Yours - COMPLETE

Chapter twenty-six✔️

She looks from her hands back to my face and gives me a warm smile that I've never seen before.

"Your boyfriend came to visit me two weeks ago and told me about everything that's happen to you—"

What?

"—at first I didn't believe him but then it all started to make sense. I decided to hire a private investigator to search up on Dominic and a few days later the man I hired gave me a packet filled with information on him. His past with drug abuse. When he was sent off to rehab when he was sixteen. There was a charge on him from a Melanie Jane saying how he use to hit her. That was when he was eighteen. A year before he met you." My mother takes a deep breath while I'm sitting here trying to process everything that's being said to me. She continues.

"I went to your father about this. I told him how our own daughter has been dealing with this man. And you want to know what your father said? He said 'The past is in the past. I need to focus on my future'. He didn't care that Dominic use to abuse drugs and girls. He didn't care when I told him that he did the same thing to you. He only cared about what kind of power he will get if you were to marry Dominic. I couldn't stay with him after he said those things. So, I demanded a divorce."

I'm staring at my mother like she's grown a second head. I don't believe anything I'm hearing. She divorced the man she's been married to for almost twenty five years for me? Her daughter who she didn't seem to give a shit about a month ago?

"Why would you leave him? You don't care about me." I ask with a bit of snap to my tone. I'm angry that she's now showing she gives a shit after twenty years.

A tear falls from my mothers face and she quickly wipes it away with her finger.

"I've always cared about you, I just never knew a way to show it. I thought by just giving you everything a little girl wanted that you'd be happy. That I was doing something good. I gave you space because that's something I thought a teenage girl wanted. I never asked about you or your day because I felt that you thinking that your mother is trying to pry into your life and control it. I didn't know that what I was doing was hurting you. I lashed out on you for all these years because I didn't know how to care. How to be a mother. And I'm sorry."

It's silent for a moment. We're just staring at each other now. Tears are falling down my cheeks and I don't make a move to wipe them away. I've spent years keeping my emotions at bay. I'm so tired of hiding now. I'm so tired of fighting with myself and acting tough when in reality I'm so weak and exhausted. I don't know whether I need a Xanax, a noose, or a hug.

"I'm going to need that packet that your private investigator made so I can use it in court. I will need to give it my lawyer today since we leave for the courthouse tomorrow at 8am." I tell her, purposely ignoring all the other things she's told me.

My mother nods and pulls out a packet from her purse. "Of course. Here."

I take the packet from her hand and set it on the table next to me.

"If you wish to come tomorrow then you can but don't expect me to forgive you today, or tomorrow, or even a month from now. I need time to digest everything."

I stand up and walk over to the front door to let her out. I hear her following close behind me and when I open the door and turn to her, she's giving me a smile and before I know it, I'm engulfed in a hug. I'm stiff at first. My parents have never hugged me before. They may have given me a quick side hug when we're around people but never a hug like this.