Angel's Mafia (gxg) ✓

LVIV | Daughter of Sky and Spirit

"MOM," I WHISPER, LOOKING into her eyes for the first time in over a year.

Her face isn't the gaunt, skeletal one I remember. Instead, her cheeks are full and red, her hair is long and silky, and her eyes are bright and wide. She is . . . healthy. And happy.

"Cade," she says, tears in her eyes, throwing her arms around me.

"You've . . . you're . . ."

"Recovered," she says, laughing, a clear and crystal sound. "I am 14 months sober. And it's all thanks to your . . . girlfriend. Angel."

"Wait," I say, turning to Angel, shocked. "This was you? How? When?"

"That day when we were at the Museum," she says. Robbed the museum. "When I was running my errand, I went looking for Nathan and instead I found your mother. I took her to the hospital, and I don't know what it was, but the Nurse said it seemed like a wake-up call for her."

"She kept checking in on me," Mom insists. I am still staring at her, trying to recognize her familiar, beautiful features. This is the mother I remember from my early childhood, before the addiction and the drugs and the yelling. She is . . . she is gorgeous. And sweet. And kind.

Tears start to fall as I listen to Mom telling me about how hard recovery was. Her hands are in mine, and they don't feel sharp and bony like they used to. Even this is a shock. I clutch her soft fingers close as she recounts the days of fever and sweat, withdrawal and the manic episodes. "But I did it," she finally says. "And I've been waiting until . . . until I was ready. Till I was sure. I didn't want to see you if I thought . . . if I knew . . ."

"I'm sorry I never called," I say. I had always figured there was no point. Ever since I was ten, I had accepted that my mother didn't love me. She had chosen heroin over me, and that was her decision. I was living with it.

"I don't blame you," she says, crying. "The way I treated you . . . I see it now, Cade. I don't know if you can ever forgive me, but I'm so, so sorry."

She wraps me into an embrace, and I let myself dissolve in her arms.

This is what I wanted.

Someone to hold me, to soothe me. The mother I always thought I'd never have, here. And because of Angel, too. She is smiling, misty, at me behind my mother.

"Come here, Angel," my mother says, and she tucks both of us into her arms. This feeling is so beautiful I could keep it here, forever. I want to treasure this moment for the rest of my life.

But still, there is something that needs taking care of.

>>>

I love you all! We're almost done.

From the moon and back,
Sarai