Chapter 134.

Music Recommendation: Purple Rain by Prince.

.......

Dinner was quiet yet Kylie talked occasionally, and Mrs. Hayes answered. Emilia mostly listened.

Her food remained mostly untouched.

"Sweetheart."

Emilia looked up. "Yes?"

"Eat."

"I’m eating, Mum."

"You’ve been moving that chicken around your plate for ten minutes."

Kylie looked down.

Emilia sighed. She picked up her fork, and took a bite.

Her mother smiled at her.

For a moment, dinner went on.

After dinner, Kylie helped clear the table.

Emilia returned to the couch. Her mother watched her disappear into the living room. Then she turned toward Kylie.

"She hasn’t been herself."

Kylie nodded, and thinned her lips.

"Has she told you anything?" Mrs. Hayes asked, with sparks of hopes lightening up in her eyes.

Kylie hesitated. "Not really."

Mrs. Hayes sighed softly. "I wish I knew how to fix this." She glanced toward the living room. "I wish I could."

Kylie smiled sadly. "You already help."

Mrs. Hayes nodded. She picked up another plate. "Go sit with her."

After cleaning the kitchen, Mrs. Hayes also walked out of the kitchen, and joined the girls in the living roo.

Emilia sat on the couch with her mother. The television was on, but neither of them was watching.

Emilia stared at the screen without seeing it.

Her mother sat beside her. For several minutes, they remained silent.

Softly, Emilia finally parted her lips. "Mum." She called. "Do you think I’m naive?"

Her mother turned immediately.

Emilia’s eyes remained on the television. "Do you think I’m naive?"

Her mother studied her. "You’re not, baby."

Emilia swallowed. "Adrian does."

Her mother’s expression changed. "Sweetheart—"

"Don’t talk me out of this, Mum." Emilia shook her head. "He said it."

Her mother reached for her hand. "Maybe he meant—"

"No." Emilia pulled her hand away. "He said it. He meant nothing else but what he said." Her voice cracked. "He said I got entangled with him because I was naive."

Kylie turned to Emilia. She stared at her softly with no words to say.

Her mother was quiet.

Emilia looked down. "He said I was young." Her fingers twisted together. "Inexperienced."

Her breathing became uneven.

"He said I might not understand what I was getting myself into."

Her mother listened.

"He said I might not even understand the consequences." A tear slid down Emilia’s cheek. "That’s how the hearing went, Mum."

Her mother waited.

"He was right."

Her mother frowned. "He wasn’t."

"He was."

"Emilia....."

Emilia cut her off. "Noah said he cheated because I was always at work or studying and never had time for him."

Her mother remained silent.

Emilia swallowed. She hiccupped softly. "Now Adrian says we got entangled because I was naive."

Her mother’s expression softened. "Sweetheart..."

"I don’t understand." Emilia wiped her cheek. "I don’t understand how two people can make you feel like you’re never enough."

Her mother moved closer.

Emilia shook her head. "Noah made me feel like I wasn’t there enough." Her voice broke. "Adrian made me feel like I wasn’t old enough to understand what I was doing."

She laughed quietly through her tears. "My entire life feels like someone else is explaining me to me."

Her mother reached for her.

This time, Emilia let her.

Her mother pulled her gently against her chest. Emilia rested her head against her shoulder.

She sobbed quietly, and her shoulders trembled. Kylie’s eyes glistened. She tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear, and listened to Emilia.

"I don’t want to say this." Her mother began quietly.

Emilia closed her eyes.

"But all I see..." Her mother hesitated. "...is a man trying to protect your future."

Emilia’s eyes opened. She lifted her head. "My future was mine, Mum."

Her mother’s eyes met hers.

"Not his." Emilia wiped her cheeks. "I didn’t ask him to protect me." Her voice trembled. "I asked him to trust me."

Her mother swallowed.

Emilia looked down. "I told them the truth." Her fingers trembled. "I told them I wasn’t a victim."

She inhaled shakily.

"I told them I knew what I was doing." Her voice dropped. "And then he sat there and told them I didn’t."

Her mother reached for her hand again.

Emilia allowed her fingers to be held.

"I would have lost everything for him." She stared at their intertwined hands. "My scholarship, my education, and my future."

She swallowed. "Then he had the guts to decide I was too naive to even understand what I was losing."

Her mother squeezed her hand. "Maybe he thought he was saving you."

Her tears spilled freely from both eyes. "I didn’t need saving, Mum." She sniffed and swallowed. "I just needed him to do anything but call me naive."

"I know, baby."

Emilia looked at her mother through her tears. Her mother’s eyes were filled with sadness.

"I know you didn’t."

Emilia’s lips trembled, and she said nothing.

Her mother had no immediate answer.

Emilia leaned back against the couch. Her eyes returned to the television. "I don’t want to be protected from my own choices."

Her mother looked at her.

"I just want someone to believe that I’m capable of making them."

Her mother’s heart tightened. She reached over and kissed Emilia’s forehead. "I believe you." She muttered. "But we should be careful what we wish for."

Emilia closed her eyes.

"And I believe that whatever happens next..." Her mother brushed her hair away from her face. "...you’ll survive it."

Emilia’s eyes opened.

Her mother smiled softly. "Maybe not without scars."

Emilia swallowed.

"But you’ll survive."

Emilia leaned into her. She wrapped her hands around her mother, and sobbed quietly. Her tears stained her mother’s shoulders but she didn’t care.

She simply held her little girl softly.

Emilia continued crying softly against her mother’s shoulder, each sob came out quieter than the one before it. Her mother simply held her, with one hand moving slowly through her hair while the other rested firmly against her back.

Then, after a moment, Mrs. Hayes lifted her eyes toward Kylie.

Kylie was still sitting nearby, with her hands folded loosely in her lap. Her eyes were glossy, and she had been blinking repeatedly in an attempt to keep the tears from falling.

Mrs. Hayes opened her arms.

Kylie blinked softly. For a second, she simply stared at her. Then she nodded.

She stood slowly and walked toward them. The moment she reached the couch, Mrs. Hayes pulled her into her open arms.

Kylie folded almost immediately.

She rested her head against Mrs. Hayes’s shoulder, and the tears she’d been holding back finally gathered in her eyes.

"You need this too, sweetheart," Mrs. Hayes whispered.

She kissed the crown of Kylie’s head.

Kylie closed her eyes. Her chest tightened painfully. She couldn’t remember the last time she felt a mother hug.

Mrs. Hayes held both girls against her, one tucked into each side of her chest.

Kylie swallowed hard.

Her eyes hurt from everything she wasn’t saying.

She blinked again, forcing the tears back as Mrs. Hayes’s hand moved gently over her hair.