Minutes Before The Miracle

CHAPTER - 36

Thought of the chapter :-
Only in darkness can we glimpse the fullest light our soul carries for us.
        - Angie Weiland-Crosby

-x-

STEVEN

"HOPE.

For a long time, she felt like a mirage.

She provided me warm food, cosy clothes and a comforting home. She calmed me down at nights, held me during haunting nightmares and sat by my side throughout my therapy sessions.

I had gone mute after that awful phase of my life. So quiet. More silent than silence itself.

She used to talk to me continuously but never once did I reply. Everyday, she got me something or the other; books, chocolates, quirky little things. I never accepted any apart from bare necessities 'cause I was afraid. So very afraid to be used again. So terrified to get thrown away..."

Taking long breaths, I try to cool down my system.

"She is your mother. Isn't she?" Emma whispers.

"She wasn't my mother. My mother died right after bringing me into this world. However, Hope, she became one."

The universe definitely goes about in strange ways. To meet your mother after fifteen significant years of life is nothing short of a miracle.

Looking into Emma's eyes, I realise that the pall of gloom I had witnessed a few moments ago has changed into a sparkle of hope. Such is hope! It gives you a reason to live, no matter the despondence.

"One night, shivering amidst my nightmare, I was crying, all huddled up on the bed when she came. Tightening her tender arms around my frame, she placed a soft kiss on top of my head.

After what felt like aeons, I lifted up my head and uttered a word that I never did since the beginning of my being,'MAMMA...'.

She slowly looked into my eyes, surprise and sheer joy burning in hers and do you know what her reply was?" I look at Emma who raises a brow curiously.

This girl!

Ever the curious.

"She called me 'STEVEN'. With tear filled eyes, she kept kissing me. And from that day on, I became Steven Bradshaw...

Hope Bradshaw was the best that happened to me. Her husband, my dad, David Bradshaw has also been so supportive all these years.

Only later did I come to know that Steven was the real child of mom and dad, whom they lost to leukemia. Mom couldn't control herself and did something so terrible that she lost her ability to give birth. After she gained her senses back, she decided to adopt. And so, I became her first child.

Two years later, mom and dad adopted Aria. She was a year younger to me but not as lost as me. By that time, I had already established control over my life and was a student. We quickly bonded and became inseparable. She was the sweetest girl I ever met."

I look at Emma smilingly and she gives back a small smile. There is another emotion running through her that I can't quite pinpoint.

"Then came Avery and Stephen, the cute, little chatterbox and the naughty kid."

Emma laughs at that. What a melody it is to the ears!

"At eighteen, I could spot potential in telecommunications and finance. I invested in both and that the beginning of Bradshaw Enterprises. I started from scratch and the..."

"...the rest is history," Emma cuts me off mid-statement and I give her a small nod.

"You know what, you are the first person to know so much about me. My mother never asked me anything, nor did I tell her. The others don't have that kind of audacity in their nerves. But you... you are different. One of a kind," I mumble at the end, tucking an unruly strand of hair behind her ear.

Her eyes are flooding with emotions - hope, joy, uncertainty, surprise, desire. She gulps audibly.

"Don't give me that look please," she speaks in an undertone, her eyes downcast.

"What look?" I ask.

"The one that starts a trail of warm, fuzzy feeling and spreads all over inside me."

It's my turn to gulp now.

A stroke of thunder rumbles outside and Emma shuts her eyes. I look through the glass windows to see rain pouring down in sheets and flashes of lightening illuminating the night sky.

"Emma, look at me," I plead her but she doesn't. "Please."

And slowly, so tantalizingly does she raise her eyes to look to me.

"Ten years are gone Emma, where the hell were you?

There is still so much pain. Take it away, I plead you...," I murmur desperately.

Staring fervently into her ocean deep hazel, I move forward and capture her lips in mine, letting our bated breaths mingle. I could hold no more. She responds after few tormenting seconds and I get the answer I needed.

Pulling the string of her robe, I get lost. We get lost. Together.

Tonight, the storm inside is way more intense than the storm outside.