Without Love - Chapter 19

Angel's P.O.V.

I could not believe I am back to my old own house. My mom, my dad, this garden where I played small games, this house where I run around my mom and my dad used to try to catch me. Memories started flooding in front of my eyes and my legs carried me to the doors. I was expecting my mom would open the door and I will run to her arms. What will be her reaction to see me after 7 months? Can I tell her where I was and what I was doing all these days? Will she accept me? Brian was next to me supporting me, but my heart was racing like anything. What would happen when she finds me on the door step? Cutting through all my thoughts, one woman opened the door who was not my mother. Who is she and where is my mother?

I asked her where my mother is and she asked me who I am. Sure she does not know me, even I don't know her.

"I am Angel. But who are you?" I questioned.

"Angel!" She gasped with her hands over her mouth. She came and hugged me tight after looking me up and down. I could not understand what was happening. Even Brian had the same expression as mine. After some time she released me from the hug and held me at arm's length.

"Now I understand why she says you are the most beautiful girl ever. Come on in. Your mom is there." My heart started speeding, but I followed her.

"Mrs. Smith, look who is here." She called out loudly as she was walking fast in front of me. Brian just followed us.

After following for some moments, she stopped in front of the small room where I used to stay before.

"She is there. Go and meet her. I will get you some coffee." She left me there and I opened the door. It was all the same as I left 7 months before. Nothing has changed. Nobody was there in the room, as I opened it. The bed was a little bit clumsy. The bathroom door clicked open and somebody was inside the bathroom. As the person stepped out of the bathroom I could see who it was - my mother. Oh my God, she is sick, she has to catch the walls for walking. She was almost falling down as she left the bathroom door. I ran towards her and held her by arm before she fell down. Tears were rolling down my cheek as she looked up to see me. Her eyes widened as she looked at me through the thick rimmed glasses. She was not wearing these glasses when I had been taken. Tears welled up in her eyes and she raised her free hand to touch my cheeks and I just nodded squeezing her hand in between my cheek and my shoulder. We hugged each other and my mother started wailing and I too cried my heart out. Brian just watched us, in fact I had forgotten about him. After some time I calmed down and made her sit on the single bed. She was still crying, I had actually not noticed what Brian is doing until he came and put his hand on my shoulder.

My mom looked up at him and stopped crying and I asked him to sit down. He put the bags in the floor and sat behind me. Still nobody has spoken and I and my mother had locked eyes on each other. I decided to break the silence.

"How are you mama?" I still call her mama as I used to call in childhood.

"I should ask you, how are you. Where were you?" My mom asked in breaking voice as she cupped my face. She started crying again and suddenly I felt her hands are coming down from my face and her eyelids closing. Before I could act, she fainted.

"Mama!" I called out loud as she fell on the bed. Brian quickly went to her head side and held her properly and we both put her in bed. I started to shake her face and sprinkled some water on her face from the jug put on the table behind her bed. She winced a little and stirred on her bed. She was trying to open her eyes and I could see it was painful.

"Mama, you need rest." I tried to cover the blanket, but she gripped my hand as tightly she can even with her eyes closed. I held her both palms with my other hand and assured her that "I am here Mama, I will not go anywhere. I am here near you." She tried to take some rest, though I knew she will not sleep. Tears started rolling down my face and I moved my head down and started sobbing silently still holding her hands. Brian came and stood near me. He patted my head and I rested my head on his stomach. He cupped my head in both hands and I cried in his hands. We were disturbed by the lady who called my name from outside the door. I looked up to find out the same lady who opened the door, is coming towards us with two cups of coffee in her hands.

"Hi" I said and wiped my tears. Brian has not said a single word and had let me cry. Thanks to him. The lady came forward and said "Hi, I am Vanessa." She gave one cup of coffee to me.

"This is Brian" I said pointing to Brian who had now moved to stand near mama's head.

"Hi" Vanessa said and offered him a chair to sit down and handed him his coffee. Brian also said "Hi" and started sipping his coffee.

"She must be sleeping; she has just taken the pills." She said putting down the tray on the table.

"Mrs. Smith keeps telling me about you. Everyone here knows that you were missing for last... Almost like 8 months?" I just nodded and sipped my coffee and she continued "Your mother misses you very much. She cries a lot."

I looked at Mama once more; she was trying to sleep or was in half sleep.

"What has happened to her? She is so weak." I asked looking back at Vanessa.

"Oh it is so sad of her, she is having blood cancer and doctor said it's her last stage. She wished to spend the remaining days at her own home. So..." Before she could complete her sentence, the coffee mug slipped from my hand and broke into pieces. My mama is in her last stage. I looked back to my mama and to Brian again. He left the coffee mug on the table and came to stand beside me while Vanessa bent down to collect the scattered pieces. I was not talking anything now and as Brian held me in his hands, I quickly stood up and hugged him tightly and cried loudly. He started soothing my back and I kept on crying until the loud cry reduced to sobbing. Vanessa had gone to the kitchen to dispose the broken mug and to get the wiper to clean the floor.

"Calm down Angel, Sit here." Brian made me sit on the bed; I still had not stopped sobbing. Brian bent down on his knees on the floor and looked at me.

"You have to be strong Angel, if you cry like this, then who will support Mama?" He asked while moving my chin up with his fingers. I just nodded, but could not stop crying. Vanessa had cleared the floor and came back to us with some water.

"I am sorry Angel. I should not have told you." I could not look up. Brian stood up and took the glass from Vanessa's hands and gave it to me. He held the glass while I drank the water. Finally I was able to speak.

"Don't be sorry Vanessa. I have to know. I have to deal with it. I feel terrible that I was not here when she needed me the most." I wiped my tears completely and looked up to her. "You are here..."

She moved to another chair and sat on there before gesturing Brian to take his chair. In fact there were only these two chairs, the bed, one table and a vase with fresh flowers.

"I and my husband moved to this new town recently, some 8 months back. Your mother allowed us to be in this house as we were struggling to find a god house with less money. She rented the whole house except this only room. It was fine with us. Later only I came to know about the blood cancer part when she suddenly coughed some blood and I had to take her to hospital. She stayed in hospital for some months and instead of paying rent to her we paid for her at the hospital. Then before one month as the doctor made sure that she can't be cured, she suggested to move back to the house. So it's like she has been in this room for almost one month."

"What about her food and all?" Brian asked.

"I have been cooking for her. She said it will be helpful for her if I could do this. She never demands rent from us. I am so sorry for her. I will serve her whatever it takes." She said looking at my mama.

"Thank you so much. You were there when I was not there." I said holding her hands.

"It's okay Angel. Now tell me where you were all these months." Tears started to well up in my eyes and I looked at Brian.

"She was kidnapped and sent to Zadar. I was there for my new job. We escaped from there and came here."

"Are you her boyfriend?" Brian looked at me and I nodded.

"But what were you doing at Zadar?" Brian looked helpless again and I did not want to bother him. So I spoke up.

"I was kidnapped for slavery and sent to Zadar with many other kidnapped people. Brian found me one day and eventually we escaped from that place." Vanessa looked at both of us like she half believed in what we said but decided to remain silent and just said "Oh."

After some minutes of silence I said "How much time does she have?"

"May be a fort night or a week. Not too much time" She said shaking her head from left to right and right to left. My eyes were numb again. I did not come to find my mama in death bed. How I can be so unlucky? I looked at my mom and the tears accompanied.

"Her eyesight has weakened a lot due to the blood cancer. Doctors say she will soon lose her eyesight." I just started to cry more.

After some time again Vanessa said "you two get fresh. I hope the journey must have been long and tiring. You two can use the two bathrooms. I will make some food for all of us. My husband will come tomorrow morning only. He is out of station. So you can use the spare room." We nodded and she left to the kitchen. We both took bath one by one, while at least one person stayed with mama. I helped Vanessa in kitchen and mama woke up by lunch time. She was delighted to see me and we talked and mostly cried before heading for lunch. I introduced Brian to mama and she looked happy. Neither she spoke about her disease nor did I. We finished lunch and we again sat down to talk for some time while I told about the truth about me to her.

"My poor baby, how much you have suffered." She cried holding me. After sometime she released me and wiped out the tears that were on my cheeks. I wiped out her tears.

"Take her with you Brian. She should not stay here. And please promise me you will keep her safe." She said turning towards Brian, who was sitting near the bed in the chair.

Brian leaned forward and held her hands "I promise."

"Mama, I want to stay with you." I said turning her face to me.

"Yeah, I have been alive only to see you once, or else I would have been dead long ago."

"No mama, you can't leave me like this. See now I am here, everything will be okay." I said trying to control my tears. She just nodded and after some discussion she agreed that I can stay with her for some days.

After so much, finally I convinced Brian to go to the spare room and have some sleep while I decided to stay near Mama at night. During the night I just looked at mama while she slept. I thought Brian also should go and meet his parents, so morning the first thing I did is convinced Brian to go and meet his parents. Somehow Brian agreed. We both went out to get some groceries which could be enough for more than 2 weeks, while Brian said that he will come back after 3 days. On the way to home, I asked Brian "Will you tell your parents about me?"

"Yes" He said and squeezed my hand.

"But what they will think." I looked up at him.

"They need not know everything. I will say I met you at Zadar. You were on vacation. I fell in love with you. So I decided to come back to Florida as you are going to study in Florida University." He smiled a little.

"When did you think about all this? And am I going to study in Florida University?"

"I thought about all this yesterday night and I am not sure whether you are going to university or not. That is up to you. But you are coming to Florida for sure. I will come back after 3 days and I will take you and your mom with me to Florida."

I hugged him in one hand and he too hugged me in one hand as we held the groceries in the other hands. He booked flight tickets and we reached my home. Vanessa's husband had been back to home by that time. He was a nice person and he mixed up with Brian soon. By evening Brian left for Florida and me and mam waved bye to him. Little did I know that mama was waving her goodbye to him?

After one week also Brian did not come back and today Mama opened her eyes for the last time though she was not able to see for last 3 days. Her funeral was being carried out at the nearest cemetery and I was crying like anything while Vanessa was holding me. I waited for Brian every second but he did not come. His phone is not connecting and I did not know what to do. Now when I needed him badly, he is not here. He promised me he will come back after 3 days, but he did not come. What would have happened to him? Is he in any problem? Did he tell truth to his parents, so that his parents did not allow him to come back? I knew there is no outcome how much ever I think, I sat at my mother's grave for some 2 hours more before coming back to my home. During the funeral and on the way back home, I could see people eying me. I really did not see sympathy in those eyes; they were just questioning looks and some of them still eying my body. How much I hate those eyes - I mean I have returned here after 8 months, my mama has died, I am left all alone here, but they still scanning me like I am the last girl on earth. I somehow managed to reach my home and went to my room which was filled by my mama just some hours before. I sat on the chair and put my head back on the chair. As tears were starting to form in my eyes, I just closed them and hoped that Brian might come.
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Comment Replies:

Hi All,

Thanks for reading and commenting. Hope you like this chapter too.

@Crackerzz - Ha ha, sometimes it is so funny to irritate friends. Please read and comment.

@Gouthami - Yes finally she is out, let's see whether she can get happiness or not. Thanks for liking the story. Pleas read and comment.

@Rachel - Yeah, her family, her only family, her mother is alive but, not long.

@Ghidey - Thanks a lot, Please keep reading and commenting.

@BigZ - Thanks for liking the story. Please read and comment.

@Vonni - Well thanks for liking the story, Please read and comment.

@Gel - This chapter lets you know what happened to her mother. Though I liked your idea of running this story for 100 chapters :) , but I am planning a maximum of 22 to 25 chapter. The story has to end someday:) And if someday I become famous, You will be the first to know.

@Ria - Yeah, Maggie is a good lady after all. Please keep on reading and commenting.