Broken words. Broken Promises

Chapter 2

Dragos

When Neema came back into Minerva's office, she avoided all eye contact with me. I wanted to laugh at the audacity that she showed me, but I was going to give her this because this wasn't the place for all of this. If she wanted to play like she didn't know me then that was what we were going to do. Granted, she probably wanted nothing to do with me ever again, but can she blame me? Seeing her one more time, every part of me awakened. All this time, these years I had been seeing her only in my memories. Everything about her was now different, she was different. Even when I watched her as she sat with us pretending to fully focus on her work. Minerva gave her the time and space to tell us about the project that she basically put together.

Somethings changed but not her ambition or her drive. The same smile she had when she talked about doing something opposite of what her family approved of especially her father. She wasn't afraid of him but there was that unknown fear that she grew up with. The fear of disappointing her parents and their families back home. I could never forget how much she hated it when they would ask her what would they tell their family back home? The families back in Congo didn't care about being a fashion editor or none of that. They cared about being an engineer, a doctor or stretching it out, a lawyer. That was better than what they considered a money-less or jobless career path like the one that she truly wanted to be in.

I was proud of her because here she was, doing what she said she would do. She followed the path that she wanted to be on. She didn't give up. My phone ringing pulled me out of the moment, I reached in my pocket to see who was calling me. When I saw, Amir's daycare calling, I immediately picked it up.

"Hello?" I answered in a panic. They never called me during the day.

"Mr. Demir? It's Ashleigh from Smiles Daycare,"

"Is everything okay?" I asked as I stood not even bothering to excuse myself. I walked out of the office and kept walking towards the exit sign.

"Yes, everything is okay, but Amir is a bit... Uh, how do I say this? He's been crying about his mother and I don't know how to calm him, he's been asking for you."

I sighed running a hand through my hair then I ran the same hand over my face. Amir had been seeing a child psychologist, he was a very quiet kid and he rarely expressed how he felt. After Defne passed, he resorted to not speaking for months and he started speaking once we moved but not all the time. I worried about him so much sometimes.

"Okay, can you get him ready for me Ashleigh? I'll come and get him."

"Alright, sorry, I really tried." I know she did. She really loved Amir and he clicked with her the most, so I understood the defeat in her voice.

"It's not your fault, it's no one's really," except Amir's waste of a bio-dad but that information didn't need to be given. "I'll be there in about twenty. Can you put him on the phone? Is that possible?"

"Yeah, sure!" There was shuffling in the background and then Amir was on the phone.

At first, he didn't say anything. He was silent and I gave him the time he needed then finally he spoke up,

"amcam," My Uncle. His little voice called out to me.

"Amir? You okay little buddy?"

"Mmhmm, Ms. Ashleigh said you're coming?"

"Evet," yes."I'll be there in a little bit. Can you ready with Ms. Ashleigh for me?"

"Okay."

"Love you."

"Love you too amcam."

When I hung up, I cracked my neck. I shut my eyes for a second letting go of all of the anger that I held for my brother-in-law. I wanted to kill him with my bare hands but the fact that he had gone in hiding meant that he was guilty and that he knew I would kill him if I ever spotted him. He had something to do with my baby sister dying and when I found everything out about the so-called car accident, I would end his life in front of his entire family.