Unforgiven - Complete

Chapter Twenty-nine

After an awkward greeting on the sidewalk, Lucas led the way into the restaurant. The three of them took a seat, looking uncomfortably at one another; grateful when their server came to give them menus. Eventually, Lissa broke the silence.

"So Lucas, thanks for meeting with us today. Is it ok to call you Lucas?" she asked nervously. "Would you prefer Mr. Ozera?"

Lucas smiled nervously. "Mr. Ozera reminds me of my father. Lucas is fine, Lissa. And thanks for coming. Both of you. Um... where would you like to start?"

Lissa looked to Christian who was struggling, so she continued.

"Christian has some questions, but maybe you could start by telling us about you and Moira, and then a bit of what you've been doing since you left? Other than the odd piece of information mentioned here or there, Christian knows nothing at all of his mother. He also knows very little about your life after you left."

Lucas raised his eyebrows. "They never talked about Moira?"

"Not at all," Christian said, meeting his father's eyes for the first time. "I didn't even know what she looked like until I looked her up in the old St. Vlad's yearbooks in the library."

"Then you know your mother was beautiful," Lucas said with a small smile. "We'd known each other since kindergarten, but it wasn't until high school we started to date. We were young, idealistic and crazy about each other. She was the youngest of four girls, all of who had attended St. Vlad's, but she was much younger than her three sisters."

The attendant appeared and took their orders for three cokes, and Lucas waited until she'd gone to continue his tale.

"We were a month or two away from graduation when we discovered she was pregnant. Her family was very strict and religious, so we hid it as long as possible, but after graduation, she told her parents who were furious. We knew we were too young to be parents. Neither of us had any way to support ourselves, let alone a baby, so we'd planned to give you up for adoption. As soon as Mom found out, she was adamant that she and Dad would raise you. Mom was pregnant with Natasha at the time, and she said there was little difference between raising nine or raising ten."

The attendant was back with their drinks, and Lucas took a nervous gulp of his.

"The months before you were born were horrible. Moira was never allowed to leave her parent's house, and I was only permitted to visit her once a week on Sunday under strict supervision. She gave birth to you at the hospital in the middle of the night alone. No one was there to support her, and I didn't know you'd been born until the next morning. She was kept in hospital for a week, and I visited you both every day. They let me stay all day because I was her only visitor. When she was discharged, her parents picked her up and brought you and her to Mom and Dad's house. They all stayed for about an hour while Moira settled you into the nursery Mom had set up for you and Natasha.

"After they left, Moira stayed with her parents for only a few days before she was sent to stay with her eldest sister who was married and had moved to Canada. She called me before she left, saying her parents wanted her to start a new life there where no one knew she'd had a baby out of wedlock. We still cared about each other, but we both knew the odds were stacked against us. With Mom looking after you, and Moira gone, there wasn't much left for me to stay for, so I took off on a 'working holiday.' I hitchhiked from place to place, picking up odd jobs here and there. Ended up doing my mechanics apprenticeship in a small town in Colorado and then became a service mechanic at a Chevy dealership in Nevada. I stayed there for a few years and met Antoinette when her tranny blew up when she drove across for a girl's weekend with no transmission fluid..." he chuckled with a small smile.