Chapter 213 THE HEADLINES
AURORA’S POINT OF VIEW.
Kai was right. I wasn’t thinking about graduation, college, or anything else. I couldn’t. All my mind could focus on was the headlines three days ago, the very reason I have barely been able to keep food down.
We were at a restaurant when it hit. Mom and I knew we needed to make up time for the years we’d lost. So she rented the entire night of a restaurant on the rooftop of the grand pier of Westridge. We’d laughed, drunk, and settled deeply into the night while the orchestra played away. It was in that moment that two things happened;
I’d asked her about the alleged kidnapping, the one Kai told me about the night of the gala, just before I left him to follow after Mom. “Mom… what are we going to do now? Dad’s off to prison, and Densie is gone….so is Morgan. Do we just… move back home?”
“Aurora….” Mom gasped, her eyes fluttering shut for a second. It felt like she needed to take a gasp of air, and she did. She inhaled deeply, her chest still for a moment before she sighed; the sound of it reverberated all over me. “Now……now, we live. However, we want to, wherever we want to; no matter what.” She chuckled, bringing me much closer.
I clung to her for dear life; the smooth ride from the driver in front easily pulled me to sleep. That was when I remembered what Kai had said. “Mom….I….I need to ask you a question.” I said, heart beating rapidly as I pulled away slightly.
She still smiled, a gentle nod of encouragement as she held my hand tenderly. “Kai told me about Spain,” I whispered, the words feeling heavy on my tongue. The second I uttered the name of the country, her smile faltered, freezing into something pained and haunted.
So haunted, I worried and feared I opened certain wounds. “He said we were together... in a shed. That he was taken by someone, and I someday stumbled into that shed to feed him……I want to believe it because Kai has never lied to me. and I feel something….not only for him.” I blushed, the first time I admitted it, burning a hole through my throat.
“But also for that time he talked about. For some reason, the moment he spoke about Spain, I kept seeing white foggy flashes of something…. But Mom, I don’t remember any of it. My memory starts when we moved into that drafty apartment after you packed your bags from home. You told me it was for a vacation, but I knew you and Dad fought, and you had to leave Westridge to get away from him for some time before you returned again. Everything before that is just... white noise….and I can't make sense of it.”
The smile on my mother’s face didn't falter again, but it changed quite visibly. It turned into something fragile, and haunted, something laced with a deep, ancient guilt. She reached out, her thumb tracing the line of my jaw, just as Kai often did.
"I….I hoped and prayed we would never have this conversation, my dear. That time….it was one of the toughest seasons of my life. Not because of Armando, but because of what that incident did to you.
Silas and I did everything we could to keep you and Kai from each other. We moved countries, cities….all so Kai and you could have things easier. While Silas convinced a young Kai you had died, I did something….different. It wasn’t safe, or conventional, but then, I had no choice, Aurora.” She sniffled, a shaky breath escaping her.
“I had a doctor help you, Aurora," she said softly. Her voice was steady, but I could see the shimmer of unshed tears. "You were five years old. You saw things no child should see. You saw Armando’s men drag me away, and you saw the fear in that little boy's eyes… that traumatized little Kai.
When the police finally found you both after you led us there, you wouldn't stop screaming for the boy you met in the shed. You kept talking about blood, and pain, and wounds….Aurora, it was torture to see you like that. You wouldn't eat. You just stared at the door, waiting for Kai to come back. The doctors believed it was the best choice so you could live a normal life again.
So we got a shrink, and we had him wipe your memories of that week through hypnosis."