Second chances Book 4/6

Chapter 30

Harper inhales as he exits the plane. Finally home! Two weeks under the sun! Looking for who is coming to get him, he smiles when he sees his mother greet him, before hugging him. If Bethany was the ideal mother, the connection between Kara and him is much more intimate, it was she who carried and gave birth to him.

"Hello, mom, I've missed you so much," he said, kissing her.

"Have you grown up yet?" Kara asks looking at her son, "How beautiful you are. Are you okay my darling?

— Yeah, just tired. Did you come alone?

— Harper is at work with Tilly. Abigail is with Julia. CR on television.

— So we've adopted Julia, is it serious with Abigail?

— Yes, she took her under her wing, she wants to make an action movie star out of her. Julia has changed enormously, physically and in her attitude, she is progressing quickly.

— I'm happy, she liked to train us so much when we were children."

Following his mother, he puts his suitcase in the back and settles in, but Kara doesn't start.

"A few weeks ago, CR asked us about the family's past.

— Yes, she's looking for answers on her own, but I haven't said anything about us. She knows something is wrong with Aunt Abby's past.

— She knows now.

— Good. It gnawed at her, but she hid it, I couldn't say anything, she made me promise.

— That's good, honey. Let's go. Do you want to go right back or de you want to go to see mom?

— Let's go to the restaurant, I need a fix of Bethany," smiled Harper. "Say, mom. Will we ever go see mom's family, see where she was born and raised?

— I don't think so, honey," she said, taking the freeway ramp. "I asked her once, we almost broke up. The subject is an open wound that will never close, like her fear of trucks. Tell yourself that her parents don't deserve to know you. We have tried to give you the biggest family possible so that you don't have to suffer from this lack. If you want, this summer, we can go to France to see my parents, they will be happy to see you again.

— Yes, I would like to connect with my Cathar ancestors, I am a Faydit after all.

— It's true, you are.

— You don't regret having left your country, having lived here under a false identity with all the risks that entails?

— No, my darling. Not for a second. I met Bethany, I fell in love with that bacon head, I met Abigail and Tilly, brought them here, I got you, Tilly got CR. How to regret? As I do not regret that you know, and finally be able to talk about it freely with you.

— Me too, mom."

Kara drives with one hand, smiling, Harper lost in thought.

"Go ahead, it's just us, ask your questions. But you'll never talk about this, okay?

— Tell me about your arrival here, tell me about mom. I need to understand."

Kara recounts, in a monotonous, sometimes emotional voice, and shakes hands with Harper as she comes to painful passages and, as she pulls into the restaurant parking lot, Harper knows all about her moms' pasts. Entering the restaurant, he greets the employees he knows and goes to the office, seeing his mother working on her computer, small glasses on her face.

"Hello mom."

Quickly, she removes the glasses, out of pride.

"You look even prettier with your glasses, they suit you well, they give you an intellectual side. Keep them, please, while she puts them back on her nose. It's new ?