To Be a Hero | MLB

30: The Apology

"My parents showed up and demanded I come home. My plan failed—they didn't miss me, they were just mad that I'd run away and given them a boatload of stress. They forced me to return home with them, and your father and I promised to keep in touch. But this was before modern technology existed, so we quickly lost contact with each other. He didn't have my address, and I didn't have his, so we couldn't even send letters. It was... the worst heartbreak of my life. Well, the second-worst."

I frown, confused. "But... you obviously found each other again, right? That's not the end."

"No, it's not. He came to the United States a year later, searching for me. It took him over two years of asking around, but... he eventually found me. I freed myself from my parents, we got married, then you and your brothers came along. Everything was great, we were all happy, until..."

"The crash," I say for her.

"The crash."

We sit in silence for a while as parts of my mom's story start to piece together in my mind. She never told me the details of how she and my dad met, only that it took place in Paris when they were eighteen, and they got married and had my brothers and me in the United States. But now that I know all the pain she felt even during the happiest times of her life... it's hard not to feel some kind of sympathy for her.

I peer at her through the darkness and see the shimmering tears trailing down her brown cheeks, then reach across the table and take her hand.

She sniffles and squeezes my fingers. "I'm telling you all this because... well, after you left your brothers the day my vase broke, you started to remind me of myself. A reckless, angry girl alone on the streets of Paris. And, Tori, that scared me. So much. I never wanted you to end up like me, all heartbroken and vengeful—"

"Vengeful?"

She nods slowly. "My parents tried to ruin my relationship your father, the only thing that had made me happy in a long time."

My eyebrows furrow as I realize how similar my situation is to the one my mom was in years ago. "But you never got over your anger toward them, did you? That's why I've never met Grandma or Grandpa."

She nods again. "I'll never forget how they treated me. And after all this time, they still don't deserve my forgiveness."

My mom's parents made her feel invisible, like nearly everyone in my life does to me. They also took away one of the best things in her life, like Ladybug and Chat Noir did to me. And she turned out fine, so forgiving the people I'm angry with doesn't have to be a priority... right?

"Please," my mom says softly, snapping me back to attention, "don't end up like me. Everything you've done lately has reminded me so much of myself, and... I can't watch you grow into another version of me. I can't let you feel all the pain I felt."

"So, what am I supposed to do?" I whisper back, crossing my arms. "Just... stop breaking your rules and do everything you say?"

"That's what you used to do," she sighs, then slides something—or a few somethings—across the table to me.

I feel around on the table until my fingers close around my phone, tablet, and laptop. I look up at her and see her smile softly through the dark.

"I'm sorry about the way I've treated you, okay? I promise I'll try to be there for you more often and give you more freedom, so long as you promise to follow my rules."

I pocket my phone. "What rules, exactly?"

"Jakob will continue to walk you to and from school every day, and you have to stay with him. It's for your own safety, Tori," she adds when I roll my eyes. "And if you do decide to leave the house on your own, you have to tell me where you're going, then text me when you arrive."

I nod. "That's fair." Then I rise and step around the table to hug her. "Thanks, Mom. Love you."

She squeezes me tightly. "I love you, too." She pulls back to look at me. "You look more and more like him every day, you know that?" She doesn't even have to say his name for me to know she's talking about my dad.

"Good night, Mom."

"Good night, Tori."