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Eva scuttles to her feet. “Knox, calm down.”
“I will not calm down.”
A slight movement from across the restaurant causes me to look over and just as I do, Olivia whirls around on her heel and runs out of the restaurant.
I run after her.
It’s no wonder she is running. It’s such an enormous shock for us all, but it looks like we set her up.
Everyone in the restaurant is staring at us as I fly out of the doorway.
Anthony is behind me and he is asking what is going on.
I’d like to know the very fucking same thing.
I run down the steps of the restaurant and catch sight of Olivia fleeing across the parking lot.
Running after her, I call out, “Wait. Please stop running,” I plead.
Not expecting her to, she does and I stop only a few feet away from her.
My chest is heaving from my sudden sprint to get to her, but it also feels like I’m wearing a compression vest and it’s trying to suffocate me.
When she turns around, she has tears running down her face, her eyes full of fright, and her cheeks are already blotchy in places.
We stand there, just looking at each other. I don’t know what to say.
My mom is here. She's standing in front of me and I can’t think of anything to say. This is unfamiliar territory for me, for us all. What do you say to the woman who left you all those years ago so she could go travel to find herself? It’s a hard thing to comprehend.
I’ve always thought perhaps if she explained it to me, maybe it would make more sense if I could understand her reasoning and I could forgive her.
“It’s just like you to run away, Olivia. Old habits never die,” my father says sarcastically as he appears by my side, causing a sob to break from Olivia’s throat.
“Dad! Pop a cork in it so we can work out what’s going on. Just back off for a minute.” I put my hands up. “Just stop, okay?”
He steps back, but his jaw is twitching. This is so out of character for him.
I have to approach this carefully. “Are you okay?” I look at Olivia with caring eyes. “I think this is a shock for us all.”
I take a small step forward. The startled woman before me is beautiful, and I’d recognize those eyes anywhere. I've stared at that photo of me and my mom in my wallet thousands of times.
It’s her.
It’s my mom.
My chest fills with hope.
Olivia finally speaks. “What are you doing here?” She’s almost inaudible.
“I think that’s my question.”
“I live here,” she says shakily.
I can’t take my eyes off her. She almost doesn’t seem real to me. I made her this big thing in my head, from her smile and her clothes to her voice and her touch, but she’s nothing like how I imagined her to be.
She looks lost.
And scared. Like a trapped animal in a cage.
