Maya

Part 27 - forgiveness

There is a long authors note at the bottom of this chapter, you may choose to read it before reading this chapter. Thank you readers.

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'Maya darling?' Uncle Ben says, looking straight into my eyes.

Uncle Ben is here. Why is he here.

'Who is it love?' Noah shouts from the living room.

My silence must've worried him because i heard his footsteps quickly slamming against the ground as he approached me from behind. I couldn't find the strength in me to turn my eyes away from the man standing before me.

'Who is-' Noah starts but stops mid sentence when he lays his eyes on Uncle Ben.

'Maya step aside.'

I do as he says.

'What are you doing here? I thought i told you not to come anywhere near her again. I would've thought the beating we gave you had taught you enough of a lesson.' Noah raises his voice at him.

'Please just let me talk to Maya, please.' Uncle Ben begs.

'If you think i would even give you the chance to be alone with her again, then you are delusional.'

'I understand that. And I am sorry, but please can you just hear me out?' Uncle Ben begs again.

Noah looks to me and his eyes soften, I give him a gentle nod to tell him that it's okay.

'You have 5 minutes.' Noah tells him.

Ben turns to me. 'Maya I am sorry. I am so sorry for what I did to you. Well for what I haven't done. I'm sorry for not looking after you the way I should, and for just not being there when you needed me most. If I could go back and do it all again, I would be better.'

'But you can't go back and do it all again.' My voice stutters as I try to contain my emotions.

Noah's hand brushes against mine beside me and he interlocks our fingers and gives me hand a gentle squeeze to remind me that he's there.

'I know.' He sighs, his eyes trailing to the ground.

The silence which engulfs us stays for a few minutes as we all stand there awkwardly.

'I've been going to therapy.' My uncle breaks the silence. 'It has taken a lot of pushing from my therapist but she has gotten me to talk about my feelings openly. I know this doesn't mean anything much to you but I'd like to explain why I have been the way I have to you Maya.'

I believe him. For once his words seem genuine. 'Okay, please continue.' I try to be kind.

'I've never told you about this but when I grew up my parents hurt me.' He takes a deep breath and my eyes widen. Noah squeezes my hand to remind me that he is still there.

'If my grades were bad, if I was too loud, if I didn't help around the house, they would hurt me. Once they hit me so hard I was out for a whole day.' My heart shatters. He continues, 'I tolerated it until I was eighteen and then I moved out. I dropped out of college, I fell into drugs, alcohol and I never came back from it. I got addicted and I couldn't pull myself out of it. I grew up from that point onwards knowing nothing other than the taste of alcohol and the feeling of drugs, then you came along Maya and I couldn't even pull myself into some sort of human being to look after you.' Tears start to form in his eyes. 'Maya I am so unbelievably sorry.' He says, his voice breaking.

He clears his throat and says, 'I don't expect you to forgive me, I am glad you are safe and happy, but I am going to get better, for you and for myself. I wanted to give you this.'

He holds out an envelope to me with my name written neatly on the front. I hesitate but reach my hand out to take it from him.

'The money of yours I spent, plus an extra 500. Money isn't my way of saying sorry but I wanted to make sure you got back what I took from you. Use it to start taking driving lessons, go on a holiday, or to go to college. Just please use it for something nice for yourself.'

'Thank you Uncle Ben, thank you for everything you've just said. I haven't forgiven you, it will take time.' I leave it at that not sure what else to say.

'That's okay, I don't expect you to forgive me, I just wanted you to listen and you did, so I thank you Maya. I'll be on my way now. Have a good night, the both of you.' He smiles and nods at Noah. With that he walks away into the darkness of the night.

Noah shuts the door and uses his hand to tilt my chin up to look at him. 'You okay?'

I nod 'I'm okay'.

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The conversation with my Uncle wouldn't leave my mind for the next few days. The way he spoke to me that night was not the uncle Ben I have always known, he was different. Good different.

It took a lot of convincing with Noah, but I had decided I wanted to meet my uncle for a coffee to talk properly. We met in a coffee bar and after an hour of talking, we must have talked about more than we had in our whole lifetime together. Finally I got to know him, my real Uncle and it was nice. We agreed that I wouldn't be moving back in again and he was okay with that. However, we said we would both spend one hour each week getting a drink and getting to know each other again now that he is doing better and he is sober.

I went home that night and booked a holiday with Noah, Seb and Drixen. I used the money my uncle gave me. We were going to Greece!

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authors note

Hi everyone, there is nothing I could say to make up for the fact that it has been 2 years since my last update.. I guess life got in the way, and I decided not to continue this story. I started this book when I was 16, I've just turned 19 and decided to come back and finish from where I left off. Honestly, there is only a chapter or two left for me to write for this book, it is nearly over. If anyone has come back to read my book still, I'd like to say a massive thank you. It felt wrong to leave this story. After reading through it I've realised how much better it could be. Because of this, i've decided I will wrap this story up in a few chapters and I will write a new book, potentially following on from this book with the same characters. I want to thank everyone who has read my book so far and i'm glad to be back and to be updating it, despite it being 2 years later. Thank you everyone.