Chapter 28 Same person
Liana
When it was finally time to leave, Felicity cried.
She did so quietly, in the departure lounge where she stood with her hands folded in front of her.
I hugged her first.
She held on longer than usual, I held on to her too, because five years was a long time to have someone in your space and in your life.
“You have done well,” She said, when she finally pulled back, cupping my face in her palm and looking at me properly. “I'm so proud of you, child.”
My throat closed on its own.
“Don't..” I said, because I knew that if she kept talking like that, then I wouldn't have any other choice but to cry right there.
And I had a flight to catch.
She laughed, exactly what I wanted.
Then she looked down at Liam who had been staring beside me with his bag on his back watching the exchange with the serious attention of someone taking notes.
“And you,” she crouched down to his level. “You're going to be a remarkable young man you hear.”
Liam looks at me for a month. “I know that, and you're going to be so proud of me, Granny.”
She laughed again, this time with her whole chest, and pulled him into a hug. “Take care of your mother,” she said into his hair.
“I always do… it's just her who's always saying she's got everything under control.” He replied, although that wasn't exactly accurate, it also wasn't entirely wrong either.”.
She stood back up, and turned to me. “Call me when you land okay?”
“I will.”
Our flight was called, and Aiden joined us in the lounge, said hello to Felicity then went to catch up, along with our stuff.
“Liana,” she called, causing me to halt on my tracks. “Go burn them.”
Of course, every single one of them.
The flight was approximately eight hours, and throughout the entire flight, Liam managed to remain awake for forty minutes.
And that was a personal record, especially for a child who had treated sleep as an inconvenience.
I pulled the blanket up around him, while glancing at Aiden who was seated across while working through something on his laptop.
Below us was the Atlantic Ocean, the same water I had crossed five years ago, with two suitecases in the hold and a baby which I was terrified about in the womb.
I thought about that woman for a long time, about the promise I made to myself without telling anyone.
Proud that I had kept the promise.
Eight hours later, we landed.
America smelled exactly the way I remembered it.
I don't know what I was expecting though, maybe for it to feel foreign just like London had recalibrated something in me, something so strong that coming back would feel like I was arriving somewhere new.
It didn't.
Somehow itanaged to smell like home, and that was the complicated part because home hadn't been just a word to me in a very long time.
Liam pressed his face against the car window on the entire drive f on the airport.
“Mama, are those real trees?”
I drifted my gaze to the direction of his hands, and nodded. “Of course, those are trees.”
“They are trees in America?” His eyes widened, like he was genuinely surprised.
Okay not today… I wasn't having this conversation today.
“Of course they are trees everywhere.” I chuckled.
“Then why do they look so different?”
Aiden chuckled from the front sit. “because you're in a different place, and things always look different when you're not used to seeing them in a certain place.”
He considered it seriously, then went back to the glass.
“You know… when I told Ray I was relocating to America, he didn't really seem excited about it.” Liam continued. “So I thought America had no trees.”
Before I could hold back, loud laughter escaped my lips. “You're kidding right?”
He turned to me with a swift motion. “You think I'm telling a lie, or pretending to be amused?”
“I didn't say anything like that, kiddo,” I raised both hands up, still trying to control my laughter. “I'm just saying…”
“No, you're teasing me, and it's not cool.” He pouted, and I ruffled his hair fondly.
“I'm sorry baby,” I said, staring softly at him.
Deep down I knew that I wasn't exactly excited, I was just seeking for a distraction.
A distraction away from the life I used to live years ago, and a balance to this present life.
There had to be a balance, else thriving would be too difficult.
I watched the city move past, and said nothing.
Five years.
It's been five years, yet the buildings were still the same, the roads didn't have so much changes, the city looked just as loud and unbothered as I rembered.
It was still the same, and that was not an issue because I wasn't the same.
My gaze drifted out into the clean city, and I pressed my hand flat against the glass and allowed it to stay there for a long moment.
I was now in a place I had earned, in a country u had chosen to return to, and for the first time since everything collapsed five years ago, I finally felt happy.
Like the woman who left, and the woman who came back were finally the same person.
I was home, and this time I had come back with everything, to burn them all…