The Surgeon's Kismet ( Book 2 Gal GadotxFem)

Raffish (adj.) devil-may-care and unconventional

Of course, Aunt Regina had free range to a golf cart that carried Lily to a small resort cottage at the edge of the shore. The curtains were drawn closed and Lily remembered that her aunt had awful sea sickness before she entered the porch sliding door.

Aunt Vivienne rushed towards the kitchen where she opened the refrigerator and glanced at Lily, "thirsty?"

Lily shook her head, impatiently waiting for her answers to reveal themselves as she wrapped her arms around herself as if that could protect her from what's to come. She thanked her jacket for many reasons but mostly because of her babies. She didn't want to reveal her secrets when she came looking for answers.

"Where were we?" Regina lowers herself on the single seater chair gesturing for Lily to sit.

Vivienne balanced two glasses of wine in one hand and a sparkling water in the other before she shoved the beverage in Regina's eager grasp. She sat the Pellegrino in front of Lily and took a cautious seat between Regina and Lily.

Lily gingerly sat at the opposite end of the couch she shared with Aunt Vivienne, "how about we start from the beginning?"

Regina cocks a brow at her friend and nods, "as you know, your mother ran off when she was barely eighteen. A year later she showed up with a baby fresh from her womb. Your mother needed money and sweet Gen was just joyful to have her daughter home and with her granddaughter no less. When she was grabbing her purse upstairs, she heard the front door slam and seconds later she watched your mother run down the road and disappear."

Her tears broke through, stemming from anger and sadness as Lily vividly imagined her young mother frantically running away.

"Vivi called me right after and when I arrived," Regina sighs heavily, "I thought I would have to pick my best friend up off the ground again. Instead, I walked in and I was flabbergasted. I've never seen so much joy on my friend's face as I did when she held you for what she said was the first time. In that moment, she made you her whole world."

Her heart squeezed from those exact words. Her grandmother's words that was etched into her mind. Lily's cheeks lifted from the thought of her beautiful Maman before she glanced at Aunt Vivienne, "when did the letters start?"

Tori's mother blinks rapidly, "I recall Vivi saying she received her first letter when you were learning how to walk. Each letter asking for more money and more money. They came from Morocco, Israel, every European country and territory you could imagine."

"I've read the letters. She didn't want me..."

"Yes," Aunt Vivienne nods sadly, "because she couldn't raise a child when she was a child herself. And only recently I've learned that leaving you with Maman was the only way to give you the best life."

"I don't see where my life could best any decisions at this point," Lily snipes angrily. "My mother's best friends is my ex lover's mother and your fucking evil twin that so happened to be my ex lover's ex lover. Ilana despised me and insulted my grandmother. I wondered why she knew so much about me, only to find out that she knew the source personally. And my mother never came back to fix her mistakes...."

"She tried," Vivienne shudders troubled. "You were already off to Harvard when Liv came home. We were having afternoon tea when a knock on the door meant the clash of worlds. Liv was at the door all grown up and..."

"With vengeance," Regina growled angrily. "Somewhere along the years, Olivia had met Veronica Whitlock and Ilana Gadot. We are unsure of the details," Aunt Gina rolls her eyes irritably, "but it was quite a shock for Genevieve when her missing daughter showed up with a splitting image of my friend here," she gestures to Vivienne whom gritted her teeth.

"An argument broke out between Liv and Gen," Viv recalls. "But Maman wouldn't have her ruining anything good for you. The sudden change had knocked Gen off her feet and a fight erupted between them over... your father."

"What does that bastard have anything to do with it?" Lily growls angrily from the mere thought of Earl Spencer.

Vivienne and Regina look from each other to Lily, agreeing silently before Regina opened her mouth, "that day at the west wing reveal, we learned that the disgusting man had taken advantage of your mother."

Lily's brows creased in confusion, "h-he took advantage of," realization dawns on her before bile rose from her roiling stomach. Blood literally drained from her whole being as Lily's knees fell weak. "H-he raped her? How could that be?" Lily fisted her hands in anger, "I was practically named after his sister! I'm- my family," she wails.

Vivienne reached over, gathering Lily's hands but she was too angry to accept the touch. She shakes her head before Regina stood with her wine glass.

"Vivi didn't know," Regina gulps down the rest of her glass. "We all didn't know and if I could kill that man I would," she spits angrily.

Tori's mother wiped the trail of tears spilling down her cheek, "if we knew, we would've protected you from that despicable man. If Vivi knew, she would see that man in the ground before her last breath."

"As for his sister," Gina blew out a deep breath, "Liv told us that Diana had found her after she was... soiled," she shudders tearily. "Liv didn't have the heart to tell Diana what happened to her. Diana brought your mom into her home until Liv found out she was pregnant. She ran before she could break the news to Diana and came back to the states. She gave birth in New York and brought you straight to her mother where she felt she could give you the best life she could ever give you on her own."

Lily stood from her seat, feeling as if she was punch right in her chest. She gripped her tunic with fury as her breathing became difficult from the bile rising up from her stomach. She was the product of a disgusting man that forcibly took advantage of the woman that birthed her.

How was someone suppose to react to that? Made in absolute sin? Worse than that, from rape?

The room began to spin as her knees wobbled unsteadily before her hand slaps against the walls to catch herself. Her freehand flying to her mouth as a guttural wretched escapes her lips. Hands found her arms, guiding her hurriedly through the hallway and to the nearest door where Regina flipped on the lights. She had less than a second before Lily found the inside of the toilet covered in her dinner. Hands rubbed up and down her back with soothing words that Lily couldn't make out. She instinctively wrapped her arms around her stomach to protect her babies as she puked her life out.

Once she felt like she wasn't going to implode, Lily flopped on her bottom until her back met the wall to hold herself up. Her desperate wails echoed off the walls as Lily curled into a protective ball in the front of the two women that truly exposed her.

"I know you hate us because of what we did," Vivienne whispers worriedly.

"But, we only did it because we were trying to protect you," Regina added through her sniffling.

"I-I've always wondered," Lily sputters through her tears with her head tilted to the ceiling to stop her tears from falling. The egregiously wretched man didn't deserve her cries. "Why he loathed me? Why he treated me with such incomparable hate? And now I realize that I'm a reminder of his sins. I was born in sin," she chokes.

"You were born from love."