Sweet vengeance

Shadows of yesterday

I stood outside for what seemed like forever waiting for a taxi to stop by, it seemed it was about to rain and if it was, I didn't want to get wet. Fortunately for me, a taxi beckoned to my outstretched hand and I got in and gave him the address to my parents' house to take me there.

There wasn't much distance from what used to be my home to my parents' house but it was taking forever to get there even at the speed at which we drove.

After a couple hours of driving, he finally arrived at my destination, I got down immediately and he helped take my luggage from the boot, I paid him before I made my way to my parents' house. I stood there for a moment wondering how my parents would take the news that after I had ignored all their warnings and got married to Luke, he had divorced me in the end.

I felt so stupid because I had used all my entire savings to get that bastard a job and the only thing he had left me with was nothing. I breathed in deeply and summoned courage, I walked up to the porch and knocked thrice on the door, but I didn't get any response. I knocked again and the door was opened up by a little girl that I didn't recognize.

"Hello!" She said in a shrill and small voice.

"Uhm, hi, and who are you?" I asked her.

"No, who are you?" She answered me, surprising me with her smartness at the same time.

"My name is Ann and I'm here to see my parents," I said to the girl and she looked at me from my head to toe as if studying me under a microscope.

"Are they in?" I asked her.

"I don't know who your parents are," was her response. I rolled my eyes into the back of my head, I hadn't got all the time in the world and it was going to rain any moment from now.

"Can you move away from the door so I can get in?" I asked her and she shook her head in defiance.

"No, I won't let you!" She said.

"Mom, Dad! Are any of you in?" I shouted into the house and it was the little girl's turn to look at me with surprise.

"What are you doing?!" She exclaimed in surprise.

But before I could respond, my mother was already standing by the door, ready to receive me.

"Ann?"

"What are you doing here?" She asked, her eyes darting to my luggage as my hand held firmly onto the handle.

"I'm moving back in." I hesitated before I spoke.

"Moving back in?" "What do you mean you're moving back in?"

"I'm going to tell you all about it later." I tried to hide the pain in my voice as I spoke. I shoved the girl aside lightly before I dragged my luggage into the house.

"Tell me about what, did you and your husband have another argument again?"

"It's worse than that, Mom," I said and went straight to the couch and sank into it.

"What do you mean, why don't you just go straight to the point by answering my questions and stop cutting through corners?"

"Alright, I'm going to tell you!" I took a deep breath, trying to avoid my mother's gaze as I was about to break the news to her.

"Well tell me already." She responded impatiently.

"Can she excuse for a minute?" I said, pointing to the little girl whose ears were all flared up ready to receive whatever information I had to say.

"No, she can't, anything you can't say to her, you can't say to me either." My mother responded and I raised my brows in surprise.

"Are you being serious right now?" I asked her. "She's just a maid, you can't expect her to be here while I tell you things that are confidential."

"She's not a maid." My mother said and reached out to take her hand, the girl hurriedly grabbed my mother's hand.

"Then who is she?" I asked.

"That's news for later, right now, you're going to tell me why you suddenly decided to move out of your husband's house."

"Oh really now, you're not going to tell me who she is."

"She's my daughter, Ann." My mother blurted out.

"Your daughter?" I said, my tone mirroring my surprise. "When did you...."

My mother placed a finger across her lips signaling me to be quiet. "We'll talk about that later, right now I want you to tell me why you're back here with your luggage."

"Luke has divorced me," I said without hesitation.

"What, that bastard did what?!" She shouted almost at the top of her lungs.

"He dares not."

"Well he did and he already has," I said, folding my hands against my chest and tapping my feet incessantly on the ground. "I gave everything I had to him!"

"I warned you about him, Ann."

"I gave him everything that I had, myself, my money... Every damn thing!"

"I warned you about him but you refused to listen to me. I warned you to end the relationship with that good for nothing man, but you refused."

"What do I do now, Mom?"

"What do you do now?" She asked me sarcastically. "You pick up the pieces of your life and carry on."

"What pieces do I even pick, Luke has shattered me completely."

"Well that's left for you to decide, I warned you not to get married to him in the first place but you thought that you knew better than your mother did and you went ahead to get married to him!"

"I'm so sorry mom!" I buried my head into my and began to sob again.

"Sorry isn't going to make up for anything." She said and led the child inside her room leaving me there in the living room to weep my heart out.