CHAPTER FIFTY-FIVE

**OLIVER**
“Oliver…”
I forced my eyes open, the effort draining what little strength I had. I saw my mother standing before me, the same place Sasha had stood as she mocked me, and beside her, holding her hand lovingly was the bastard. He smiled widely, like a Cheshire Cat, his eyes fixated on me.
“Nice of you to stop by,” I said, unable to keep the anger and resentment out of my voice. “I was beginning to think that you had forgotten about me.”
My mother flinched, and the immediate pain I saw in her eyes as though my words had pierced a part of her soul. But Joshua…he just stood there watching the exchange.
“You’re my child, Oliver. I could never forget you.”
I scoffed and looked at where their hands were joined. My mother’s eyes followed mine, and she immediately pulled her hand away from his.
“So, you two are what? Together? A couple?”
My mother’s cheeks flooded a bright red, and she lowered her gaze, but not before I saw the happiness in them. The happiness that had been missing since the death of Jamie…and maybe even before then.
“Well…we…”
“Yes,” Joshua answered, his smile widening. “I and your mother are now together. We’re finally a family.”
I turned to my mother. “And what about me? What about our family?”
Joshua laughed. “What family? She was never happy with you anyway!”
I smiled sadly. Despite myself and my situation, a part of me was happy that my mother had found happiness. Even though it had come at my expense. Her cheeks had filled out, and her eyes had lost their characteristic hollowness. For the first time in a long time, her eyes were full of life. My mother’s eyes filled with tears and rolled down her cheeks, she quickly wiped them away and squared her shoulders, as though preparing for some sort of physical confrontation.
I ignored Joshua, my eyes glued to my mother. “What about me, mom?” I asked. “Where do I fit in your newfound happiness?”
“Oliver…”
“From where I’m seated, you seem to be fine with losing another child, as long as it means you get to stay with him,” I said and nodded toward Joshua.
My mother’s eyes moved from me to him and unshed tears gathered in them. I took a deep breath and let out a series of coughs, my eyes opening in alarm as blood spurted out of my mouth, onto my chest, and the surrounding stone floor and thin mattress. My mother gasped audibly, her eyes filling with worry and pain.
“Are you okay?” She asked.
“What the fuck does it look like?” I replied.
At least she had the good grace to look embarrassed.
“Have you had anything to eat or drink?” She asked. “You look pale.”
I looked around my room and realized that I had somehow gotten used to the smell and sight of my excreta. And yet now, the stench suddenly made me want to wretch. I swore under my breath, hating with every fiber of my being the cards I had been dealt.
“Again, Mom, what the fuck does it look like?”
My mother’s eyes well up with tears and she turns to this man, and it shocked me the amount of tenderness and love in his eyes when he looks down at her.
“Joshua,” she said, his name sounding like a prayer on her lips.
Joshua groaned and rubbed the bridge of his nose with his index and thumb finger. “What am I going to do with you, Sasha?” He asked softly and placed a kiss on her forehead. “Fine. I’ll see to it that he’s fed, clothed, and cleaned up.
“I need to go in there,” she said.
Joshua shook his head. “You don’t belong in there,” he replied.
“I need to see my son,” my mother said pleasingly.
Joshua sighed, “You can see him from here, my love.”
“I want to hold my child, Joshua.”
Joshua groaned and muttered something inaudible under his breath. “Fine.”
I watched as Joshua lifted his walking stick with the serpent head and waved it in the air. Almost immediately, I could feel the shift in the air, as though a layer had been lifted. My mother rushed into the cell, immediately scrunching her nose at the disgusting cell which made me wonder if even smells couldn’t escape the cell. She squats next to me and reaches out her hand to hold me, but I move away, well out of her reach.
“Don’t touch me,” I said simply. Happy to see the sadness reflected in her eyes up close.
“What does he plan to do with me?”
My mother’s eyes strayed to the man who stood at the entrance of my cells staring at the spectacle. He smiled wider at my question.
My mother looked from him to me, and I didn’t miss the nervous look in her eyes. Her mouth opens up to speak by the words refuse to tumble out. And that made me increasingly nervous.
“I…he’s not going to kill you…if that’s what you’re asking me.”
I took one look at Joshua and scoffed. “Wow, that’s very reassuring. So, what does he want and what does he plan to do to me?”
My mother turned to Joshua. “Could you please excuse us?”
Joshua’s eyes opened in surprise and for the first time since I had met him, he looked at a loss for words. His eyes strayed from his lover to me and then back to her, rage building in his gaze. He huffed and left us, the sound of his footsteps echoing through the cells as he strutted down the hallway.
“You seem to have him wrapped around your finger,” I stated.
My mother laughed and waved off my statement dismissively, her eyes still distant.
“Now that he’s gone, do you want to tell me his plans?”
“I don’t know,” she replied.
I stared at her, dumbfounded. “What do you mean you don’t know?!”
“Oliver…”
“Even now, you cannot bring yourself to choose me,” I said calmly, accepting that this was going to be my fate.
“He just wants the goddess’ power. He’s not going to kill you.”
I threw back my head and laughed. “You believe him, don’t you?”
She looked away from me, her eyes fixated on the spot her lover had just left, as though willing him to come back with her eyes.
“How does he plan to take it?” I asked.
“I don’t know yet, Oliver. But I promise you, I would never allow anything bad to happen to you,” she said, conviction clear in her eyes.
I chuckled. At that moment, I realized that he had her wrapped around his finger just as she had him.
“How is Sasha?” I asked. “Are you guys getting along?”
A wide smile spread across her face at the mention of the daughter that she hadn’t seen or gotten the chance to know. She went into detail of how Sasha was so happy to be home, to show her all the things she did and all the books she read as a child, to show her all the trails in the forest, and the small garden she had built. As though realizing where she was and what she was doing, she stopped talking abruptly and turned her head sharply to me.
“I’m sorry…” she said.
I chuckled and smiled at her. “No. Don’t be,” I said. “You look beautiful, you know.”
“What?” She asked, her eyes opening wide in surprise at the sudden change in topic.
“I said you look beautiful.”
“Umm…thank you.”
“I know it’s not the best time to say it, but you look really happy, Mom. I’ve never seen you like this all the time you were with my father.”
Her eyes watered at the mention of the man who had subdued her for so many years, and a very large part of me was glad that he was no longer in her life. The man who had stolen a majority of her youth, and taken the life from her eyes.
“Thank you,” she muttered, a small smile playing on her face.
She reached out to me again and this time I let her. A part of me was happy that if I died today, at least someone was going to be at peace, someone was going to be happy, someone was going to be safe…a family would be able to thrive. Jamie would have wanted that.
Jamie would want her to be happy.