Scars of the past

The Hotel

It's been three years since I left. In the beginning Mahamud's trail was fresh and I felt every day that I was getting closer and closer, and I was. Until I found out I was pregnant, and it was a high-risk pregnancy, I had to stay away from investigations. I spent more time at the hospital than at the agency, and the investigation was left in the background. When the twins were born it was getting more and more difficult to reconcile everything.

My parents helped me a lot, and to see them drop the agency a bit and play the role of grandparents was something that surprised me. I kept my team still working on Mahamud's case, while we were chasing him down, working on software to recover the stolen files. Along the way, we ended up accidentally creating cyber activity tracking software, the agency was using it, and it was going to be made public domain between law enforcement and agencies for common use and to help with all possible investigations. At least something good came out of it all.

I didn't leave the agency except for the twins' appointments, but my parents convinced me to speak about the software at an agent convention. As it was a private event for agents, I felt safe, and I accepted the idea.

We took the agency's jet, and landed at a private airport, arriving, I needed help unloading my bags, my parents went with me, on separate planes, of course. My mother came in the same as mine, and my father would arrive in a few minutes. In addition to a dozen of the most trusted agents, providing security for all of us. Alisson slept the entire flight, but Junior didn't sleep at all. They were agitated, but the drive to the hotel where we were staying and it was the conference, was enough to calm them down.

We got out of the car, and went to check in, Alisson insisted on taking a giant lollipop that a recreator was distributing and I already imagined her dropping everything in the blue dress she wore, her blond and curly hair was combed and beautiful as always, tied up by a sash of the same color as the dress. Junior looked around marveling at that scenario. They had never been out in public before, and I knew the amount of people could be daunting.

The hotel was huge and old, very chic, there were stairs and stairs covered in red velvet, and everything was made of marble. We went up the first stairs to go to the rooms, and there were a lot of people. I wasn't enjoying it, there were too many people. I pulled the twins close, and threw an apprehensive look at my mother, who understood instantly, but before I could turn to look at the twins, Junior let go, and in a split second I lost sight of him.

I pulled Alisson onto my lap and ran towards where I last saw him, fear gripped me, my stomach lurched and lurched, I was starting to panic. I had lost my son. I knew the conference wasn't a good idea, I had to get them safely to the agency.

"Junior. Junior."

I shouted his name in vain, got no response. I was about to LockDown the entire hotel and search every inch to find my son, when I saw the scene.

Junior was standing, with his khaki shorts and a white linen shirt, his dark hair combed back, he looked like a mini little man, his brown and strong eyes stared at a man. And my biggest fear happened, the fraction of relief I felt at finally finding my son was replaced by another flutter in my stomach, which was doing cartwheels in my belly, and my brain started to spin. The man staring back at him was exactly like him, which was why he was called Junior. From the first time I received him in my arms, I couldn't think of another name, he was identical to his father, every trait. He was my daily reminder of the choice I had to leave, and now they were both there in front of me.

George had grown a beard, his hair was shaved very short. He wore a gray shirt and dress pants with shoes, it was a more social, conference-worthy outfit. He looked up at me, and you could almost hear his brain working and spinning around trying to understand it, he faced Alisson, and his eyes met mine, the expression was a mix of surprise, with love, and confusion. I felt the usual shiver down my spine when meeting George and butterflies fluttered through my stomach, I was nervous, but at the same time all the love I felt and had been dormant for three years came crashing down, and flooded my body, my heart raced. and I felt my chest boil with it all.

"Hey." George said not knowing exactly what to say, his voice came out as a whisper.

"Hey." I replied, almost whispering too.

"Daddy."

Junior's speech broke the mood we were in and brought even more confusion to the moment, I didn't know what to say or how to act. Until feel a hand squeezing my arm.

"Not here, and not now. We need to go to the bedroom." It was my mother.

"And you too." She said to George.

My mother took Junior in her arms, and we followed surrounded by the agents to the hotel room, walking between narrow corridors and it was almost as if we bumped into each other. On the way there was silence between all of us.

"They are my children?"

George asked me, he was right behind me, his voice came from my right shoulder, and I felt his warm breath on my neck, at the same time that the question made me afraid of his reaction, his presence intoxicated me.

Still walking I turned my face to face him.

"Yea."

He took the news as a shock, I felt his whole body tense and his nervousness increased, his jaw clenched and I felt my eyes fill with tears. I didn't want to tell him like that, and I could only imagine how he felt meeting his two and a half year old children, without even knowing they existed minutes ago.

We finally got to the room, it was a huge, connecting room, so my parents could stay close and help me with the twins. When we arrived, me, my mother, the twins, George and two agents, Paul and Troy, went through the door, the remaining agents stayed outside doing guard duty, my father had not arrived yet.