VegasPete : Chess Room (The Way You Taste sequel)

71 - Protect your children

Vegas is afraid at first and rejects his little friend. But with his enthusiasm, little Pete ends up convincing my son to dig a hole that fills with water coming from the sea.

I can see him smiling for the first time since his mother died...

"I wish it could be always like this." I say as a prayer, watching the two boys play while Pete's mom holds my baby in her arms. Nothing like a mother's lap to calm a baby.

"But it won't." She says while playing with the baby's little hands, smiling at her, trying to reach her face.

The cold statement does not match the tender moment.

"..."

Faced with my stunned silence, she continues.

"You love your children like no one else, just like you loved your wife. And she is dead."

"How can you say that?! I did everything I could to save her from him!"

She turns her face to me.

"If you want to save your children, don't love them too much. Don't love them at all, Kan."

"You can't say such a thing..."

"As long as there is love, Korn will always have a way to hurt you."

"I don't care about me."

"But he won't do it to you. He won't attack you directly. He will take away from you who you love. As he did to my friend. He will go after your children, Kan."

"I'll kill him before he can even try!"

"You know you can't. Not alone. And I can't help you now that the white board is destroyed. I'll say it differently then. If you want to protect Vegas and Macau, don't let Korn know how much you love your children."

"He's no fool!"

"So for this to really work, don't let your children know how much you love them as well."

"But..."

"This is your sacrifice...and also your punishment."

"Are all queens that cruel?!"

"They will grow by your side, and you will protect them."

"Would it be enough for you?!"

"If I could be in your place?!" she turns her face to the beach...to look at her son. "It would be a dream."

"Why?! Will you leave him?!"

"Pretend I don't love him will be not enough. My parents will take good care of him."

"No one replaces a mother. Look at my little baby clinging to you."

"This is my sacrifice and my punishment too. Pete won't remember me."

"Will you erase his memories of you?!"

"At his age?!...Time will do it...it will hurt less for him."

"I don't believe it. Lian doesn't seem to be forgetting his parents."

"Trauma does that. Master won't let him forget either. He needs his grandson pain to control him. But Pete will be raised with love...out of the clan."

"Pete's father...does he know..."

"There's nothing to say about that. Pete will be an orphan raised by his grandparents on this Island, well covered by a simple life."

"Tell me...is he m..."

"Promise me two things before I'm gone, Kan."

"...what?!..."

"One, you will never try to protect him nor take him to your family...ever. Just stay out of his life. Even if he is in danger or difficulties, don't ever help him or my parents."