Seven
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* * * *
I stayed in her arms for what felt like hours. She held me closest when my sobbing was most intense and loosened her arms when I was calmer. I felt love. And I cried harder, realizing how much I missed it and for all I had done trying to find it. I cried for my mother. For the little brother I never knew I had. For the realization that there was no way my mother could love me after what I’d done, the choices I’d made. She who had died for her unborn child. I cried as I felt the hatred for myself more than I felt the loss of my mother. With hatred came anger, not at me, but at my father.
“Why did he lie to me?” I asked, letting go of Charlotte and wiping my face.
We were alone. Talin stood by me. I felt her breath as she turned her head at the sound of my voice.
