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“What’s wrong, Mom? Did Nora hurt Dad?”
“No. She made…made him an offer.”
“An offer? What do you mean?” My voice rose an octave.
“This is too much to discuss here. We can talk about it later, Nadia. I promise.”
“No, Mom. It’s not too much. I’m an adult now, I can handle it. Please, I wouldn’t have asked if I couldn’t cope with the answer. I want to know…I need to know. Did she sexually proposition Dad?”
Mom gave a curt nod. Then she hunched her shoulders and curled her chin to hide her face from me. There was more, but she was afraid to tell me.She doesn’t want to hurt me.
“How did he get her to go with him?”
“Your Dad paid her to come back to our place with you. He was afraid for your safety. We gave her the trailer, and I offered to babysit while she looked for a job. She let us help. But when we confronted her about bringing her clients back to the trailer, she left.” Tears rolled down her cheeks. “We loved you from the very start. You’re our world. A true blessing from God and I thank Him every day for you both.”
“Nora was…a prostitute?” My voice choked with tears as I brought a shaky hand to my head that shook back and forth. Nausea twisted my stomach.No. That can’t be.But I knew it could. Nora had been poor and desperate, that I still vaguely remembered. She was the same age as me right now.After raising me well, I turned out the same….
Mom’s arm closed around my shoulder as tears streamed down my face. “Nora told me a man stole all her money and she didn’t have her birth certificate or any identification to get a job. But we found one. I didn’t want to tell you…I never wanted you to remember.”
I hugged her. Keeping that secret hurt her. But I knew why she didn’t tell me.
The story I remember was a fairy tale because that was all my little heart could handle. Nora came to buy a cookie, and she chose Mom and Dad because she couldn’t take care of me. That version of my history became sacred in my head, but it wasn’t all the truth, and I knew there was more.
“Maybe we should go home to talk about it,” Mom offered.
Mom was going to try to tell me the full story, but I could already see it was too much for her right now, especially with all she had on her plate. To be honest, I wasn’t sure I even wanted to know anymore. With Dad sick, the job rejection, Paul, and the reporter trying to talk about Justus, my plate was too full.I can’t take anymore right now.
“You told me what I wanted to know, and that’s the end of it. No way am I wasting our time together.”
I took a deep breath, then looked out the window at the Crescent Moon Bakery. “The lounge looks okay, but they have no idea that they are missing the best monkey bread invented.”
Mom gave me an out with a change in subject as she slowly exhaled.“That’s true. I heard from the owner, Jenny, that they get asked about it all the time.”
“Maybe we can make some and sell them to their shop?” I suggested.
Mom slapped her knee, and I laughed out loud. “That’s a great idea. See? Us Sokols will work it out. That’s who you are, a Sokol. We love you and couldn’t ask for better.”
“Neither could I, Mom.”
Mom and Dad gave me a good home, love, and support. Yet somehow, I still ended up like Nora.
I’m just like her. Falling in love with a rich, powerful man…selling myself.
I turned my head to cover the tear at the corner of my eye and coughed to not give my mom any attention to my thoughts. I flicked on the radio for distraction.
We left the car and picked up acorn squash and a loaf of pumpkin bread before returning home to prepare for our walk. I changed into a pair of cargo pants, a flannel, a zip-up jacket, and waterproof shoes.
Mom was dressed the same, with her hair covered by a Green Bay Packers hat. She stared at me. “You even look different in your old clothes…almost like they don’t belong on you.”
I glanced down at myself. The clothing was quite the contrast from the custom clothes Paul had me wear. My mind went to the time in Paris when he had me try on lingerie for him. The smoldering look he gave me as he stared at me naked. The way he unabashedly touched himself while watching me.He couldn’t keep his hands off me the entire trip.
I miss it. I miss Paul.
“Earth to Nadia,” Mom smirked and handed me the keys. “Paul again and a good memory, I believe. Sex?”
My face warmed. “I don’t want to answer that.”
“I was young once, you know. Sex is hot initially, but you have to have more to last. You loved the luxury, and I don’t blame you. But even a fancy palace could feel like a prison sooner or later.”
