A Wizard's Conquest

Chapter 37

Rosaline "Rose" Harris woke up early to a dreary Sunday morning. The weather was typical at this time in November, with low pregnant clouds hanging overhead as it drizzled lightly outside, the entire tableau barely illuminated by the hidden rising sun. Stretching, she got out of bed to prepare for the day. She could hear her son, Darren, downstairs, probably polishing off the breakfast his girlfriend had made.

Pulling her dressing gown tightly around her thin frame, she made her way downstairs and sat down at the small table in the kitchen, cooing at her grandson as she did so.

As she had her bowl of oatmeal, Rose had to admit that her son had changed over the past seven years, while she had been ... away. From the letters and a few short visits, she gleaned that he had managed to pull his act together at school and pass with decent marks, earning a scholarship at the University of Leeds for a course in Fine Arts.

He had put in a lot of work for his degree, holding two jobs at the same time to pay for his studies and accommodation. It was at the university that Darren had met Linda, who at that time, was studying for her B.A. in Cinema and Photography.

According to them, they both had an instant sort of attraction to each other from the first time they had met. Being in similar financial situations, the two had helped each other out and had even pooled their resources to rent a place to stay.

Rose sighed as she contemplated her son. Before, she doubted that Darren would have been mature enough to settle down at such a young age. While he had not married his girlfriend yet (apparently young couples these days instead of marrying, entered an "open relationship") he was still committed to the girl and his son. She knew that at that age, most men would leave. That he was willing to be in his son's life and try and work on his relationship with Linda was a mark of how far along he had come from the spoilt brat he was as a child. His decision to take things slow and not rush into a marriage also enforced that opinion.

Rose herself had also changed. Before, she admitted to herself that she was not a pleasant woman. Not only was she a petty, jealous and bitter person, but she also suffered what her psychologist called an inferiority complex.

It was only after she had hit rock bottom did she realised the amount of damage she had done to her son by being what she was. It had taken a year of intensive counselling before she started to improve and ask for forgiveness from her son.

It had taken Darren a few weeks and support from the new friends he had made after his mother had gone away to give that forgiveness. Once it was given, however, both mother and son had progressed in leaps and bounds.

By the time Rose was able to join her son, four years afterwards, the two of them were unrecognisable from the people they had been. Darren was now working for a firm that designed websites while Linda was doing her master's in Journalism.

The house that they were living in now was not as large as the house Darren spent his childhood in, but it was far more spacious than the back-to-back house he and Linda were living in before. They were lucky enough to chance upon it as the previous owner, a friend of a friend of Darren's, wanted to sell it as quickly as possible.

The house was attached to a small grocery shop which Rose ran while taking care of her grandson, bringing in extra money to pay the bills.

However, while Rose was content with her new life, she was not truly happy.

The reason for that was another boy. While she was not that boy's biological mother, she had been given the task of raising the boy as her own after her sister had died.

However, she had not been able to do so. While she had spoilt her son silly and was the main reason Darren had grown into a bully, she had done worse to her nephew while watching with glee from the side as her son tormented the poor child.