Changing is hard

Part 52

"As you know your grandfather was a Miller. My mother was a... how do you call it here? The job that this wolf girl has?"
"A waitress. She is a waitress mother." I tell her doing my very best not to roll my eyes.
"Ah, right a waitress." Cora looks at me with loving eyes and a smile on her face. It seems like she wants to add something but decides against it last minute. She looks down for a moment and picks a flower from the grass beneath us. I am beyond confused because I've never seen her like this. It's as if she's replaying a memory in her mind and lost herself in it. I am about to reach out to her and ask her what's going on when she looks back up at me.
"Right, the story." she starts with the flower still in her hand.
"As I said my mother was a waitress. She was a great mother. She loved me and my father unconditionally. Nothing mattered more to her than us. You remind me of her actually." She smiles a small smile at me. It's only now that I realize that this is the most she's ever talked about her mother. Whenever I asked her about my grandmother she deflected.
"As I got older she used to take me with her to the tavern in the mornings. She allowed me to help her for a few hours. She taught me how to carry three plates with one hand without dropping them. Once lunchtime hit she sent me home though. Only when I got older I realized that that was the time when the first shots were served and people got drunk. She wanted to protect me. Everything she did was to protect me. She protected me from kids that called me names. She protected me from father when he had one too many." Once again she has this far away look and I dread the rest of the story.
"When I was about eleven she fell ill. She didn't have energy anymore. She barely ate. She stayed in bed, started to get a high fever and eventually passed away." a tear rolls down my mother's face and I can see the pain and sadness in her eyes. She takes a deep breath and continues with her story.
"After her passing my father started to drink even more. It got so bad that he didn't show up for work. He either stayed in bed for days or didn't come home at all. Which meant that I had to step up. I started working at the tavern where my mother used to work. As the years went by my father continued with his drinking and other things..." She looks me in the eyes and even though she doesn't say it I know what she means by "other things". Her father did the same thing the King did to me. Before I can ask her why she never told me any of this she starts talking again.
"One day, I was working late at the tavern I met a man. He started talking to me. He seemed nice and so I went with it. He told me he was a prince and of course I saw my chance. Of course there is nothing wrong with being a waitress but I knew I would never be able to live on my own. My father wouldn't have allowed me to live alone. So I thought that that man would be my ticket to freedom. How naive I was. We spent one night together and after that he started to visit the tavern less and less. Eventually I realized he was just a visitor from another village and also not a prince. After some time I figured out I was pregnant."
What? My eyes go wide for a second. She shakes her head and runs a hand through my hair as she starts speaking again.
"Don't worry he isn't your father." For a split second my nerves calm down until...
"Wait what?" I hear myself asking as my brain catches up with what she'd just said.
"You have a sister Regina."
"What? How? When? What?" I feel like I am about to pass out once again. Can I pass out again? I am passed out. Focus Regina.
"I don't think I have to explain the birds and the bees ..."
"Mother."
"Right, sorry. It was about four years before you were born. I gave her up and she grew up in OZ."
"I have a sister." I state matter of factly as I try to stand up. I am not successful though because I am feeling dizzy right away and have to sit down once again.
"Yes you do." she tells me.
"I am gonna need time to process this."
"Of course, anyways.."
"There is more?"
"Yes. You ready?"
"No time like the present I guess. Or whatever time we are in."
"Like I said, I realized I was pregnant and not married which back then wasn't ideal."
I can't help but start laughing at that statement. Cora looks at me as if I've grown a second head.
"Ideal mother? I can think of at least five other words that are way more fitting to describe this situation." I tell her as soon as I calmed down from my fit of laughter.
"Anyways, sorry. Please go on." She smiles at me and continues with her story.
"I met another man. He was handsome, tall, honest, gentle and I fell for him right away. I didn't tell him I was pregnant though. Eventually he asked me to marry him and I said yes. A few days before the wedding a girl showed up, figured out I was pregnant and told him about it. I tried to deny it at first. He didn't believe me so I told him the truth and needless to say he threw me out and the wedding was cancelled. A few months after that he married that girl and I had to give up my first born. I knew I couldn't raise her on my own. It was the hardest thing I've ever done. It broke my heart. I became bitter and started to resent that girl. Not only because she married the man I loved but I also blamed her for having to give up my child. One evening a man appeared out of thin air. He told me he'd help me getting my revenge."
No question who that was I think to myself.
"He taught me magic, how to remove hearts and everything that came along with it. Eventually..."
Oh please no. Please don't say it.
"Eventually I fell for him." She avoids eye contact as she says it.
"He fell for me." still no eye contact. Please stop. Don't say it.
"I got pregnant."