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“Whatever happens, everything will be all right.” He bends to kiss my forehead, lending me his endless strength. “I have you. I always will.”
“Thank you.” I squeeze his hand back and turn to face the door.
I ball my free hand into a fist and knock.
“Who’s there?” a woman calls.
I prepared an answer to that question. Theo helped me practice it and get used to rolling it on my tongue.
But I can’t help that it doesn’t feel any more natural than it had two days ago.
“It’s Prue.” My throat, clogged by emotions, fails me.
I’m a fierce woman. I’ve built myself from nothing. I fear nothing and no one.
I swallow around the suffocating nerves in my throat and try again.
“It’s Prue.”
Theo’s heat and boundless support permeate from him into my heart.
I smile. “Your daughter.”
The front door opens. Then the screen door.
A woman about my height stands before us. She wears a white nightgown over her slender frame.
Her blond hair is rolled up into a messy bun on the top of her head. Her brown eyes are lucid, not bloodshot to indicate she’s a heavy drinker like Zeke suggested.
She doesn’t smell it, either.
Nonetheless, I’m wary. I’m cautious. But I don’t fear her as much as I hadhim.
“Hi.” Unsure of what to do, I give her a small wave.
Her nose scrunches, and my heart falters and stops. She’s going to reject me for the second time in twenty years. She’ll turn around, close the door and—
“Here I was, thinking my biggest failure in life was to leave you at the orphanage.” A smirk curls on her face. “Joke’s on me, I guess. You got the asshole’s looks, may he rest in peace. Or not. Definitely not. Anyway,that’s”—she points at my face—“going to haunt me in my dreams.”
My eyes flutter, and I open and close my mouth several times, trying to form a decent response. None of the scenarios I’ve pictured involved her saying what she just said.
I mean, I knew he and I shared a resemblance. Is it that bad, though? Am I that repulsive? Is this why no one adopted me?
“Oh, crap, I apologize. Don’t give me that sad look, I was joking.” Two warm hands grip my biceps, dragging me away from Theo’s grip and into my mother’s embrace. “I make terrible jokes when I’m overwhelmed. I’m truly sorry.”
I hug her back, despite my complete and utter befuddlement.
She’s my mom. I finally have a mother. Who doesn’t hate me.
She smells like sunshine and something citrusy I can’t quite place my finger on. Her cheek is soft against mine, and it’s not long before I feel wetness passing between her skin and mine.
At first, I think it’s just my tears. When a sob escapes her and her shoulders quiver, I realize Salina, Mom, is crying as well.
“You’re much, much more beautiful than Zeke.” She rears back, wiping the dampness beneath her eyes with the back of her hand and gripping my shoulder. “Both on the outside and the inside. I can just tell you’re a good person.”
The questions I have for her are endless. She appears to be such a nice person, so put together. What happened? What made her give me away and never look back?
“You want your answers, I can tell that too.” A soft smile grazes her lips. She cocks her head to look behind me, assessing the tall, broad man who undoubtedly watches our interaction like a hawk. “And you brought a friend with you.”
