ODDS OF LOVE : SEASON EIGHT

Episode 55

Nigel felt like he was dreaming. He wasn't really awake right now. Sitting on the couch next to a woman that claimed to be his own mother. A mother that smiled so softly. A  mother that smiled like the pretty roses he was allergic to. All his life he had dreamed of one day finding his mother. He had cried himself to sleep every night as a child wanting his mother. Wanting any mother. The housemothers had not been enough. They were kind but paid to be nice and take care of all of them. He couldn't be awake. He had to be asleep upstairs next to Richard.

" Why are you here? What do you want from me? "

He wanted to cry. Just burst out bawling like a baby in her arms but he refrained the desire and suppressed the urge. He wouldn't give her the satisfaction of watching him cry over her. And her betrayal.

The woman smiled now sadly at him. " I understand you being upset, luv. I hate me own self over what was done to you and me all them years ago. Let me explain, hmmm. My name is Matilda Swan. And I am your mother. I saw you in the paper. About the restaurant and all. It hit me hard it did. I never thought I would ever see my lost baby again. My son. I saw that picture and I knew I had to see you. My beautiful baby boy all grown up. I looked up your address online. The internet is so useful, isn't it? "

Then as he listened intensely she weaved an almost magical to him tale of herself long ago as a poor single mother working as a lounge singer at a London nightclub and trying to provide a good life for her only child. She had adored him but one day she discovered him missing from his meager crib at two months old in her small flat that was over the club. She had been hysterical and tried to find him but never could.

Matilda looked as devastated as he himself felt as her lips trembled and a single tear slid from one of her unique eyes to slide down her smooth creamy white skin. " I didn't abandon you. I never would have. I loved you. Some terrible brute kidnapped you, luv. I looked for you. I couldn't find you. It took a while but I finally moved on a bit and I married a good man over there. His name was Race Swan. He owned a pub in a small village. We had two children. Our daughter Mary is sixteen. Our son Race Jr is only ten. Oh they'll be ever so delighted to see their brother. My Race passed a couple years ago of a stroke. I didn't fancy myself as a pub owner." She laughed faintly. " So I sold up and moved with the children to the states. For a new life. We live in DC. I have a very good job. I'm a sales associate at the Regal Lady boutique in Georgetown proper. I don't need money, luv , so don't be thinking that's what I want from you. I don't want your money. "

Nigel found all of this so hard to believe. Yet he dearly wanted to believe it. He needed to believe it. He had a mother. He had siblings. He was not abandoned. He was kidnapped.

She hadn't abandoned him. She actually had wanted him. Looked for him. She .......

He needed this. " What do you want then ? "

Matilda pulled him to her for a warm maternal hug. His arms almost instinctively wrapped around her body and he felt his eye closing slowly. He heard her whisper ," All I want is to be a mother to my long lost son. I love you, Nigel. "