Chapter 91

AMBER'S POV
'I am just so glad the kids ended up with Jay Harley. What would you have done?" Carol said as she gave him a hug immediately she walked up to the counter. As soon as I had woken up that morning, I had placed a call to her to let her know we had found the kids and they were safe.
Carol glanced at me from the calculations she was doing, 'What is your relationship with Jay Harley by the way? It just seems odd that whenever you're in trouble, he shows up" she asked with a smile on her face. I knew what the smile meant but I decided to ignore it.
'It all just kind of happened like that, Carol. I am eternally grateful to the man" I sighed heavily. What I felt for Jay Harley surpassed gratitude but was I going to give a name to the emotion just yet? I didn't think so.
Always the master of switching topics, Carol leaned closer, 'How did the conversation with your mum go? Have you guys resolved things?" I could see the genuine concern on her face but my mother was a topic I had unconsciously shoved to the back of my mind.
'With everything going on with Mel and the kids, I haven't been able to hold a proper conversation with her" I opened up to Carol. I had spent way too much of my life lying to everyone, everyone except Carol.
'But the little conversation you guys had, how did it go?" I would have termed any other person's questions as a way to satisfy their curiosity but I knew where Carol's was coming from and I appreciated it more than anything.
I sighed again, 'She wants to see the kids" my voice was more of a whisper when I spoke. The look on Carol's face was inescapable, I had the same look when she had made the request.
RECAP
'Hi baby" That was all she had said and that was all the dam needed to break out. I couldn't tell how long I had been crying but she was just silent and waited for me to calm down.
'I'm so sorry I haven't reached out all this while" Mum's voice was exactly the same. Nostalgia swept me off my feet almost immediately. It had been too long, way too long.
I wanted to scream, I wanted to yell at her for being so heartless as to abandon her 17 year old daughter cause she got pregnant. I wanted to give her back all the curses I had had to endure for years but I couldn't. Instead I asked,
'Why?!"
'Why did you not call all these years?!"
'Why did you abandon your only daughter?"
'Why were you so inhumane?"
All the questions that were formulating in my head were all filled with ‘Whys'. Why had she abandoned me when I needed her the most?
I sniffed loudly, 'What do you want Rosemary?" I asked with anger lacing my voice. There was a long pause and then i heard her sniffle slightly before her voice came out in a hushed tone.
'I just want to apologize for everything, baby. I am so sorry" I had waited years for her apology but now that I was getting it, all I wanted to do was to smash something.
Lacing my voice with as much venom as I could muster, I replied, 'I don't need your apology, Rose. What the hell do you want from me?!" I screamed into the receiver.
As a child, hearing my mom cry had broken my heart in more ways than I could talk about but as I stood and listened to her cry, I knew it was the healing I needed.
'I'm so sorry, baby. I'm sorry" her voice came out hoarse amidst tears. I was crying too, even more than she was but I wasn't going to make her think I was still vulnerable. I wasn't 17 anymore, she had no power over my life and I was going to make it clear to her.
'She said she wanted to do what?!" Carol asked with her voice going an octave higher. She wasn't one to get angry easily but Rosemary Swift had been the devil incarnate in my life. Not again. I wouldn't let her dictate my life for me anymore. Not again.
I gathered myself, 'She said she wants to meet the triplets. She wants to make everything right" I answered with a bitter laugh accompanying my statement. Make everything right? The only thing Rosemary Swift was good at was making everything wrong.
Carol voiced out my thoughts, 'It took 10 whole years for her to come to the conclusion that it was time to make things right?" The question was more rhetorical but it was exactly in the same line of thoughts as mine.
'What do you intend on doing?" Carol asked the million dollar question after we had sat in silence for a few minutes. I looked from her to the aisle I had started arranging. There was only one thing I could do at this time, it wasn't something wise but at least it would get Rosemary to stop bombing my phone with calls.
Rosemary Swift was not only a heartless inhuman woman, she was a very stubborn one at that. She would stop at nothing to get what she wanted even if it would end up damaging the lives of other people. It didn't matter to her, as long as she benefitted from the whole exchange.
Realizing I had kept Carol waiting for my response, I gave her a little smile, 'There's only one way to deal with my mother" I paused when Carol looked like she wanted to cut in and ask something. But then she realized I was just pausing for effect, which actually made me smile.
'Like I was saying," I continued, 'The only way to deal with my mother is to give her exactly what she want"