Beyond Goodbye

Mother

Maya’s mother sighed. She wished her daughter would be easier than this. Somewhere deep down she knew Maya was exactly like her when she was young. But that is what led her to her doom. She didn’t want the same thing to happen to Maya.

Girls should be pretty and agreeable. Boys liked the headstrong, independent, and bold girls from afar. When it came to choosing a mate and living with one, they always preferred the pretty damsel in distress. It made them feel powerful. This is what Maya’s mother believed. It was how Maya’s father had been, and her own father too. She was sure all men were like this and thus, she feared for her daughter’s fate.

Being a traditional lady, she never imagined a woman living on her own and being happy and well respected, even though that is what Maya’s mother had achieved in her own life. She had raised Maya on her own while running a successful boutique, and had earned a very respectable place in the beautiful little town they lived in. It was ironic how she never believed in her daughter’s potential, when she was the one who raised her to be independent and confident. As for her daughter’s beauty, she wasn’t at all worried. Maya was a late bloomer, just like she had been. She was a sweet little girl and she wished she could just let Maya live her childhood before her eighteenth birthday, when things would change drastically. Somewhere at the back of her head, Maya’s mother knew what she was doing was suffocating her own daughter, but she just couldn’t let her own past stop haunting her.

Maya’s mother had lived in a city far away from this little town she had built her life in. She was a beautiful and confident girl, and by the age of eighteen she was ready to meet her mate. She still remembers when their eyes met. She was so carried away with ecstasy and she could still feel that love coursing through her body. She thought she saw love in his eyes, and had started planning their life together from that very moment. Her mate, Maya’s father, was a very rugged and handsome young man. He was tall and had fierce golden eyes; Maya’s eyes looked just like his.

She had let him come near her, studying her, circling her, until he kissed her deeply. She had never been kissed like that before. His hard mouth covered hers and knocked the wind out of her. Her knees buckled and sensing this, he picked her up in his arms and took her away to his place. Somewhere in the back of her foggy head, Maya’s mother had wanted to go tell her parents about her mate before she went away with him but she threw caution to the wind and let him take the lead.

He took her to his place and instantly started ravaging her body. He was gentle but there was a sense of urgency in his moves. He tore at her clothes hungrily as she lay in his bed, squirming with want. He had kissed every inch of her body, making her scream and moan. Maya’s mother still remembered how he had spread her legs and put himself in between them. It still made her heart ache. He had entered her and pounded into her roughly, which was completely different than before. He came inside of her, pulled out and started putting his clothes on. Maya’s mother wanted to talk to him, but he had avoided her and that’s when a sense of dread had settled in her belly. He just looked at her with cold dark eyes, that beautiful gold color gone, and told her he didn’t want her anymore. She just stood there, realizing she had been rejected by her own mate. She had been the epitome of perfection in her neighborhood, and was the only woman to get rejected. She couldn’t make sense of anything as she sat there in his bed and he left. She didn’t even have any clothes to wear. He had torn them all away. Maya’s mother had never cried so hard before. She couldn’t believe something like that would happen to her. That was the last time she cried.

She had gone around in his drawers, trying to find something to wear. She doesn’t even remember anything that happened after that. Just that, she felt numb and moved on autopilot. She had gone back to her parents’ house, and hadn’t had to explain anything to them. They knew when they saw her.

Maya’s mother had stopped going out, spending her days in depression, locked up in her room until she realized she was pregnant. Her parents had wanted her to get rid of the baby, told her how she couldn’t raise a child on her own, how disrespectful it all was. Their daughter getting rejected by her mate was a serious blow to their family’s image, and she had somehow managed to get pregnant by him too. She realized they were blaming her for the rejection. Her father told her how she must have been lacking in bed. She watched in disbelief as the supposed support of her parents turned against her, and they sided with a man they had never met in their lives.

Two months pregnant, Maya’s mother had packed her bags in the dead of the night and left, never looking back. She had found her purpose, she was not going to let anyone harm her baby. She had always been a confident and strong girl. Now she would prove it to herself by building a life for her little baby far away from this despicable city and the people she had grown up with. After the rejection, she had lost all her friends anyway. She wasn’t going to miss anything and no one would miss her.

That’s how Maya’s mother ended up in this beautiful town up in the mountains. She loved how the people had been so supportive and given her a place not only in the form of a little house but also in their hearts. She had worked hard to make a living and had worked in a small inn until the day Maya was born. She had taken no days off and was working even when her body was experiencing labor pains. Maya was born on a beautiful day, when the sun was shining in the sky after a cool summer rain shower. Everything was fresh and clean, and the sky was golden, just like Maya’s eyes.

Maya was special, but her mother had been scarred so early in life, growing up seeing her father have such disregard for her mother and other women in general, and then getting rejected when she had been so desired by other males before her eighteenth birthday. Her whole life had become upside down and, somehow, she expected the same to happen to Maya.