Omega (Alpha & Omega #1)

{Chapter Thirty Nine}

I sat across from my mother, staring at her with open-mouthed horror. What she just told me made me wish my father was still somewhere in the house. I'd no sooner walk up to him and kill him myself.

My mother did not try to kill herself. Although the long slashes up her arm would have made anyone else believe she was depressed enough to try. She didn't even have to tell me she wasn't the one who did that to herself.

My father tried to kill her by making it look like a suicide. He did such a good job acting, that no one believed my mother when she woke up as she tried to explain what actually happened.

About three days after I left, my father forced her to sign the paperwork to - for lack of a better term - get rid of me for good. She did so, for obvious reasons. A few days after that, Remmy contacted my father with the news that he could make me into a beta. When my father went to talk to my mother about it, she refused. And so he attacked her and put her in an institution.

She didn't tell me all that he said during that time, but I could tell that it would haunt her to her grave. The things he did and said would never leave her mind.

"Father said your father is an omega," I finally said.

I would have told her what he said after he told me that, but it wasn't worth it.

"He was," she said.

Was. He wasn't alive anymore, it seemed.

She ran her tongue over her teeth and clasped her hands together. "When your father and I mated, he asked me if I was from a line of betas and alphas, and I told him yes. I never spoke of my dad to him, because my dad was never in my life. My grandma killed my dad about a year after I was born."

I felt my entire face pinch.

"It was a different time back then," she explained, trying to cover for her grandmother for some reason. "My mom mated with my dad in secret. Omegas back then were hated more than they are today. If an alpha even scented an omega, they'd go find them and kill them. Omegas were either used as slaves or killed, there was no in between. My dad was not a slave. But the moment my grandma found out, she killed him right in front of my mom and I. Luckily, I was too young to remember."

I just continued to look at her. Omegas were still hated. And if that law passed in the United States, it would go back to exactly that. Omegas would be hunted and killed, no matter who they were mated to or who loved them. The hate was stronger than the feeling of love towards my kind, and it'd win out.

"Anyway," she sighed, "we started out on a lie, and I continued to lie until you left. Because if you hadn't left before he found out, he would have killed you too."

She did all of that for me? Let me go and allowed her life to be taken so that I could live happily? I would have never known, nor guessed. I always thought there was a small hint of hatred in her for me as well, but knew how to hide it better than my father did. That wasn't the case at all, it seemed. And I felt like an ass for thinking that was ever the case.

I cleared my throat, thinking of a way to change the conversation. "Keon and Cayson said that they can get you a job in the hospital they work at. Their boss is looking for an assistant."

She raised her eyebrows. "What about your father?"

"I don't know," I said honestly. "Keon and Cayson said they took care of him and that he wouldn't bother you anymore."

Somehow, her eyebrows raised even higher. But, like me, she didn't push the subject. That's how I knew how much she disliked my father. Having to live with him for as long as she had, dealing with his mood swings and mind manipulations brought her close to my level of hatred.

She nodded slowly, turning her face to look at the dining room door. "Do they treat you well?"

"They do." I smiled slightly.

Her eyes met mine, fell to the smile, and her mouth opened slightly. "You..."

My smile fell.

"You smiled." Tears pooled in her eyes and she lifted her hands up to hide them. She leaned forward into her hands...

And began bawling.

My eyes widened, and before I knew what I was doing, I rushed around the table and wrapped my arms around her. The contact made her sob even harder, so much so that she made no noise. Her body just shook and tears fell freely from beneath her hands. I continued to hold her through it, even when Keon and Cayson walked in.

They looked at my mother, then at me with my hands around her. I shook my head at them.

Just like that, my mother calmed slightly. She always hated others seeing her weak. She could have tears streaming down her beautiful face and still hold her head up high.

She raised her tear-stained face and looked over at the brothers. When she stood, I backed away and just watched as she walked over to them.

"Thank you." The words were barely audible. "Thank you for showing my daughter the love she always deserved, and thank you for breaking through her shell, even if it is only the slightest bit."

I chewed on my lower lip when they looked up at me.

"She came out of that shell herself," Keon said.

Cayson smirked. "She's still half in, but she's getting there."

My mother laughed and covered her mouth to hide more sobs.

The brothers looked up at me and grinned.

"Love you," they both mouthed.

And I smiled.