Chapter 32

Katya rubbed her hands on her dress for the umpteenth time that morning. She was nervous, and kept glancing at the door, watching and listening to know the exact moment someone walked in. Her aunt was coming- Michal said she could not go and meet her because her father could have people watching their house.

It was time to know, she had waited this long. What happened to her mother and why were the letters she found, sent from her aunt’s address? Sensing that a day might not be enough- the more reason why she found herself falling for him, Michal had arranged for her aunt to stay over with her cousins, should they choose to spend the night.

Katya hoped that they would.


The door opened and Michal walked in with three people- an older woman with two others, a lady and man that looked her age or a little above.

She did not wait to find out if the woman was her aunt or not. She could already tell- Katya flew across the room into the open arms, hugging and crying.

“You look just like your mother,” the older woman said affectionately, patting her back. “You look just like your mother. I would have singled you out in a crowd.”




“I wrote letters,” Katya said when she stepped back,” I wrote letters to you after the first set. But papa said I could not talk to you anymore. I tried to come see you, but he banned me from coming here. I’m so sorry.”

Motherly hands cupped her face and warm eyes stared into hers.
“It wasn’t your fault, darling. It wasn’t. You did the best you could. Your letters were how we found out you were still alive. If you didn’t…we thought you were dead.”

Her father, Katya knew. In his sick, twisted way, kept her hidden from the people who loved her. Buried the identity of her mother and her maternal family. His own way of showing love. How she had come to loathe it so much.

“No, no Katya. Don’t think of him. It would only fill your heart with hate and your mother wouldn’t have wanted that. Think of now, you have me and you have your cousins.”

Katya looked to them and they smiled at her- genuine smiles that told her she was welcomed to the family. A true family.

“But- what happened to my mother?” She asked.

“Let me show you to your rooms,” Michal offered, and Katya realized he was still there, watching the scene unfold.


Katya walked behind them, telling herself to be patient, that they just arrived and she had hours to learn the truth. But she could not shrug off the urgency that settled in her and claimed residence. She wanted something, a word that would set her heart at ease.

She already knew her mother was long dead, but the memories…the best parts of her that must remain, the ones her father banned her from having knowledge of. She itched to know.







•••

Michal met her, trying to hide her tears behind the truth she desperately wanted to be different than what it was. When his arms came around her, she leaned into the embrace and sighed heavily.

“You’re with me,” he said, kissing her softly. “No matter what happens, I have you. Okay? You’re here and you have me, and that’s all that matters.
The rest, we’ll figure it out.”

She wanted to believe him- because it was true. He was the only truth in her life at this point. But how could she come to terms with her truth?

“My mother was a pusher.” It was a statement and a question. She wanted him to confirm what she’d been told, and also deny it too.
She did not want it to be true, and she wanted him to say the truth.

“She told you,” Michal said. It wasn’t a question, but a statement.

“Why? How? Why didn’t she leave him when things got rough?”
How could her mother have endured a life with a man who deceived her and then made her into something she was not? Her aunt told her how it all started.

How her mother was completely smitten with a man they knew was bad news. Because his father- her paternal grandfather had been involved in a series of nefarious acts.
Her mother wouldn’t listen and she told her sister, and her parents that the man she was in love with, would not toe his father’s line. He would not hurt her and break the promise they had.


They tried persuading her, until one day she told them she was pregnant and she would be marrying the father. All pleas and promises that they would support her if she would only leave him, fell on deaf ears.

They didn’t attend the wedding, thinking her family’s displeasure would be enough to make her see reason. It wasn’t, and they did not hear from her again until Katya was born, and she sent a message to her sister to help her.


Shortly after, Katya’s father announced his wife’s death and buried her before they could come and see the body. He forbade them from taking Katya and threatened violence if they dragged the matter in court.


The letters arrived months after Katya was born and her aunt kept sending them, hoping that one day her niece would get the chance to know about her mother.


Well, Katya knew one thing for sure. Her father deserved a worse fate than hell.