AllFreeNovel
Share Us
This time I turned back to my mom, and I was sure if I didn’t spend all my tears, they would appear again. “You did?”
She rubbed my hands between hers. “Of course,malyshka.After they took you from me, I searched for you for years. I tried to reach you.” Her face darkened with so much sadness. “But I couldn’t. They were too powerful.”
I smiled brightly. I knew there was no way she could reach me. But I was not forgotten to her. She didn’t give up on me. She still fought for me. “You didn’t forget me,” I said, ready to tear up again.
She shook her head and pointed to the corner of the room. When I looked, I saw a big pot of forget-me-nots. “I kept those for you.”
I couldn’t form words. I was expecting her to be done with me. I was expecting her to shoo me out of her new life. But she wanted me. She missed me like I missed her.
“After they took you, I tried my best. A few months later, I met Boris.” She pointed out the guy. “He is a lawyer. We tried to file a claim since you were too young to consent but couldn’t make it.”
I looked between them with an amused smile. The guy still had a small smile, and he was looking at my mother like she was the sun. “I feel like that is not the only thing that went down between you.”
This time mom laughed nervously and shook her head. Her cheeks were pink. “No. We got together during that time and got married, and… had Luda.”
My smile got even wider. Despite all the horrible years, all the pain I endured, I was happy that my mother had a good life. Just because I was tortured, she didn’t have to as well. I knew her husband must be a great guy because after my dad left her when she got pregnant with me at sixteen, she never let any man inside her world. She was always closed off. So, if Boris managed to make her marry him and have a child, he must have been a prince in shining armor.
“But I didn’t have a day where I didn’t miss you,” she added. Her eyes shone with tears, and she shook her head. “Boris, can you get us some vodka. This talk needs it.”
We all laughed in unison. As Boris went to get it, I shouted, “Non for me.”
My mother looked at me with disappointment. “What did America do to you,malyshka? This conversation requires vodka.”
I took a deep breath and gave her a shaky smile. This was not the way I wanted to start telling my story, but I guessed I had to go with it. I took one of my hands from her gasp and put it to my lower abdomen. “I can’t have it for a while.”
Her eyes widened, and there were too many emotions in them. She looked both scared and surprised and hopeful. “Is it… his?” she asked carefully.
I knew she meant Aleksei. I didn’t want her to worry about my baby. My baby was the last thing to worry about. I shook my head and smiled. “No, it is not. The father is the love of my life.” and even though I never made him know that, I was not going to hide it from my mom. It was the truth, after all.
This made my mom smile, and my heart flipped. She was older, but she looked so much better than I remembered. Her smile was so much more beautiful. “Is he here with you? Is this your first child? God Kira, there is so much I don’t know about you.”
Both questions stung because I remembered Gabriele was an ocean away and my previous babies were dead, but I didn’t let them show on my face. I was with my mom. My baby was healthy. Everything was going to get better.
I had hope.
So, I smiled and squeezed my mother’s hands. “Good thing we have a lot of time to talk about all of it.”
“Exactly,” my mother said with a smile, but when she took the glass of vodka from Boris, her face was nervous. “Now, tell me everything from the beginning.”
And I did.
When I came to the most hurtful parts, Boris left us alone. I told her how Aleksei kept me and how he groomed me. I told her what happened after his father died. I told her all four of them. I told her how they raped me day after day for years. I told her how I tried to kill myself. How I saw death as my only escape.
I told her how I was still not healed completely. I was still broken deep inside.
My mom gulped the vodka like water. She cried. She apologized.
It was okay. She was here now. I was here with her now.
I also told her about Gabriele. I told her how his eyes were my protection for years. I told her how I fell in love with him. How he helped me heal. How he freed me. I told her how much it hurt to leave him, but I needed it.
She didn’t judge any of my decisions. She told me she was going to be here for me from now on. She even told me I could move in with them.
I cried. I laughed.
After I told her everything and she assured me all was going to be okay, we were going to fight with everything together, I fell asleep on her lap. We were in the living room, and it was almost morning, but we didn’t care. I slept on her lap while she played with my hair and sang me a lullaby.
I was alive.
