Broken Submission

Unsolicited Advice

 "I never knew." Amelia's mom stared dully at the opposite wall. "In all this time... I never knew."

Amelia wanted to ask what she'd thought Garret been doing with the information on Amelia's whereabouts. But she kept her mouth shut. Accusations helped no one now. "I never meant to cause anyone trouble," she said. "I just needed to get out."

"Why didn't you come to me? I could have helped you—I should have been your first call."

"Mom, you were my first call," she said, fighting to keep the bitterness out of her tone. "I tried for years to reach out—to get help."

Her mother's face closed in defensiveness. "You never explained--"

"I was afraid. And I loved him." Amelia breathed in the crisp scent of her mother's home. She must have finally gotten the maid that she always wanted. "We were in love. Real love." She swallowed the lump in her throat. "And somehow it all became eclipsed by jealousy and a constant battle for control."

Her mother shook her head. "Your father was the same way. Controlling, angry. If he hadn't left when he did, god knows what he would have done. It's a miracle I managed to escape. Of course, I sacrificed everything for you, to make sure you had a good childhood and grew up right. I don't know that I ever recovered from the burden of being a wife and a mother. I just lost myself. I'm starting to find myself though. I'm taking back my power. Business is booming—thank god I'm so naturally gifted, otherwise who knows where I'd be now..."

Body slumping into a long-weary posture, Amelia felt her chest turn to stone and her eyelids droop as she lost the focus of her mother's attention. Already, she had taken Amelia's troubles and consumed them, regurgitating the remains into a bile of self-victimization and grandeur. After so many years, Amelia had almost forgotten what it was like to have a conversation with Sophia Walker. To be listened to only so much as it could be made about herself.

"...and I'm helping so many people who are in circumstances nearly as bad as my own, and I just feel that this is my purpose, to help those unfortunates. They need someone to follow. It's only a shame that I spent so many years in chains. To think of all the lives I might have changed--"

"Mhmm," Amelia hummed. Nothing more was needed. She was nothing more than an audience.

Amelia's phone rang.

Digging it out of her pocket, Amelia saw Damien's number.

"Excuse me," Amelia said. "It's a friend."

Leaving her vaguely offended mother behind. Amelia stepped out onto the back porch. "Damien?"

"Amelia. Are you alright?"

She frowned. "Yes, why?"

A sigh on the other end, and Amelia could hear Jack in the background. "Tara called. She said that you ran off during the self-defense class, and it's been hours. We were worried."

"I'm sorry," Amelia said automatically. "I needed—space."

"Where are you now?"

Amelia took a meditative breath, "At my mother's."

Silence. "I thought—I didn't realize that you were close to your mother."

"I'm not." Amelia's voice came out more clipped than she intended.

"So why now?"

Amelia's grip on the phone tightened. "I needed—a different perspective. But... I don't think I should have come. She's the same as she's always been, and I don't know why I expected any different."

"Relationships suck," Damien said bluntly. "If I can offer some unsolicited advice—you went there for a different perspective. So listen to it. Even if everything that comes out of her mouth grates on your nerves. Pretend she's a stranger and give yourself a chance to hear her."

To be honest, the uninvited opinion pissed her off, but she restrained herself when she recognized the merit of his words. "I've got to go. See you soon."

She barely caught his goodbye before hanging up the phone. 

When she re-entered the room, her mother was lounging on the couch.

Before the woman could say anything, Amelia told her what she'd meant to say all along. 

"I'm pregnant."

Sophia's eyes widened. "What?"

Amelia walked to an open chair and took a careful seat. "I'm pregnant. And I'm struggling because it wasn't a choice I made. That choice was taken from me, and I'm scared. I'm angry, and I'm scared because I don't feel anything. I don't feel pregnant, and I don't want to be pregnant, and I don't know what to do."

Sophia stood and crossed the room to kneel by Amelia's side, rubbing her back. "Oh honey, what happened?"

Amelia blinked away tears as she leaned forward, cradling her stomach. "I don't know what to do, mom. This time--this time I'm not prepared. And--" she finally admitted something to herself, "I'm scared that the man I love might not want me when I'm carrying another man's child."

Her mother's hand paused. "So it's--"

"Garret's," Amelia whispered.

"And this man you've been seeing? Who is he?" 

Amelia's shoulders slumped. "He's a good man. Not perfect, but caring. Smart. But lately," she said, "I don't know. We missed so much with everything going on, and I'm scared we missed vital steps in our relationship."

Her mother shrugged. "So do them over. Why does it have to be in order?"

Amelia looked up at her mother's face, eyebrows furrowed.

Her mother smiled, and Amelia's heart ached. Sophia ran her fingers through her daughter's hair.

"There's no real law to how you have to go about your relationship," Sophia said. "If you're missing something, grab his hand and go find it."