MODERN CINDERELLA

CHAPTER - 42

                      After telling to Nick the truth about his mother and gave respect to her grave, he took her to a calm yet beautiful park, outside of the city. She had never seen a park this beautiful in her life. Nick specially took her to the small bridge over the lake. Aahana was admiring the view. 

"Wow.. what is this place? It's so beautiful, like a picture from a movie. It's so quite and peaceful, away from all the hustle and bustle of the city. There is no noise from traffic and we can actually listen the birds' chirping... " She said in awe while closing her eyes feeling the natural environment around them. Nick was watching her reactions and pleased by hearing her thoughts. 

"It is my and Mom's secret place, our own paradise." He whispered. Aahana opened her eyes after hearing him talking and gazed at him. "Whenever we got the free time, especially the days when I got upset, Mom and I came here, without telling Dad of course." He smiled remembering the old days; then pointed towards a pair of swings, not far away from the lakeside, " I used to sit on that swing while Mom tried to talk through to find the reason of my mood off, then we used to take a long walk and go to home afterwards. Sometimes we just came here without any reason... I used to run around while Mom used to read her favorite book, sitting on that swing." He sighed.    

"This place reminds me of her so much that I stopped come back here after Mom left, until recently. I had come after our conversation about Mom and thought what you told me." Until now he was speaking while looking into distance, but this time he slightly turned to face-to-face with her and gazed into her eyes. "You are the first person to really understand me. You were right about me not hating Mom. After so much thought, I realized that I actually never hated her like that. My hate was a mask of  hatred to cover up my love and longing for her to come back and love me back. It was like I just hid my love deep inside my heart, not only from the world but from myself too. And isn't it natural to be angry on someone whom you actually love and care for?" He asked, Aahana smiled at him and nodded. "But you brought it up in the surface again and made me look beyond it. Thank you so much, really." His eyes teared up a little. Aahana took his left hand into both her palms and squeezed a little. 

"You don't need to thank me." She stated.

"I know. But I want to." He smiled and squeezed his hand back. He cleared his throat while taking his hand back from her grasp and asked, "But how did you find about her? She didn't leave any contact behind her. So, how?"

She hesitated before speaking, "I-I actually asked to your father to give me her parental home address."

"What?" Nick sounded shocked. "Then that means he knew this all along and didn't even tell me?" He seemed hurt.

"N-no.. You are misunderstanding." She clamed him down. "I asked him for the address and of course, it's true I told him the reason that I wanted to find your mother. However, he had forbade me for doing so, but I somehow managed that and I made him promise to not to tell you. Because I didn't know whether I could find her at all. And if you knew, it would create an expectation in your heart. So, I didn't want to give a false hope beforehand."

She explained her side which really showed him that she had thought of him all along; from start to finish. Nick nodded in understanding. "Continue from before." 

 Aahana nodded in reply and continued. 

"Then me and Kait went there to find more information, but no one lives there who has known your mother. After wandering around for awhile, we met Carlo, a car mechanic, who used to be neighbor of your mother. He informed us that after her parents died, her bother sold the house and moved out. Also she never went back her home after marriage once, since she married without her parents' approval."