Mum, if you’re still looking down at me from above, I hope you can see that I’ve found happiness now. I’m doing great for myself and there is nothing that you need to worry about anymore…
Since Reiner didn’t know and there were strict policies in place in disclosing names of clients at King’s company, I had given up on finding who was behind my mother’s death. For a while, I thought that it no longer mattered if I knew the truth or not. Time had passed, life moved on, and most importantly, I had moved on. I stared at the document on my laptop’s screen and realized that it felt so different to know the truth. Finally, thanks to Zak, I can fully put this behind me.
Perhaps it was because his mother was responsible for my mother’s death that Zak wanted to share this information with me. Maybe he felt like it was his responsibility to expose his mother’s crimes and all that she had done to hurt me. Madame Francesca was never been kind to me and she probably saw me as less than a human being; however, because she was so well respected and revered, I never imagined that she would be involved in so many illegal activities.
At that moment, I didn’t care too much about Madame Francesca because I was more worried about Zak. After all, they are still mother and son.
My eyes fell to the handwritten note that Zak had sent to me along with the USD drive when I realized why we needed to talk. With all of this information that had undoubtedly painfully collected, what does he plan to do with it?
‘Call me when you are ready’
Am I ready to call him right now?
I glanced at the clock in the room and realized that I only had around an hour before Reiner would be back. After we go on our honeymoon trip, I might not get a chance to call Zak until after the trip. If I wanted to call him, it was clear that I had to do it now.
Ready or not, I have to face this head on.
I reached for my phone and then I started inputting the phone number that Zak had written down for me. Despite his playful nature, Zak doesn’t do things without a good reason. I prayed that he would pick up the phone.
My wish was swiftly granted. After a few seconds of waiting on the line, the line connected, and I knew that Zak was the one on the other side of the line.
“Zak…” I called his name softly.
“Natalia?” Zak’s familiar voice called my name.
When I got on that plane that day, I honestly never thought that I would hear his voice ever again. It just seemed like I was going somewhere very far away, and I had to leave everything and everyone in my old life behind. Just hearing his voice made me cry. I tried to silence my sobs as tears streamed down my face.
“Natalia? What’s wrong? Are you still there?” Zak asked with concern as if he could sense that I was crying.
“I’m fine. I got your present…” I replied in a shaky voice.
“Are you crying? You’re crying, right?” Zak asked rhetorically.
“Umm…” I affirmed as I nodded and started to cry some more.
I heard Zak let out a loud sigh as if he had started to regret what he had done.
“Did my present hurt you?” Zak asked and his voice was so soothing.
If he was here, I’ll lay my head in his lap and he’ll stroke my hair just like he always used to when I was upset. I wiped the tears from my eyes when I realized that nothing like that would ever happen.
“No, I was just shocked but thank you for showing me everything. I guess, I still wanted to know the truth no matter what,” I said honestly.
“I see. That’s what I thought. It might hurt at first but, I think that it’ll help you to move on without regrets,” Zak said followed by a small cheerful laugh.
Considering that the crimes that he had just exposed were those of his mother’s, it was frankly amazing how Zak could still laugh like that.
“I’m so sorry, Zak…” I apologized from the bottom of my heart.
“What are you talking about?” Zak asked lightly.
“For causing you so much pain…from this…” I replied before biting hard on my lower lip.
“Listen Natalia, there’s nothing for you to be sorry about,” Zak said casually.
“Umm…what should we do from now on?” I asked the question that I feared the most.
Knowing Zak, there was no way that he would just let something like this slide even if that person in question was his own mother. Plus, I could tell that he went to great lengths to collect that much information against his mother, and he probably didn’t do that just for fun.
“What do you want to do?” Zak answered my question with a question of his own.
Why did he have to leave it up to me to decide?
“I don’t know. She’s your mother…” I said in defeat.
I was torn between bringing Madame Francesca to justice so that she could pay for all the immoral things that she did or just letting it all slide so that I didn’t have to hurt Zak. No matter what happens, my mother won’t ever come back to life.
“Are you worried about me?” Zak asked emotionlessly.
“Yes…” I admitted truthfully.
“I think I’m going to expose all her crimes and hopefully she can live the rest of her days behind bars,” Zak stated as if he was talking about someone that he didn’t know.
I gasped loudly and I was sure that Zak heard me.
“Surprised?” Zak asked teasingly.
“Yes…” I replied softly.
“Don’t worry about anything anymore, Natalia. You’ll probably see this on the news soon so just do your best to ignore it and be strong,” Zak advised.
“Are you sure?” I asked in a small voice.
“Yes, I think this is what is best for both of us. Let’s correct the past and let’s move on from this…” Zak replied confidently.
–To be continued…