Adam's Eve

39

“Adam...” The woman croaked, voice hoarse as fresh tears fell from her damp eyes. “When you. . . when you told me your name was Adam Garcia. . . I. . . I. . .I told myself it wasn't you even though you looked so much like Refugio. But it. . . it's you. It really is you. My. . . my son.”

What? She was happy to see him? Then damn Adam loved her to the pits of hell.

He noticed the movement of her hand and quickly caught her by the wrist before it could touch his cheek, having a visceral feeling that another anathematized touch from her was going to wreck more havoc than it'd already done.

She winced, probably because he was squeezing her wrist too tight. Good, she deserved far more than that.

“Your son, huh?” He chuckled. “So now I'm your son? You fucking remembered now that you have a son?”

“I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. You don't know how much...” She trailed off, her body quavering as sobs racked through her body.

Adam was damned if he felt even an iota of pity for this woman, but he knew all too well what she going to say.

“What don't I know? How much you regret having left your two sons when they were just kids, one just an infant? That's going to make everything right in your opinion, isn't it?” He chortled. “Which planet are you from, Rebecca?”

He let go of her hand, feeling disgusted that he was even touching a woman like her. The hand immediately flew to her mouth as if she was trying to contain her sobs.

“I've never stopped regretting leaving my children and it haunts me everyday. But...” she sobbed. “I swear I looked for you. I came back a month after I'd left to find out you guys had moved from Los Angeles and gone to Mexico. I. . . hired a PI and It took me four years to find you. When I did, your dad kicked me out of the house. He said. . . he said he didn't want to be with a woman like me and he didn't want me to be a mother to his children.”

“You came looking for us?” Adam huffed at her audacity. “You think lying is going to get you anywhere? My dad would've told me about it.”

Her eyes widened, looking at his beseechingly. Adam scoffed. “I did! I swear I did!”

“And you think you can justify yourself with that? Leaving your children at the point of their lives when they needed you the most? And all for what? Your parents' money.”

Shame coloured her face before she covered it with her hands and sobbed into her palms. When she took off her hands, mucus was dripping down her nose.

She grabbed a tissue from a compartment in her car and wiped it clean. Grabbing another one, she wiped her eyes dry, but when she finally looked at him, fresh tears were streaming.

“I let the money influence my decisions. I know I wasn't the best mother, but I swear I wanted to take you boys with me. But my dad... He didn't want anything to do with you. It was either I returned alone to be part of their wealth or I didn't at all. I was still young. . . naive. I thought going back for my inheritance would be the best decision. Then I would find time to be with you guys regularly until things were stable enough.”

“That's why I came a month later looking for you guys only to find out your dad had taken you to Mexico. When I found you and he kicked me out, I told him I was going to fight. That I was never going to give up until he let me be with you. When I returned the next day, you'd vacated the neighbourhood again. You never stayed at one place for long, tampering with any way of tracing you.”

It all made sense now why four years after they'd moved to Mexico, his father kept moving them from place to place, crashing with a friend, hiring single rooms in rundown neighbourhoods. Why didn't his father ever tell him Rebecca had come looking for them?