Second Chances: a Coincidences novel (Book 2)

Chapter 31: A New Life

A Year and Eight Months Later

"I am so proud of you Omar!" my uncle congratulated, all of us sitting in a round table at one of Dubai's finest restaurants. "You followed your dreams, went to university and now you're a graduate!"

"We're so proud of you!" aunt Jihan smiled.

"Yeah man, you really made it and you didn't give up despite some of the setbacks you've faced" said Khaled.

"And you kept on going. You're a fighter man" said Louai.

"Thank you. It really means a lot to have you guys here on this special day" I smiled, though inside I felt sad at the same time.

My uncle and aunt were here, as were Khaled and Louai. Kitana and Jabal were here too, as were Holly, Homer, Francie, Cielo and even Taline.

I was happy they were here but what made it sad was that my mom was not here, celebrating with me because apparently, Santi's court date had occurred much sooner than expected and was released with the condition that he went into a program. He had spent the last two years locked up for almost killing me. Somehow, my mom had made it possible to reduce his sentence to five years but since he was out on good behavior, it got cut to two years.

As selfish as it probably sounded, I wish she would have chosen to come to my graduation and spending time with me. The last time I saw her was maybe a year ago when she shockingly decided to come and see me, telling me how much she loved me and how proud she was of me for having taken the leap at going to university.

I knew she loved and cared about me. Of that, I had no doubt but despite her still loving me as her son, I knew she loved Santi way more. Most would have asked what made me think that and would say that all parents loved their children equally.

This was true of my uncle and aunt, who both treated and equally cared and loved Khaled and Louai.

Neither was above the other.

Yet, my mom always put Santi first and I was always in the backburner. Let's say she promised she would attend one of my award ceremonies for being an honor student but say something came up for Santi – good or bad – she would instantly put him over me.

Sometimes, it felt like she really did not care about me. She never even paid attention to me, and even I had asked her, once, if we could go out to dinner just the two of us to catch up, and claimed she was too tired and that maybe next time. However, Santi came along saying he was hungry and that he wanted to go eat out, and she did not hesitate to accompany him.

So much for being tired. She was tired for me but never him.

"So now that you are a college graduate, what are you planning to do?" asked Francie.

"Well, I don't know. I suppose that's something I will figure out step by step, as I go" I smiled.

"But how is it that you finished so quickly, in two years?" asked Taline, curiously.

"Before graduating from high school, beginning junior year, I took classes to earn college credits and had accumulated too many of them that it allowed me to graduate earlier."

"But what exactly drove you to take so many classes to earn practically two years' worth of credits?" asked Anas.

"My home situation. I took a few too many and practically overworked myself to be able to fast track it."