A Mother's Embrace

CHAPTER 14

When Amanda saw me, she just ran towards me and hugged me tightly. She cried in my arms for an hour before she could even say anything. She was suffering from depression for so many years that she didn't really realize how bad things were getting. It was then she said that, every night when she couldn't stop her thoughts, she would just go and drown herself in the lake until she lost her breath.

I was shocked beyond words when I heard this. The happy wife, the caring mother, the roles she played to satisfy others. The act was so good that no one could understand that pain she felt. I asked her to talk about this to Daron but she was so scared that she would ruin his happiness too. I asked her to go see a doctor but she refused that too.

I offered her all the support I could, the following days making sure she never cried alone. I took care of David so that she can relax more and focus on herself. Poor Daron was unaware of the struggles Alysa was going through. He was just so happy with his new family that even if I was in Alysa's place, I would have never told him.

"Did she get better?"

After one or two months, she started crying less and started spending less time alone. So I just naturally assumed that she got better. That was the biggest mistake I made. On David's first birthday, Alysa had insisted that she wanted a small and personal celebration rather than having the whole town here. After the celebrations were over, she excused herself aying David made a mess on her dress and that she needed to take a bath. We were all so caught with the festivities that we didn't pay much attention to where she went.

When we didn't see her for more than an hour, Daron went to look for her. When she was missing from her room, all of us just froze in shock wondering where she went and what she was doing. All sports of thoughts ran through my mind and I was just praying that it wasn't true. We searched the entire promise, I was running around with David crying in my arms. When Daron said the last place we have to search is the lake, I knew it was not good news. When we reached the lake, we saw Alysa, in the same gown you have been seeing all these days, floating lifelessly on the lake.

Daron just stood in shock. He couldn't believe his eyes. He just crashed to the floor. David was still crying in my arms. He was inconsolable that night. It took weeks for the shock to even slightly fade away. David was bawling every day asking for his mother. Daron became like a living ghost. The happy family he was treasuring for so long seemed to be nothing but just an image he carried in his mind. That broke him down. The fact that he never had the slightest idea Alysa was going through so much, just ripped the soul out of him. He didn't eat for days.

After a month of Alysa's passing, when finally the ripples settled down, another huge stone was thrown disrupting the tiny bit of peace we were finally getting. Everything went downhill after that. Every single one of us had our lives just robbed away from us in the matter of a few days. We felt the same way you are feeling now, trapped, hopeless and scared. But now, it feels like this is what life is. This prison which Alysa created for us, has forcefully become our home.

I sat with my mouth open, frozen and lost wondering what mess I had got myself into.