Forbidden Desires

Chapter Four: Farce Reality

I restlessly laid in bed twisting and turning thinking of the dark eyed, six foot tall, phantom that seemed to be haunting my mind relentlessly the longer I knew him. I couldn't come to terms as to why I couldn't get him out of my head. Everything about him had me captivated.

My mind was overfilling as it filled to the brim with Dante. I sighed as I stared at the clock that read three fifty five a.m. I had to be up in less than four hours getting ready for school and I haven't got one minute of sleep thinking about the handsome devil. Who knew I would go this crazy over one guy.

As I laid there in the dark time seemed to speed up and before I knew it I could already see the midnight sky brightening up to a brilliant swirling pattern of violet and pink hues.

It was only five in the morning but by the time I made it downstairs for my coffee I found a freshly made pot and my mother with her own steaming cup in front of her.

I got my coffee addiction from her which rivaled my own. It couldn't be healthy, but we drank coffee at all hours of the day, multiple times a day unlike my late father. May he rest in peace. He despised coffee and was more of a tea person.

I looked like an exact replica of my mother just a few years younger, we could have passed for twins were it not for the few age lines that gave her away.

She was beautiful with thick raven locks that came down just a little below her waist, her skin a perfect blend of chocolate that always seemed to glow with golden tones.

She had eyes like steel due to the hardships she faced in life despite her being one of the most fragile creatures I ever met in my eighteen years of life, both mentally and physically. They were grey upturned almond shaped eyes that mirrored a storm on its worst day as she gazed back at me with a frown maring her full naturally pink stained lips.

I didn't try to hide my displeasure as I saw another bruise making its presence known on her cheek bones.

Her diamond shaped face tilted away from me trying to hide what was blatantly evident.

I sat down in front of her with my cup of coffee and didn't say a word, the silence swallowing us both, leaving us drowning in a pool of pain that I didn't think either one of us would be able to swim out of.

She broke the silence first.

"Solange," I held my hand up and stopped her from weaving her spider web of lies.

"Mom you can't keep letting this happen. How many times before I get that dreaded call?" I shouted pointing at her lip. "Look at that and I know you're covered in bruises under all that makeup!" She looked down at the swirling patterns covering the small kitchen table not able to meet my gaze.

"I love him," She whispered.

"You're delusional," I said just as quietly.

"You don't understand, after your father died Harry took me out of those dark stages. He showed me how to love again, how to feel alive." Her voice cracked with emotion as tears began to spill from her eyes.

My own eyes watered as I stared at the shell of the woman I used to know and tried to possibly understand how she called this living.

How this abusive, toxic relationship could be considered living.

"He helped me financially so that I could raise you, emotionally. Solange, I owe him our life!" She suddenly yelled slamming her fist on the table and making me jump.

"Maybe that was the case mom, but he keeps abusing you in more ways than one, you don't do that to someone you love." I tried reasoning with her but I knew it was pointless.