How Living with the Bad Boy Saved My Life

Chapter Twenty One

Time had stopped.

The world felt like it was not spinning anymore.

I forgot how to breathe as I looked at the woman standing in front of me. She was thinner than I last remembered her. In fact, she was so thin I thought I could probably put my hands on either side of her waist and still make my hands touch each other. She was totally frail and was not the woman I remembered.

Her once long, black hair was cropped to her shoulders and sticking to her face. Of course, I knew that she was aging but I never expected her to look this old. When I was younger she was always complimented for being such a young looking mother so it was surprising to see how the aging process was taking its toll on her. The crows feet by her eyes were prominent and the dark bags under her eye were telling me that it had been quite some time since she had a decent nights sleep.

As I took in every detail of her, I wondered if my own face was a reflection of hers. Did I too look this tired? Has everything my dad ever done to me caused me to look that broken? I know I felt it, but I always tried to ensure I didn't show it so no one would suspect a thing.

Now with my mother standing face to face with me I was overcome with emotions that I had not felt in years. I was angry at her for not coming back after all those years but now seeing her standing in front of me, I was utterly overwhelmed. She was the reason I had my freedom. She was the reason that I was going to be able to get my life back. Obviously, I was entirely grateful in that respect but I am still left wondering why it took her so long to come back.

Why did she wait until something this bad happened?

Her deep brown eyes were boring into my own pleading with me to say something. I could see the tears brimming in her eyes, I could sense her desperation to reach out and touch me, to throw her arms around me and hug me but she did not. She just stood there staring at me dumbfounded as if I wasn't real. She was looking at me as if I was a figment of her imagination. I was probably looking at her the same way.

She has changed so much. It hurt my heart looking at her and knowing she did not look remotely happy. I know under the circumstances her emotions would obviously be high and she was worried for me but I could not even notice a glint of happiness in her eyes. She was entirely lost and not the person I once knew as my mum. I hated my dad even more for making both my mum and I lose who we were.

Her nervousness was blatantly obvious. I was afraid to be the first one to reach out but I did it anyways and took one step closer to her then threw my arms around her in a hug. Her body stiffened immediately before the sound of uncontrollable sobs filled the room.

"I'm so, so sorry baby" she cried in between sobs.

Right now was not the time for apologies, I just wanted my mum to hold me and make me feel like everything was going to be okay. We could deal with her apologies and explaining later but right now the only thing I needed was her love.

She pulled away from our hug but held my face in her hands, "I can't believe how beautiful you are now. I asked him to send me pictures but he never would. You have to believe me, baby, I begged him to let me come home. I tried everything to come rescue you but they would not let me" she cried.

I was about to reply but the room was once again occupied with officers who looked like they were not finished dealing with me. To me, it was a waste of time to learn the names of the officers since in my eyes they were all wankers. In my head they were officer 1, 2, 3 and so on. This time it was officer 1 in the room happily breaking up the long awaited family reunion.

Officer 1 looked like he was pretty new to the job but maybe it was just his baby face making me think that. His hands were shaky and he stuttered with every word he spoke so he was either really new to the job or just extremely bad at it or quite possibly both.