Mom, You're Free Now

Chapter 2

I pressed a hand to my burning cheek and stared at him as if the blow had left me dazed.

"Mom...? Didn't she go to Cedar Hollow to help deliver a calf?"

Dad narrowed his eyes and studied my face.

My legs trembled, but I forced a puzzled look onto my face. "Dad, what's wrong? Did something happen to Mom?"

The silence was suffocating. Those few seconds of confrontation seemed endless.

When he saw no trace of guilt in my expression, some of the violence faded from his eyes.

"Then who told you to bolt the front door?" he demanded.

The heart lodged in my throat finally dropped back into place. I let out a long, quiet breath.

He believed me.

I survived this round.

Lowering my head, I nervously twisted the hem of my shirt and explained, "After you went out drinking, a woman from Cedar Hollow came for Mom in the middle of the night. She said one of their cows was having trouble giving birth.

"Before Mom left, she told me to be careful.

"Since no one else would be home at night, I had to lock all the doors and windows. So I did what she told me and put the bar across the door."

Dad immediately pressed, "Which woman? Mrs. Bell?"

I scratched my head as if trying hard to remember, then shook it. "No, it was Mrs. Harris.

"Dad, don't you remember? Whenever someone's livestock has trouble giving birth, they always come for Mom."

At 10, I had never been to Cedar Hollow. I shouldn't have known Mrs. Harris was the one who owned cattle.

Sure enough, the last trace of suspicion vanished from Dad's eyes. He waved me off irritably.

"Enough. Go back to sleep.

"If your mom isn't home first thing tomorrow, go get her. She'd better not delay my breakfast or the chores!"

I nodded obediently. "Okay, Dad."

The moment his cursing figure disappeared down the hall, all the tension drained out of my body.

I slammed the door shut behind him, leaned against it, and gulped in air.

So close.

Thank goodness I remembered that Mom was kindhearted and knew how to handle difficult animal births.

Whenever a cow or sheep in one of the surrounding villages went into difficult labor, someone would come knocking in the middle of the night to ask for her help.

Dad also used those trips as an excuse to freeload on food and liquor in the neighboring villages. He had always allowed them.

It took a long time for my racing heart to settle.

I crept back to bed, curled up in the cold corner, and stared through the window into the darkness.

'Mom, this time, you have to escape this prison and run toward the freedom that belongs to you.'

In my previous life, I had been too young and naive to understand anything.

I had never wondered why everyone else in our village was illiterate while Mom could read and write.

I had never asked how a man who did nothing but drink had managed to marry a woman with medical training.

Only 5 years later, when my grandparents arrived with the police and dug Mom's cold remains out of the backyard, did I learn the truth.

They wept until they could barely breathe. Then they had Dad sent to prison and told me about Mom's past.

That was when I understood.

My mom had been abducted and sold.

She had just been accepted into a doctoral program in medicine and was conducting groundbreaking research on pain-free childbirth.

She should have had a brilliant future. Instead, a single act of kindness had given human traffickers the chance to take her away.

Dad was the criminal who had bought her, and I was nothing but a stain on her life.

Guilt gnawed at me all night until morning finally came.

At daybreak, my door burst open with a crash.

Before I could react, a rough hand yanked me off the bed.

Two slaps struck my face in rapid succession, leaving my ears ringing.

Dad's enraged roar filled the room. "You little liar! Your mom never went to help with a delivery last night! Where the hell did she run off to?"