Breaking Boundaries

Chapter 33 - I'm a Smithson

       Fear slitters inside and all around me like a cobra marking its territory. I told myself I wouldn't let fear take control of me. But with the gun trained on me to end my life...it's not the fear that has me on a tight, death grip, choking me. It's the pain. It's the guilt. It's the sense of weakness that floats inside of me, taking hold of me with everything else. I feel defeated for the first time in a very long time.

The tears I shed, the ones that fall on Klaus' shoes are for my mother. She never taught me how to fight, how to be strong, and how to survive but she kept me safe. Maybe my mother wanted me to learn it all on my own and I did, believe me, I did. Knowledge came from a lot of things while I was kept locked up in my room day in and day out. But the pain comes from not understanding her. The pain comes from now accepting a new type of knowledge, a new way of learning to survive. It's simple.

Don't fight heads-on. You will never win like that with the devil getting stronger day by day. Play is safe. Plan it accordingly. Show weakness at the right time. Show strength at the right time. Not all at once. Is that what my mother did by sacrificing her life for me? But I'm too late at understanding that. Motherly instincts kept her going. And motherly instincts gave her a way out. I wipe my tears, slowly looking up to meet Klaus' eyes. Raw with anger, red and with unshed tears, he shakes with vengeance skittering into his veins. He pulls the gun away slightly and kneels before me, looking deep into my eyes that feel like a spear digging into my heart. There is a moment of silence between us before she shakes his head in annoyance and looks down.

"The girl is here. In Colorado. In this very town, kept in her own sanctuary. Every female's background was run. Every school's database was checked. So then why was it so difficult to find this one? There are 120 females here, but no one to match what I'm looking for. Strange. So how do I find this girl if she's here?" Klaus narrates, his voice deadly low. I allow myself to remain calm just enough to hear him but my eyes are trained specifically on his eyes. The need to take revenge, the need to possibly kill me tonight might have taken over him but his eyes...his eyes tell a different story. His bloodshot red, glossy eyes speak a different story. He's...hurt. But he loves me. That tiny little speck of love he holds me for me in his heart as traveled up to his eyes and he hasn't even realized it.

"So, I did some digging. And some digging it was. For me to find out more about this mysterious girl, I had to dig into the mother's baggage. Salvatore's love interest. Born in New Jersey to a very wealthy, well-known family, she is known as Jennifer Vogel-Mary Ann Smithson. Once upon a time, a heiress to three-hundred million dollar fortune. And one day, during Thanksgiving Day, in a tragic fire from a gas leakage, the entire family combusted into ashes. Good, wealthy family. Did so much for others and died one day in a blink of an eye. But there was no sign of Jennifer anywhere. So, where did she go?" Tears streak down my eyes and I break the eye contact, looking down at my thighs. It hurts not knowing who my family were. It hurts not ever seeing them, not even a glance. And it hurts knowing they were having a Thanksgiving family dinner without knowing what my mother was going through.

"Jennifer Smithson didn't die. She ran away with a new identity. Records of her found her in New Jersey's hospital database. She was pregnant. After giving birth, a well-paid, bought out employee was told not to disclose her daughter or her information. Smithson was taken out of the child's name, terminating the family's fortune surname forever." Smithson. I'm a Smithson. Maya Vogel Smithson. It would have been a nice ring. Internally, I sadly smile. My family were noble, that much I knew. I never will regret knowing I came from that family because even despite them not honoring my mother...they're still family who even in the end, they at least considering my mother in the will before it was changed. And even then it didn't go to charity or other far away family. It went to me.