The Forbidden One

Mommy |E|

EDITED

Albert

"You're pathetic, Nicolas!" Mom shouted while she hurried down the stairs after slamming her bedroom door shut with Dad inside it. I'm young but I'm pretty aware of the arguments they have. It's always about the same thing.

Athena.

Dad always yells it in Mom's face that Athena was prettier, skinnier and much more woman material in bed. The last part I don't quite understand -- does that mean she's a good sleeper? What's so great about that?

Mom bent down to grab my arm as she whispered in the most motherly and caring tone anyone's ever heard. "Come on, baby. Let's go for a ride?"

I nodded, following her lead. She helped buckle my seatbelt on and once she got on the driver seat, I suggested a place we could go to. "Can we go to the park, Mommy?"

Through the rearview mirror, she smiled at me. "Sure, baby. That'll clear both our heads up from your Daddy's shenanigans." I watched Mom's smile fade through her reflection in the mirror.

We pulled up onto the parking lot of my favorite park and she hurried to unbuckle my seatbelt for me. "Alright, baby. Go on and play, Mommy is going to be seated right on that bench."

"Won't you play with me?" I asked.

"Oh, not today, sweetie. I want to clear my head for a while." Seeing my saddened face, Mom quickly reassures me. "But as soon as j feel better, I'll join you."

I smile before running toward the playground. Time passed, I'm not sure how much but I kept glancing at Mom. She'd occasionally wipe a tear from her cheek and take little breaths through her mouth. She looked sad, she looked hurt.

Before I could take my eyes off her, a bunch of cars curved onto the parking lot and stopped their cars anywhere. The few people in the park screamed in horror and fled with their children. Mom reacted fast and ran to me, wrapping her arms around me and whispering, "It's okay, don't panic. It's okay."

I muffled out an okay whilst my face is buried in her chest and when she set me down beside the car, she tried to unlock it for me when one of the bulkier men that had crawled out of the cars shot a bullet through her. Mom's body collapsed in front of me, inches away. I fell to my little knees and touched her face. "Mommy?"

She had blood gushing out of her mouth and from where the bullet had entered from. "Albert, baby, I love you so much, don't ever forget that. Be good and grow up to be a man better man than --"

Mom's eyes shut closed and in that moment, I knew she had passed. "Mommy!" I grasped the attention of one of the bulkier men and I thought I was his next target. He'd be the one to rejoin me with Mom but I was wrong, he didn't. Instead, the man ran away like a coward.

A coward who murdered her.