"Where are you going?"Melina asked Natasha."To do this myself."The red haired woman answered.She would make sure that The Red Room will be taken down.
"I'll go with you."Alina said to her mother who shook her head."No,Alina .You should stay here.There are a lot of risks and I don't want them to get you again."The woman already felt guilty for leaving her child at the Red Room,thought she didn't know that the girl was alive.
"Look mama I need to to this.I need to at least help destroy that hellhole.And after all this is over we can start over.We can be a family again."
"Fine but make sure you won't get hurt in the process."
"I promise."
"You two won't survive this"Melina told them when she heard their conversation.
"I wish you cared.You're not the first mother mother that abandoned me."Natasha said to Melina."You weren't abandoned."Melina answered and as soon as Natasha heard that, the woman looked at her mother figure surprised.
"You were selected in a program that assessed the genetic potential in infants."
"I was taken?"She asked with tears in her eyes but she wouldn't let them fall.
"I believe a bargain was struck.Your family paid of.But your mother she never stopped looking.She was like you in that way.Normally actions of a curious civilian wouldn't matter but like I said she was relentless.Dreykov had her killed."
Alina was sure that her biological grandmother sounds like an amazing person.She wondered what it would like if someone fought for her like that .She understands now that her mother was told that she died but it would still be nice if her mother had fought for her like that.If she didn't believe them that she died.
After Alina saw that her mother was saddened by the news she decided that she needs a hug.She wrapped her hands around her mom's waist and the woman returned the hug.
"I've always thought it's best not to look into the past."Melina said as she was holding the photo album from Ohio.
"Then why did you keep this?"Natasha runs her fingers through the photos.Alina was looking at the pictures,finding her aunt and mom cute as children.
"I remember this one.We shoot Christmas, Thanksgiving all in one day.Different backdrops.I know that the presents under the tree were fake but I didn't care.I wanted to open every single one of them.So for a second it would feel real."
"Let's stop this."Melina takes the book out of her hands.
"Why are you doing this?"
"Why does a mouse born in a cage run in that little wheel?Do you know I was cycled through the Red Room four times before you were even know?Those walls were all I have ever known.I was never given a choice."
Alina couldn't imagine going through that four times.She was also born in the cage For years she hated her mother thinking she had abandoned her but in reality she was glad that she was her mother for her first three years.Her mom didn't have to care for her because Alina Romanova was only meant to be a weapon.
"But your not a mouse,Melina.You were just born in a cage but that's not your fault."
"Tell me how did you keep your heart?"the woman questioned.
"Pain only makes us stronger."Alina recognized the sentence.She had heard her aunt Yelena saying this to her when she was younger in the Red Room after a rough training.That sentence kept her alive.
"Didn't you tell us that? What you taught me kept me alive."Natasha said to her.
Both Romanova's girls looked at Melina who had a guilty look on her face.Somehow they knew what it meant.
