Anastasia

Chapter (39): Happy Birthday (1)

Outraged, deceived, fooled, and tampered. Those emotions clutched onto her mind the moment her eyes skimmed over the shocking truth about the woman she spent six months with. She never wanted to believe her corrupted father for what he's done before. But the evidence was strong enough to confirm his suspicions all along. Her heart denied the core evidence but her mind alerted her of what might come at risk later on if she chose the wrong path.

Adrienne spent most of her night at the office, staring over and over again at the pictures that she withdrew from the envelope. Part of her regretted that action, the other part whispered in her mind that she did the right thing. The right thing for everyone. Especially her daughter.

Her hand was placed on her cheek and the other one was occupied with a glass of vodka as she was grasping it tightly, but not too tight to break the glass and harm herself. She didn't drink much. She wasn't tipsy. She was awake enough to play scenarios in her head that got her ill-tempered even more.

There on the desk, laid pictures of Sage in improper clothes. Pictures of her in a strip club, dancing shamelessly on the strip pole, exposing her body to strangers. Other pictures of her in a few suspicious, dangerous looking streets that Adrienne herself would be scared to drive there. In those pictures, Sage was captured talking to some guys and riding with them in their vehicles. Those men made Adrienne fear for Sage's life.

Her eyes looked over Sage's record which made her scoff in disbelief. A record that showed a darker phase in the young woman's life. She smuggled drugs in the streets for quite some time and got caught for it to pay for her illegal activities.

Adrienne shoved the pictures and the report aside with a heavy breath that indicated her frustration about the harsh, bitter truth regarding the woman she was dating for a while. A stranger that she met on the streets one night. That stranger became a family in a matter of short time. A stranger that her daughter dealt with and loved so dearly in her heart and considered her like a second mother after she lost her birth one. That's how this stranger got attached to the family and became a part of them.

She tucked the pictures and the report back in the envelope as she started gathering her belongings then she departed the office and the company with a heavy heart.

Poor Freya. That's what Adrienne thought. The little angel didn't deserve this horrible attachment, and it was Adrienne's fault. Her innocent heart is going to be shattered into million bits and pieces. How is she going to face the little one with such a hard truth and avoid any heart breaking?

.....................................

She twisted the key in the hole quietly before entering. A few lights were on and enough to illuminate a path to the bedroom. Slowly, she walked sluggishly to the bedroom and pressed her forearm on the ajar door to push it open.

Her feet moved closer and inside the room but then she stopped in her tracks, one foot slightly above the ground when she saw her daughter sleeping in her bed. She placed her foot on the ground and took off her jacket, looking over at Freya as she stirred awake when she felt her mom's presence.

The little one, sleepily, tried to open her eyes. Finally, she fluttered them open slowly and saw her mom giving her a small smile as she sat on the bed and pulled the blanket over her.

"Hey, sweetheart." She leaned down and kissed Freya's head. Freya simply smiled at her mom and rubbed her eyes.

"Mommy... the lights."

"Oh," Adrienne chuckled lightly and got up to turn off the room's light then she got back on the bed and caressed her daughter's hair. "Sorry, little angel. Get back to sleep."