Chapter 6
“What?!” I wasn’t sure who the first person to cry out in shock was, but I did know that the room got chaotic at this point. Sierra’s face showed readable shock, my mother looked like she was going to kill someone, someone meaning Zane, Lance looked majorly uncomfortable, Stephanie was smiling as if she thought this situation was funny, and Zane looked like he wanted to run for the hills. I felt my face flush and before I could even muster a whimper my mother’s commanding voice broke through.
“What on Earth would give you the authority to assume that?” she asked, I could tell she was struggling to keep her voice even and calm.
Zane seemed to be able breathe now and he let out a shaky breath, “Why would you ask that?”
Aida blushed and shrugged her shoulders, “I guess I just assumed since you’re so young and, well, tying the knot as you American’s call it.”
Every eye in the room darted to my finger and I felt my face flush red. Zane sighed and out his face in his hands and I heard Sierra squeal.
“Oh my God! This is perfect! Why didn’t you tell me? Never mind that, I’m so happy for you!” Sierra was practically jumping up and down, then, seeing my mother’s expression, she quickly became silent.
“Take that off now, you’re being ridiculous,” she demanded in a cool, collected voice and I shot her an exasperated look.
“Excuse me? I’m being ‘ridiculous’? No, I’m making decisions for myself, and Zane is one of them,” I replied and my mother’s calm expression slipped, she was angry, angrier than I’d ever seen her.
“You may not have lived under my roof in a long time, but I am
your mother. When I tell you to do something, you do it, and no questions asked, no complaining, no talking back. Now take it off,” she yelled I caught out of the corner of my eyes Stephanie and Lance quietly slipping out of the room.
“What so now that you’re actually in my life again, you think you can play mother again? No, I don’t think so! You weren’t there for a good half of my life, you’re just another adult I know, and even though you gave birth to me, you are not
my mother and you cannot tell me what to do!” I shouted and Zane laid a hand on my shoulder.
“If I could,” he said quietly, “Mrs.Charard, I’m in love with your daughter, in fact, I’ve never even heard, yet alone felt, anything even close to what I feel for her. Now I can tell her goodbye, you can take her away, and I can lose everything I live for, but I’d still have to spend the rest of my life with her. I’m her guardian, Linda; I can’t just get out of her life. So, can’t we spend our eternity how we’d like to, or do we have to spend the rest of our lives wanting but never receiving?”
My mother rested in forehead in her hands and let out an audible sigh. “I can’t deal with this…Really, I just…wow,” she said in an exasperated tone. “I am
you’re mother, for one, and another thing, I have always been there, you just haven’t asked.” She locked eyes with me and I shook my head.
“No, mom
, you haven’t, but that’s not the point. I love Zane, whether you like him, whether you hate him and-”
“Okay.”
“Oh, and that’s another thing…Wait what?” my voice trailed off into space and I let me jaw
drop.
“Okay. Fine, if this is something you really want, then fine. But just know if this ends badly, you’ll still be spending forever with each other,” she said as she picked up her bag and swung it over her shoulder, “Now we should all get some rest.”
Zane gave her a nod and I gave his hand a squeeze then winked up at him, “Told you she’d come around,” I whispered.
He grinned back and shook his head in amusement, “You call that ‘coming around’?”
“No, but it’s progress,” I replied as I reached up and pecked him on the cheek, “Night.”
“Night,” he whispered back then quietly walked down the hall and shut the door.