POV: Victoria
Mom’s face twisted in anguish. She could not believe that I would be this blunt with her. I guess she never thought I could stand up to her like Claire did. She reached out to me and tried to hold my hand, but I pulled my hand away, taking a step back to put some distance between us, moving away from her.
“I am only here because I want to hear your side of the story. I want to hear what you have to say, I want to give you a chance to come clean and be honest with me. I could get Miguel to back down and not open any investigation on my kidnap if only you could confide in me and tell me the whole truth. But if you don’t tell me the truth, mom. I will leave you and never look back, I will turn a blind eye to your plight when my family comes with the police. You will never see me again mom, I will never come back here!” I told her sternly, meaning every damn word.
“Are you fucking kidding me right now?!” Claire asked in anger, glaring at me furiously.
“Why is everyone being so selfish and stupid, why?
Why are you thinking only about yourself, Victoria, is it because you found your family already?
What about me, what about my own family?
Why are you threatening to walk away instead of telling this woman you call mother that she must speak the truth and also face the law for the crimes she committed against us. I want to meet my own family too, Victoria!
So nobody is walking out of here, not when this woman has not said anything useful to us. Tell me how to find my real family start talking already!” Claire yelled at her, her eyes filled with fury.
“Tell us, everything mom, how did we get into your home, how did you become our mother?” I asked her, trying to maintain my calmness and probably get her to tell is the truth.
“You asked us to be here this morning mom, you told Dominic and Raphael that you are ready to tell us the truth. Well, here we are, mom. We are here just like you asked. Tell us the whole truth or the minute I walk out of here, I am going straight to the police station to make a report about two girls that were kidnapped as babies and raised by a complete stranger. I bet the cops would be happy to finally close this case and move on to the next. Do you want to know the evidence I have to prove that you are not our mother?” Claire asked her, smiling evilly at her.
Mom frowned deeply, her eyes looking a bit suspicious and furious at the same time. She looked at us and smiled, forcing it out to put our minds at ease. Claire looked at me and I returned the stare before we both turned to stare at Mom, wondering what she was up to this time. Is she really going to admit to her mistake, is she going to tell us the truth?
To be honest, a part of me wants all this to be a bad dream. There is a part of me that wishes that she didn’t say anything that would make me hate her. I wish she would pick up her laptop or her phone and show us some evidence to prove that everyone is lying and that she is our real mom. I just want our family to go back to being normal again, I can’t deal with the pain and heartbreak, it’s just too much for only me to bear.
“You have two options girl, you can sit down and take a glass of wine and listen while I tell you everything you wish to know. If you can love and trust me like a mother and come with me, girls. Let’s leave this city! We can be happy again, together!” she let out with so much emotion to her words, trying to coax us. Her words dripped with desperation, a plea that felt both familiar and terrifying.
This is not the first time she is using this method to try and get is to do exactly what she wants. It hurt to think that all these years she has been manipulating us, making us do what she wants just to keep her damn secrets. How long was she planning to lie to us, how long did she think that she would keep manipulating us to do her bidding?
“No!” Claire, who had been silent until now, finally spoke up.
“We won’t go anywhere with you. Not after everything.” She told her firmly. Mom’s expression darkened as she realized she was losing us. Her fear turned to desperation and she reached out to hold my hand again, trying to reason with me. But I pulled away as if I had just been burned with fire. I could tell that my actions hurt her feelings. But that is not my fault, is it?
“You don’t understand what they’ll do to you, you don’t understand my fears. They will tear us apart, they will destroy our family!
Everything I worked so hard to achieve will be taken away from me, I will lose you two and I will be broken and miserable!” she complained, her face scrunching up in pain.
“We’re already apart!” I cried in frustration, stepping closer to Claire for support. We shared a look to assure each other that we were both on the same page this time.
“All our lives you’ve kept us from knowing who we really are!
It’s time to come clean and tell us the truth, I mean everything. If I find out that you kept some secrets from us, I will never forgive you, I will make sure you face the law!” I told him firmly.
“She is going to face the law either way,” Claire added angrily, folding her hands and staring at Mom angrily.
“Fine!” Mom let out furiously.
“If that is how you girls want it, then don’t blame for whatever the outcome of your demands turns out to be. But I want you to always remember that I offered you two options and you chose the option that would break our family, not me. No sit down and get ready for a long, long story,” she told us sternly, her face scrunched up in a smile that made her look like an evil villain or something.
In a sudden burst of anger, she turned around and grabbed two glasses from the table, and filled them with our favorite drinks. She made strawberry flavored wine for me and a Vanilla flavoured drink for Claire. She smiled as she handed the glasses to us as if we were kids.
“Drink this! It will calm your nerves,” she urged us, her voice now eerily soothing. My instincts screamed at me to refuse as I recalled Miguel’s warning before I left the house. But Claire never hesitated. She gulped down her drink and requested for another. I’m not supposed to be scared of my mom, am I?
For crying out loud, I’m supposed to be the good daughter. Why am I feeling this way around a woman I’ve called mother all my life. It just feels so weird. I guess it has something to do with Miguel’s warning and the fact that my mom may or may not be the person who kidnapped me from the hospital as a baby.
Yeah, you heard me right. Until I can prove that she is the one who kidnapped me, I will keep assuming that I was adopted by her. I shook my head to clear my thoughts as I sipped from the glass of wine in my hand, savoring the taste. It tastes a bit different from the ones we used to have. I wonder what is so different about this one, something is off.
“What is this?
It tastes so different, why?” I asked in confusion.
“It’s just a drink, Victoria. Your favorite drinks, I made it myself.” Mom insisted, her demeanor shifting again to one of false calmness.
“Trust me, I made it specifically for you two. I mean, if you girls are going to hare me after this, at least you will remember the nice cocktail I made for you, right?” she asked, smiling at us.