Stronger Together | George Russell

06 - mother

Annabelle

When I slowly woke up again, I noticed that the car was standing still and we had arrived. From where I was sitting I saw the front door, which was open. George jogged out of the house just as I put on my shoes and opened the car door.

"Hey honey, I didn't want to wake you up," he said and immediately came to me.

I just nodded silently, but gratefully accepted his hand, which he held out to me. George said he had already brought the luggage into the house, so we closed the door behind us. Just as we had taken off our shoes and left the anteroom, Alison came out of the kitchen.

"Annabelle."

She immediately took me in her arms and hugged me before looking at me with concern.

"How are you, would you like something to eat or drink?"

I thanked her and gave her a slight smile and said some water would be good. Alison sent her son to the kitchen while she accompanied me to the sofa. We sat down together and George joined us shortly afterwards. 

I learned that Steve was still on his way but should be here soon. After I took a sip of water, they both looked at me expectantly and I felt a little uncomfortable. Luckily the doorbell rang shortly afterwards and we got up.

"Oh hey guys. Annabelle, nice to see you again, I hope you had a good trip," said Steve and gave me a quick hug as a greeting.

He then said that he would go shopping and whether Alison would accompany him, but she looked back at her son, who briefly gave me a questioning look. I nodded silently and signaled to him that it wouldn't be a problem for me. 

After the two men disappeared through the front door, Alison and I sat out on the patio. She also brought fresh lemonade and cake from the kitchen and I slowly relaxed. This place, these people felt like home and I always felt at home when I was with George and his parents. 

After a few minutes of silence, Alison began to speak.

"Hey, you don't have to talk about this if you don't want to but"

"But what happened?" I completed her sentence and she nodded cautiously.

"George told you something already I guess."

"Although we don't see him often, we knew something had happened earlier this year and of course we read this article as well."

"Yes George said you were mad at him and defended me," I said and we both had to laugh for a moment before things got serious again.

"Yes, at least I knew you, even if not too well, but I just couldn't imagine that you would do something like that. Steve was skeptical at first, but I was able to convince him pretty quickly. You were and are just the perfect daughter in law and you make George so happy he was just scared of it. But luckily it was just a small thing and you were happy together again. We only found out the whole story after Spielberg."

She paused and I looked away. Talking about it was difficult, but also a good way to process everything. Back then I had bottled up everything because there was no one there for me to talk to. 

Benedikt was gone and my parents simply weren't interested in how I was doing with the whole thing. Now having people who cared about me was completely new for me and I always felt guilty about it. These people all had their own lives and concerns and all this attention to me sometimes made me a little uncomfortable.

"I assume he told you everything, from back then and Sunday?" I asked uncertainly and looked back up at Alison, who was sitting across from me.

The older woman nodded crestfallen and took my hand, which was lying on the table.