CHAPTER 83

CHAPTER 83


Elena

“El…”. A voice… soft, familiar, and cruelly distant, sliced through the evening air.

I turned slowly, almost afraid that my ears were playing a cruel trick on me. But they weren’t. My eyes locked onto a woman standing just a few feet away. My breath caught in my throat.

My heart was beating so fast that I feared she might have heard it.

She hadn’t changed much.

The same brown eyes I used to see in the mirror. The same soft curls, only with more grey now, and the same awkward half-smile she always wore when she didn’t know what to say.

My mother. After all these years. I guess Pius finally let her go, or she escaped? I don't know, but I don't think I want to see her. Yes, I was desperate to find her because she is my mother and I needed her.

But I am her daughter, too. How could she leave me with such an abusive man and never look back? Did she even regard me as her child? She was well aware of how my father was, yet she left and never returned.

I was desperate to find her, but I realised that the person I needed to find was my husband, not the woman who abandoned me years ago.

After all the birthdays she missed. After the nights, I cried myself to sleep asking why she left. After I buried every memory of her like a corpse, I didn’t want to mourn.

I opened my mouth, but nothing came out. My heart was hammering too loudly, and my palms were so sweaty. I couldn’t tell if it was rage, grief, or just shock that kept me frozen in place.

I was just frozen, just looking at her.

She took a cautious step closer. “I know I’m the last person you expected to see…”

I scoffed. That was the only reaction I was able to make. “No. You’re not even on the list.”Why am I suddenly feeling angry? All this while I thought I would be overjoyed when I saw her, but now…I just want her to disappear back to wherever she came from.

She flinched, and I hated that part of me that still cared. That part of me still wanted her to explain, to give a reason that could somehow fill the hole she left in me.

“I just—I wanted to see you. To talk. Please, Elena.”

Her voice cracked, and for a moment, she didn’t look like the woman who walked away from me all those years ago. She looked ashamed.

But I wasn’t ready. Not for this. Not here, in a parking lot, with my emotions tangled and raw.

“I… I don’t even know what to say,” I murmured. “You can’t just show up after years and expect…”

“I don’t expect forgiveness,” she interrupted gently. “I only ask for a chance to talk. Please, let me explain. Let me…let me try to be a mother, if only for one conversation.” Try to be a mother? Wow, suddenly she's pulling the mother card when she could've done it years ago.

How interesting, she's an interesting woman, so I'd give it to her. Even though I was feeling so angry, I was in pain.

I stared at her, tears welling in my eyes before I could stop them, but I didn't let them fall. She looked like she was about to cry, too.

“Fine,” I said quietly. “Let’s go talk.”

Her shoulders sagged in relief. “There’s a restaurant just around the corner. Somewhere quiet.”

I nodded stiffly and got into my car and told the driver where to go, and the tears finally started slipping down my cheeks once the door shut. I didn’t even know why I agreed.

Maybe because the child in me was still waiting, hoping she had a reason. Maybe because I needed to hear her say it out loud.

Whatever it was, I knew one thing for sure, this dinner was going to hurt more than any wound ever had.