Lost Widow

Chapter 18

"Come on, snap out of it." Wanda commanded.

Nadia was out of the memory and was now sobbing. She couldn't process what she had just seen, and neither could Wanda.

"I don't understand," Nadia cried.

"She can't be my mom," she denied.

"I'm confused as well. I thought she couldn't have kids," Wanda said.

"Do you think she knows?"

"I don't know but you can't say anything to her," Nadia demanded, her voice strong and commanding.

"If what I saw was true, she deserves to know," Wanda stated.

"No, she doesn't. She wouldn't believe it anyways. Even if she did it would just make everything worse. Trust me she's better in the dark," Nadia discouraged.

"Promise me you won't say anything. At least not for now," she pleaded.

"Okay but only for now," Wanda agreed.

Natasha appeared not a moment too soon and asked Wanda if she was done.

"She was telling the truth," Wanda spoke.

"I didn't find anything pertaining to the video."

"So that means-"

"That I was telling the truth. Like I already told you," Nadia coldly vocalized.

"We just had to be sure," Natasha replied, her tone guilty.

"Well now you are. Can I leave this prison room now?"

Natasha didn't know how to take the news. The evidence clearly showed wrongdoing, but she had fallen for a well edited video. She was deceived and it was her fault. She should have known, she thought. And now she had pushed Nadia away, hurt her, villainized her. What was to happen now? Nadia wouldn't just forgive her; she knew her better than that. At the moment she wanted to say a lot of things but all she could do was open the door and step to the side and let Nadia walk out. She noticed Wanda's saddening face.

"Wanda, thank you for doing it. I know it must have been hard for you," she sympathized.

"Did I even have a choice?"

Taken back by the question Natasha responded, "Of course you had a choice."

"Really? Because this team doesn't feel like a team anymore. It's starting to feel like a dictatorship that's run by you and Steve," Wanda retorted.

"If you wanted to show me I had choices around here you would've asked instead of barking orders at me," she added.

"We're just trying to fix a bad situation. We don't want anyone to get hurt," Natasha stated.

"But Nadia was hurt. You want to know the worst part about the situation? She only agreed because she knew I was going to look no matter what. We made a child feel powerless," Wanda snapped.

"Me and you know what that's like. So why would you tell me to do this to her?"

Natasha's voice cracked, "I didn't have a choice."

"There's always a choice," Wanda chastised.

Wanda stormed out the room leaving the Black Widow to her guilty and unpleasant thoughts.

Later that day everyone felt as if they were walking on eggshells. Nadia didn't do anything, just sat there quietly but now that they knew they were wrong, it was a whole different ball game. They expected her to go running out the door or take revenge. At dinner, the only sound was the forks scraping the plate as they ate silently.