✔ᵉⁿᵍˡⁱˢʰ for the Ocean [Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom]✔

06

I would have loved to see what it was like with you as you grew older and became adults.

Wonderfully, Norvina would have liked to scoff out loud when Atlanna talked about the time she missed with her youngest son, because after all, she was talking about Orm. A human whose ambition, ego and pride grew from year to year, while something essential like empathy, understanding and compassion was reduced to the bare minimum.

Even though Norvina didn't answer or react, it was enough of an answer for Atlanna, because no answer was often an answer. And the way the redhead had reacted was enough for the former queen to understand.

"What was it about?" Atlanna, whose voice sounded rather sad, asked after a long pause, probably hoping that Norvina would tell her something about the last decades, "The throne or him?"

"Wrong life?" a perplexed shrug of the shoulders and a panting shake of the head were the result of Atlanna's question and one that had long been settled for Norvina, "Wrong time? Wrong place? Wrong everything? Take your pick. Some things are meant to be."

"That's one of the things a mother never hopes to hear, that one's hopes will never be fulfilled," but it was in Atlanna's voice and the way the woman said it that she understood, "When children grow up, it's never easy because you only want the best for them. And when you see that there is something good and the best conditions for the future, but nothing comes of it, you always wonder how wrong you know your own children".

It is what it is, and the past cannot be changed, so Norvina took Atlanna's hand and began to squeeze it. Just because what she had hoped for didn't come true didn't mean it was a bad thing.

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