The Obsidian Key ✔️

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

That's where we sat, and for the first minute of the five minutes were wasted with complete silence. The only thing that spoke was the wind moving through the grass, in my hair.

"If you are going to say something, then just say it," my voice was a sad whisper. "I am not going to sit here forever."

"I am aware of that," he took a deep breath and letting it go with a sigh. "I came here to apologize."

I rolled my eyes, "Apologizing isn't going to take back what you said. If that's all you came back here for then–"

"That is not why I came," he stopped me before I continued. "Yes, I came to apologize, but I also came to peak to you about... this... your," He gave everyone standing around the carriage a quick glance. "Family."

"I love them, each one of them," I admitted truthfully, not hesitating as the words slid off my tongue. "It might have been stupid to have done that but I just couldn't help it."

"What about that... husband of yours? The pirate, you never mentioned being married with him when you told me the story."

"Because I didn't want you to freak out," I sighed. "I was scared okay? Because how can you tell a dad that you married an actual pirate in the early seventeen hundreds?"

He resisted the urge to chuckle, but I could see the soft smile on his face that he tried to hide. "I see... it seems you were having more of a troubling time in this world than I have."

"You have nooo idea...." Once again there were silence.

William broke the silence again with the soft whisper, "After you left I was thinking."

"Thinking about what?"

"About what you said. The words, 'What if someone came up to you and said that having your kid was a mistake?'," he looked down. "After having those words kept running in my skull I understood why you got upset and said the things you said. It would have been like someone would say that to me when you were that age. I too would be angry, the same as you were, over the harsh words."

He reached into a secret pocket underneath a white coat, taking out his own wallet and opening it. He dug through the folds, ignoring old dollar bills that are worth nothing this year and found a couple of pictures. He handed those pictures to me so I could see it, my heart melted and I softly smiled.

It was me when I was two years old in my father's arms in his collage class behind his desk. I was so small and my hair was very red even then, but it was much curlier. My big bright blue eyes stared at the camera and it looked as if I was crying before this picture was taken.

The second one was when I was with both my Mother and William, seeing the picture of my mother reminded me of... well, me. she too had red hair and blue eyes, and her smile was also beautiful. The third and last picture was of me when I was fifteen... when I was visiting my father's home after William and my mother separated.

"It broke my heart when Abigail left," He spoke sadly. "When she also took you. All because I got obsessed with the key, all because I lost my job, my own friends, because of that key. The day I lost her..." A brief pause. "It was really difficult, especially when I loved her. The day she died was bit more difficult."

"She missed you, you know," I rubbed my thumb over my mother's face tenderly over the picture. "I saw her cry herself to sleep some nights. She couldn't even go out with her friends to any clubs because all she would think about is you."

"It was my mistake to put my obsession of the key above you and your mother. I had taken you and her for granted, this is my own mistake. It all came back to me when you said those words to me, reminding me of my own wrongs. I should have never told a mother that her own child is a mistake and expect them not to react. An apology may not ever be enough, Ria, but know that I'm deeply sorry. I should have given it a thought before I said something so terrible. All I'm asking if your forgiveness... because the worst thing that can happen is I lose you again, and I do not think I am strong enough to lose my child for a third time. No matter the age."