt him just as much.