Chapter 145. A Territory of Her Own

Chapter 145: 145. A Territory of Her Own

Carlos stepped inside after Elena.

"Nothing has changed, huh?" He spoke in relief.

"Not much time has passed," she spoke and looked back. "This house will always stay the same for you, no matter when you want to come back." She continued with a warm smile.

Carlos nodded and kept walking, he kept his dirty shoes in the shoe rack near the door and put on his slippers.

Nothing major had changed in the house except for Carlos himself.

Elena turned around and looked at him properly.

She had looked at him in the office too, but she had been holding herself back there. Arthur was watching. Evelyn was watching. There had been too many people in that room.

Now there was nobody else.

Elena stepped forward and placed both her hands on his face.

And at that moment, her poker face finally broke and tears fell from her face. Carlos couldn’t hold himself back too and smiled in happiness. He was able to come back safely to her.

Her eyes moved over his face, his shoulders, his hands. She looked like she was checking whether every part of him was still there.

"Mom, I am fine."

"You look thinner."

Carlos almost said he was not. Then he remembered the food problems, the days he had skipped a proper meal because the others needed it more, and the fights where his body had barely recovered before something else happened.

"I ate," he said.

Elena looked at him once. Carlos sighed.

"Most of the time."

She pulled him into a hug before he could say anything else.

Carlos stood still for the first few seconds. Then he held her back.

He had hugged Kaia after fights. Brann had put a heavy paw on his shoulder more than once. Mira had looked at him like she wanted to say something when he came back injured.

But this was different. This was his first home. Elena’s hand pressed against the back of his head.

"I was so happy when I saw you come back," she said. Her voice was shaky now.

Carlos closed his eyes for a moment.

"I wanted to come back as soon as I could."

"I know."

She held him for a little longer before stepping back.

Her face had a small smile now. It was not the proud expression she had made in the Goldwin office. This one was softer.

"My prayers have been fulfilled. You are back safe."

Carlos nodded again. She was very sentimental right now, and he couldn’t help being the same too.

Elena walked to the kitchen and turned on the light. It was already getting darker outside. She opened the fridge, looked inside, then frowned at the few things left there.

"Sit down. I will make something."

"Mom, you don’t have to."

"Shut up and sit."

Carlos sat at the dining table.

One thing was similar even now with Ironroot, the shortage of food.

But at the same time, it felt peaceful.

Elena moved around the kitchen carefully. She did not ask him about the Goldwins right away. Carlos was glad for that.

After a few minutes, she brought two bowls to the table. It was simple food, but Carlos looked at it for a second longer than he should have.

Elena noticed.

"What?"

"Nothing." Carlos picked up the spoon. "It just looks good."

"You are making me remember when I came back home after the Beginner Period, everything tasted good."

"Still."

Elena sat across from him.

Carlos took the first bite. It was hot, and he had to wait before taking another one. The food in Ironroot had been good sometimes. Mira had worked hard. But this was made by his mother, in the house where he had grown up.

He did not say that out loud. Elena watched him eat with a quiet smile.

"You know," she said after a while, "when you were younger, you used to complain if I made the same food two days in a row."

Carlos looked up.

"I was young."

"You are still young."

"I manage like 30 something now though." Carlos joked.

Elena gave a small laugh.

"You are still my son."

Carlos could not argue with that. The smile on his face stayed for a while.

Then Elena looked at him more seriously.

"Tell me honestly, are you hurt? We can go to the doctor right away, it will be dumb if you don’t tell me."

Carlos stopped eating and looked at her.

"I got hurt a few times," he said. "But I had people with me. My troops helped me a lot, in their own way."

"Did you almost die anytime?"

Carlos thought about it for a moment and he didn’t have to think a lot for the answer to come to his mind. He did almost die a few times.

"Yes," he said.

Elena went quiet. Carlos continued before she could imagine something worse.

"More than once. But I did not die. And I did not do it alone. I have people there who protect me too."

Elena’s eyes became wet, but she did not cry.

"You should not have to do that," she said.

"Maybe. But I had to."

She looked down at her bowl.

"And now the bastards want you because you did it."

Carlos did not answer right away. He knew how sensitive this topic was.

"You still remember how they treated us after your father was gone, right?" she asked.

Carlos nodded, those were tough times.

"I remember, Mom. And I have not forgiven them for making you live like this." A vein popped on Carlos’s forehead.

"Don’t show anger, we have to be smart about it. The Goldwins are powerful, they help those who can be of use but they are the most selfish ones out there in the whole world. If you start showing that you can’t keep up, then they won’t hesitate in leaving you behind, we have experienced that once already." She spoke with a serious expression.

Carlos nodded, they both knew them very well.

"They show favoritism to family but only till they can prove themselves." She spoke and her mind went back to the past.

"Once your dad... passed away, we did get this house from them and monetary help for the first year. But then..." She spoke and stopped to gulp.

"Mom," Carlos kept a hand on her. "I know, you don’t have to say it out loud."

"No, I want you to remember everything as if it was yesterday. Only then will you be cautious." She spoke.

"Your father was strong, strong enough to be part of the main family but one small mistake made him lose his life. It was haste, Carlos. He tried to do things too fast and it cost him his life." She spoke.

"If he was alive today, you wouldn’t have had to try so hard out there. He would have handled everything."

Carlos did not say anything, so much time had passed that if he did not see his father’s picture, he wouldn’t remember his face fully. Just his smile, his confidence and a few lines he spoke.

"Once the year had passed, they made me a ridiculous offer. Single big monetary help for me and you for my territory..." She spoke and bit her lips.

Carlos also clenched his fist tight to control himself.

"They took advantage of our situation and it was my fault for being so weak that I couldn’t keep our house going with my territory. So... I had to sell it, Carlos."

For a minute, everything that had already surfaced again made Elena choke for a second, she was trying to hold back her cry.

Carlos quickly went forward and hugged her tightly, he couldn’t see his mother like this anymore.

"You can stop, mother. I will remember everything."

"NO, not just remember, Carlos. You need to be smart." She spoke after putting her hands on his shoulder.

"You need to stop taking big risks that could make you lose your life. Don’t do what your father did, don’t try to do things fast for this society."

"I won’t."

Elena looked into Carlos’s eyes and kept a hand on his face.

"There are things that you lose and don’t think of as a sacrifice, but with time, you get what you actually lost alongside it." she spoke with her eyes distant.

"If I had not sold my territory for a hasty decision, then I would have at least been able to try my best to support us. But I didn’t do that."

"MOM!" Carlos grabbed her face with both hands and made her look at him in the present.

"You had to do what you had to do to survive in Dad’s absence. The money you took from the Goldwins helped us survive for this long. I want you to remember that with pride."

Elena looked at how big his son had gotten and smiled warmly before she hugged him again.

At that moment, Carlos knew what he needed to do.

"You know, mother. I know for a long time that you loved your territory." He spoke with a smile that made Elena dig her face deeper inside his shoulder.

"And it has been my dream to one day take my mother back to a territory she could call her own." He spoke again.

This time, she got up and looked at him with surprise.

"Look, I know you help maintain Grandpa’s territory too and you like it. But will you help fulfil my dream too, mother?" He asked.

"What is your dream?" Elena asked with full focus, she had never heard of this dream from him.

"Will you go with me to my territory? Will you help me maintain it?" He asked.