AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Paul rubbed my back. “I didn’t tell you about the kiss—”
“I didn’t tell you about Hayden’s kiss.” My voice was nonchalant.
“He kissed you?” he hissed.
“It didn’t mean enough to share with you.”
Paul sulked, but I pressed my lips to his a few times until he broke into a smile. “Okay. I’m letting it go, but that fucker.”
“I could also get angry and feel hurt, but I’m engaged and maybe pregnant soon.” That brought a smile back to Paul’s face, and he embraced me.
“Really?” Laurence’s face lit up like Christmas.
I smiled. “We’re trying,”
Paul leaned over my ear. “And your period should have started a couple of days ago.”
My cheeks warmed, but I grinned. “You remember that?”
“I don’t forget anything about you.”
Paul sat to the side, and I sat down before the computer monitor and took a deep breath. This was the moment I waited so many years for. She’s a mother. I want to be a mother, too. This is for my future children. “I’m ready.”
Thump. Thump. Thump. My heart pounded against my ribcage. I clicked the FaceTime icon to connect, and after a few moments, she appeared. Celeste. Nora. Her brown hair had bleached sun streaks and covered the scar on her face I’d seen on the photo. Her delicate face, pretty, but fuller than what I remembered as a child. There were lines around her eyes and mouth. She had on no makeup, but her skin was tan and radiant. Her eyes appeared a deep blue. Blue. I didn’t remember them as a deep blue. Her wide lips twitched as she stared back at me. She adjusted her blazer collar—a nice blue one over one of the smock dresses I’d seen in her video.
“You…you look just like him, like Justus,” she rasped. For a second, I could see the stars in her eyes, and I imagined the adoration she might have had for him.
I nodded in agreement. “Yes, I look like him.” And you.
Her eyes watered and tears fell down her face in a stream. “I…I thought you might have some questions. You can ask me.” Her arched brows lifted.
“Did you ever think about me?” My voice wavered.
She nodded and wiped under her eyes. “Uh, yeah…yes I used to often.”
Used to. I didn’t think much of her when I moved on with my life. Only because I ran into Justus.
“You sew?” she asked.
I smiled. “I do, and I knit. I’m in college at New York City School of Design, and right now, I’m in the middle of an internship at Givenchy in Paris.”
I cringed inside. A part of me still wanted to show her I turned out good, and she had missed out.
Celeste shrugged. “Oh, that sounds good. Good for you.”
Sweat broke across my body, and my stomach twisted in knots. I’d reached the ultimate question—the one I thought about asking a billion times.…
“Did you miss me? Did you ever regret what you did…?” The answer wasn’t for me, but for that child inside me who was broken—the one who desperately wanted to be good enough to keep. She needed to hear the truth.
Celeste curled her chin under. “I…I was a heroin addict and a high school dropout. My boyfriend beat me and took all the money I had…I turned tricks to feed you, and I got thrown in jail. What did I ever have to give you? I never sold you, though. But no, I don’t regret leaving you or giving you up.”
I swallowed against the lump in my throat. “Good. I’m glad you did.”
She let out a sob, and my pulse sped up, fearing she’d end the call, but she blew her nose into a cloth and stayed.
“Agata, she was real nice, and Darek, too. They were good to you, then?” she asked.
“Yes, wonderful to me.” I nodded and smiled. “They took great care of me.”
