The Widows Daughter

Part ninety-six

Ireland.
(Chloe's POV)

Family. Noun. Meaning: a group of one or more parents and their children living together as a unit.

Family is a weird concept for me. My whole life I've never had a "nuclear family". It was always the family I made for myself. The family I found.

Jamie and Charlotte were basically my parents. Annie, Zari, and Luke were essentially my siblings. They were my family. They raised me, took care of me, protected me as much as they could.

I watched them die one by one. Some of their deaths were even my fault. I couldn't save them. I doubt I would have been able to even if I had tried. And for that, I will never be able to forgive myself.

Then I found Mom. She introduced me to my next family. Steve, Sam, Tony, Wanda, Clint, Thor, Bruce. I had not only found my mom, but I had gotten a bunch of Dads. I got a sister even.

Through Clint, I had Laura, Cooper, Lila, and Nate. They were as much my family as anyone else was. Without them, I'd be just as lost.

And now I had Mom's confusing family. Her sister and parents, who actually aren't her sister and parents. But even knowing that, I could tell why Mom is the way she is.

Yelena is ever the little sister who does whatever she can for her big sister's approval. She's funny and quirky, and she's incredibly smart. But I can tell she's seen her fair share of trauma. I can see it in her eyes.

You can probably see mine now that I think about it. If you look close enough.

Melina was smart. Smarter than a lot of people. From what I had been told, she had helped unlock the secret to free will. A terrifying thought, but amazing nonetheless.

I could see her in Mom. The way they both said certain things, how they both sometimes stood or sat, even their facial expressions were the same sometimes.

I wonder if that was what it's like with me and Mom...

Melina may not be Mom's real mom, but they sure did act like it. If you were to ask me before I was told they weren't related, I wouldn't have been able to tell. Whatever they said, Melina was as much Natasha Romanoff's mother, as Mom was mine.

Alexei was the typical Dad. Or at least what I assume a dad is like. Big, burly, strong, but kind and affectionate. In his own, strange way.

He actually kind of reminds me of Thor.

Alexei wasn't the smartest guy, anyone could tell you that if you spent enough time with him. But he certainly made up for it with his heart. Although he wouldn't stop talking about his "Red Guardian Days". And he always talked about Steve, but that bit confused me because I didn't think they had ever caught each other.

Mental note: ask Steve later about it.

I never thought I had had a family, let alone lots. But as I sat at a table listening to Alexei recount what Mom had done a few weeks ago—I was aware of none of this—I realized I had more family than I ever thought.

Jamie, Charlotte, Luke, Annie, and Zari; Mom, Steve, Tony, Sam, Wanda, Thor, Bruce, and Clint; Laura, Cooper, Lila, Nate; Yelena, Melina, Alexi; and even Bucky. I had so much family; people who loved me and cared about me.

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"And then, I realized that Natasha, wasn't actually Natasha, but Melina! It was just a trick so that we could get taken to the Red Room." Alexei spoke animatedly.

"Yes, and I almost got my face cut off," Yelena added. I snorted at that but tried to hide the fact that I did when something hit me.

"Wait, the Red Room wasn't just something Hydra used to scare us with?" I asked startled.

"No, it was used to train girls into weapons," Melina said. "I was cycled through five times before your mother was born. Until now it was all I knew."

I was shocked at her statement. "What do you mean they trained girls into weapons?"

"They would take us. That's what they did to us." Yelena pointed between herself and Mom. "They trained us into killers. Took all the good out of you and made a monster. They violated us, took our innocence. Made it so that no good would come from us."

"Hence the complete hysterectomy?" Everyone but Alexei nodded. "So when Mom had me..."

"I had just turned 18." Mom nodded. "I didn't have mine until a year later. I was gone for nine months. Dropped off the radar. I was punished and had to redo some of my training."

"How do you know about it?" Melinda asked.

"Growing up, Hydra used it as a punishment. If you and another kid got into a fight or something, you get sent to the Red Room. It was a fight to the death so to speak. If you didn't kill each other, they'd kill you themselves." I explained trying to keep my voice level.

It was silent so I continued. "The last time I knew they put someone in there, was when I was seven. Lena and Marcy got into a fight so they put them in there. But Lena wouldn't kill Marcy. So they put a bullet in Marcy's head, and Lena tried to kill them. They dragged Lena down to the Slaughterhouse and killed her."

The looks of horror on everyone's faces were enough to tell me that it was probably worse than the real Red Room. "The Slaughterhouse?" Mom asked and it occurred to me that I had never told her any of this.

"The name pretty much explains it. If you went to the Red Room, you had a chance of coming back. But the Slaughterhouse? No one ever came back from there." I told them. "They wouldn't just kill you there. They made it last as long as they could. It was torture. Literally. They would torture you, but the worst part is that they would specifically do it at night so all night long you could hear the screams."

The little apartment we were sitting in was silent. Alexei, Yelena, and I were sitting at a table while Mom and Melina stood by the kitchen counter. In the next room, there was an old couch and chair, a fireplace, and a large desk pushed against the wall that was covered in books and papers.

I fidgeted in the horror-induced silence that I created. There had been a few times when I had stunned Alexis into silence, but I don't know if it had ever lasted this long or if it was this quiet. This was one of the first rims I had ever talked about what had happened to Marcy and Lena. Alexis didn't even know.

Mom moved from her place by the counter and pulled me out of the chair I was in. I looked at her nervous about her next move. Instead of yelling or something, she hugged me.

Not a quick little hug, but a headache-inducing kind of hug. The ones where you're squeezed so tightly you can't breathe and your head starts to hurt. The kind where you're basically just absorbed into the person.

So I kinda lied about the warm fuzzy wholesome chapter. Initially, I did intend to make it really wholesome, and then all that happened. So I'm sorry about that. Hopefully, the next chapter will be a bit more lighthearted than this one was.