Bound by Lies & Fate

Chapter 1 - Eden

Days, begin to become weeks, and my appetite has only started to come back over the last few days. I have never been weak, never the type to give up, but now my heart feels like it is breaking, and slowly mending. I have received so many calls from friends making sure I am ok, sending me Uber eats, gifts and even books for me to read. Every time I have a second of nothing, I go back to thinking about the letter, the contents, why didn't she tell me.

I haven't been able to get my mom's words out of my mind. My necklace seems more important to me now than it ever was before. A raven. Of course, it is a raven. It makes sense why she said it's precious to her, for me to protect it and never take it off. I have stopped all my calls about my mother, the coroner, the estate lawyer, and even Mom's building manager asking about my mom's apartment and what I am doing with it. I get the feeling that everyone wants me to move on, but it isn't that easy when my mom has been the guiding light of my life for so long.

I have read that letter over 100 times and every time I read it, the words start to become like my mom is talking to me. I think I have memorized all the words, and there are so many questions that I have. Why, Mom? Why did you not tell me?

The morgue has been calling me over and over, and I haven't taken his call. He is a friend of mine, but at this point, I haven't been able to stomach the conversation he wants to have. She died of a heart attack; that is all I need to know, but he keeps leaving a message that it is important we speak.

All the days are rolling into each other, and 3 weeks have passed since the will reading and 14 weeks since the passing of my mom. I have been back at work for a few weeks now. I decided to go back to work and distract me from all the noise in my head. Not like I have been doing much, but the distraction has helped a little more than me sitting in my apartment. I do not want to mope; I know she would have told me to 'put my big girl pants on and change the world' I cry a little thinking about her advice she would often give me.

I know I am good at my job, and I love the thrill of the courtroom, but after a few days, I am starting to see things I don't like. There is a void I can't shake. Is it the job? Who am I kidding? It's my mom. She was the light of this dark place. She made everything better. When the days got long, she would be the best person to call. And now I have learnt that she kept secrets from me my entire life. I feel like I don't know her, the one person I used to tell everything to, and she couldn't tell me this why?

After I got my job at O'Rourke and Webber, the role was too good to be true to say no. It was like I was destined to find this role; everything was pointing me to work for them, but I never wanted to work for a big corporation. I love the life of helping people, loved the fact that I could help ease the pain of someone's life. It was the reason why I wanted to stick to the more boutique law firms. I wasn't into the money; I was into finding the hardest case to take and then winning it. But when I was called by Mr. Gavin O'Rourke personally and he asked me to come over, I sat on it for 4 weeks, weighing all the pros and cons of it. But with the big paycheck and the fact that I could pick my clients and receive a bonus based on the win, I knew with the money I could finally get my mom a decent apartment in the city. My mom and I have always lived comfortably; we did move a lot around the place because my mom wouldn't like the places or people. After turbulent tween years and constant pathetic arguments on my part, I knew she did it from a good place.

It was how I met Alex and his mom, Rosa – his full name is Alexandro, but he hates it when people call him that. She was my mom's best friend, and so the development of Alex's and my friendship was inevitable. We finally stopped moving places and stayed in the same apartment block just above Rosa's. The day that Rosa died was the saddest day of my life (until my mom passed). She got lung cancer, and it wasn't surprising; she smoked like a chimney, and it was one of the reasons why Alex and I remained certain that we would never find a smoker for a partner. Although people thought that Alex and I would end up together, I knew Alex was always hiding who he really was from the world. He was always scared about being judged by his family, so when he told me that he was gay, I knew that was the day our friendship was stronger, and it felt like family. He became my protector, and I would get him out of heaps of trouble as well.