Chapter 130 Meeting her mother

Chapter 130 Meeting her mother
Casey’s POV

The restaurant suddenly felt too small, I could hear everything. The clink of silverware against plates. The quiet conversations at the tables around us. The hum of the air conditioner. The sound of the front door opening every time someone walked inside and every time it did, my heart jumped.

She was coming, my mother was coming. I kept looking toward the entrance, Alexander noticed. "You don't have to keep watching the door."

"I know." I looked down at our hands. "I just can't stop."

He smiled faintly. "Neither can I."

He was still holding my hand across the table and I hadn't realized how natural it had become until I noticed it. Twenty-two years of not knowing him, and somehow I had already memorized the warmth of his hand.

Maybe that was what made everything so overwhelming. There were pieces of this family that felt completely unfamiliar and yet there were other things that felt strangely easy.

The door opened again and I looked up and this time, I knew, Victoria walked into the restaurant and she stopped almost immediately. Her eyes searched the room and then they found us.

More specifically they found me. She froze and I watched her face change. The woman standing near the entrance looked nothing like the image I had built in my head over the years. I had imagined my mother in a hundred different ways.

Sometimes she had dark hair and sometimes blonde. Sometimes she was young and sometimes older. Sometimes she was laughing and sometimes she was holding a baby but I'd never imagined her like this, real and standing only a few metres away.

Her eyes were already filled with tears.

Alexander stood. "Victoria."

She didn't look at him, she couldn't. Her eyes remained fixed on me and I couldn't move either then she slowly walked toward us. One step and then another. Her hands were trembling as she stopped beside the table for several seconds, she simply looked at me.

I saw her eyes travel across my face, my hair and my hands, everything. It was almost as if she was trying to memorize me. "Casey." My name came out as a whisper.

I swallowed. "Hi."

Her lips trembled. "Hi." She gave a tiny, broken laugh. "I've imagined saying that."

I didn't know what to say so I smiled it wasn't much but it was enough. Victoria's eyes filled completely as she reached toward me and then stopped. Her hand hovered between us.

I understood immediately she was asking without words. I looked at Alexander and he stepped back giving us space. I looked at Victoria again and I nodded. She moved closer and her arms wrapped around me for one second, I couldn't breathe then I felt her trembling. She was crying against my shoulder and something inside me broke.

I wrapped my arms around her. My mother, the woman I'd never known and the woman who had believed she had lost me. She held me like she was afraid I'd disappear. "I'm sorry," she whispered.

I closed my eyes. "You don't have to apologize."

"I do." Her voice cracked. "I should have been there."

"You didn't know."

"I should have known."

I held her tighter. "You were told I was dead."

She pulled back enough to look at me. "I know."

"I believe you."

Her eyes searched mine. "You do?"

I nodded. "Alexander told me."

Her face crumpled. "I don't know how to do this."

"Neither do I."

A tiny laugh escaped her through the tears. "That's probably the only thing I'm sure of."

I smiled and she reached up and touched my cheek. Her fingers trembled. "I can touch you." The words were so quiet that they almost broke my heart.

"Yes."

"I've wanted to do this for twenty-two years."

"I know."

She brushed her thumb across my cheek. "You have my eyes."

I smiled faintly. "Alexander said I had his stubbornness."

Victoria laughed through her tears. "He wasn't wrong."

I laughed too and the sound felt strange coming from me not because I wasn't happy but because I had never imagined laughing with my mother.

Victoria looked at Alexander. "He told you?"

"Everything he could."

She nodded and then she looked back at me. "Did he tell you about me?"

"Some."

"Good things?" She asked.

"Mostly."

She smiled. "Mostly?"

"He said you order too much Italian food."

She laughed. "That man."

Alexander smiled from beside us. "I was being honest."

Victoria shook her head and then her expression softened again. She reached for my hand. "Can I sit with you?"

I nodded. "Please."

She sat beside me. Alexander returned to his seat across from us and for a few moments, the three of us simply sat there. It should have felt awkward but instead, it felt fragile like one wrong word could shatter something none of us understood yet.

Victoria looked at me. "I don't expect you to call me Mom."

My heart tightened. "I know."

"I don't expect you to forgive everything." She continued as she looked at me.

"You didn't do anything."

Her eyes filled again. "That doesn't mean I don't feel guilty."

I squeezed her hand. "I spent twenty-two years believing you were dead."

She nodded. "I spent twenty-two years believing you were dead."

There was something almost unbearable about hearing her say it. Two people had spent the same years grieving the same person. Except I hadn't been dead I had been growing up, learning to read, going to school, falling in love with books, learning how to survive a home where I never felt wanted. Turning eighteen and leaving and building a life while my mother had been mourning an empty grave.

I looked down. "Did you really keep thinking about me?"

"Every day." She didn't hesitate. "Even when people told me I needed to move on." Her voice softened. "I never wanted to move on."

I looked at her. "Why?"

She smiled sadly. "Because you were my daughter."

My throat tightened. "I didn't know."

"I know." She squeezed my hand. "But you don't have to feel guilty for that."

I looked at Alexander. He was watching us quietly and there were tears in his eyes again.

I smiled at him and he smiled back for the first time, I understood why Michael had been so determined to find the truth. This wasn't just about a missing record and it wasn't just about a DNA test. It was about three people sitting at one table after twenty-two years of believing they would never have this moment.

Victoria touched my cheek again. "You're beautiful."

I laughed softly. "You don't have to say that."

"I do." She smiled. "You're my daughter."

The words made my eyes burn and I looked away.

Victoria immediately noticed. "Did I say too much?"

"No." I wiped beneath my eye. "I'm just getting used to hearing that."

Her expression softened. "I'll be patient."

I looked at her. "Really?"

"However long you need."

I nodded. "Thank you."

She smiled and then she looked toward the restaurant menu. "Have you eaten?"

I blinked. "What?"

She laughed softly. "Have you eaten?"

"Not really."

Alexander shook his head. "Neither of us has ordered yet."

Victoria immediately looked at him. "Of course you haven't."

He smiled. "You've been here for five minutes."

"I've known you for thirty years. I know you."

I laughed and the sound seemed to surprise all three of us. Victoria looked at me and for one beautiful moment, we simply smiled at each other just a mother and daughter sitting across from each other for the first time and somehow, that was enough.