Alone With Ross

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Piper's story : Piper's POV

"So, how did you find that out?" Caspian asked me quietly.

I twisted my hands up, reliving that car ride I had with my mother over here.

Flashback

" I thought you'd be jumping for joy right now." My mother looked towards me then back at the road.

"My life is going to change. And you're going who knows where." I said bitterly.

She laughed sadly.

"You don't have to be disappointed in me any more, wu ai." she and I both frowned at the nickname she used for me.

"I guess your not going to be using your Chinese anymore." Mom shook her head.

"You never once disappointed me." I claimed.

My mom bit her lip and kept her eyes on the road, and I saw some tears streaming down her face.

"I'm going to though." She hit the emergency light and parked on the side of the highway.

"Mom?" I reached out to touch her shoulder but she recoiled from my hand.

"For the longest time I have hated you." The mood grew dark. I looked at my mother in disbelief. And she looked back at me with hatred, a look I've seen only once.

"I was fifteen years old when I became pregnant with you." She looked out to the street. The May rain making the world look gloomy.

"I was living in Wuhang, China with my grandmother, Shemi. I was the top in my class. I was the most liked" She put her forehead on the steering wheel. "Maybe liked too much."

"What are you talking about?" I asked confused.

"There was a guy. I didn't quite know his name, but he was kind to me. He would wait outside his shop, every single day he would give me something from his shop when I walked home from school."

I have never heard about my mothers past in china, she always refused to talk about it, and right now I'm wishing she would go back to not speaking of it.

"It was a normal day, I went to school, then I started walking home. The man saw I was fairly tired and offered me a couple minutes rest. I'll never forget that room." She shook her head, her eyes cast down. "It locked on the outside, only I didn't know that until I was ready to leave. Despite my pleads, he kept me there for over a week, feeding me bits of bread and giving me water. I felt like an animal, even having to use the bathroom in a bucket." She laughed sadly. And I fought the urge to console her to avoid her hateful glare, or maybe even something worse.

"Mom, you don't have to tell me anymore." I cried.

"I have to, it's been a burden on my life for so long." We waited awhile in silence for her to recompose herself, and watched as some cars passed us by, making water splash against the car.

"He raped me." She breathed out and right after a semi passed by blaring its horn. "And when I was finally released from him, no one believed the story I shared, my mother passed my absence as being a hormonal teenager who was finally rebelling." Mom shook her head. "I started to show the signs of pregnancy and I was becoming the talk of the town. My mother, not wanting to risk further embarrassment demanded an abortion."

I wanted out of the car, I didn't want to hear this.

She's already changing my future, and now she's altering the past I once knew. She didn't lie, but she never told me the truth, but I don't think I want to know now.