4 | The Mother

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The Mother

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The Mother

After two days, Avinash became as healthy as a horse. He started going to the office. Amelia had her lunch with him every day. Many times, she forced him to eat his food. Avinash on the other hand was true to his words. He maintained his distance.

Even today, Amelia had her lunch with him as usual. She caught on to his act of 'forgetting lunch box' to not eat anything quickly. She carried his lunch box with her. She made sure to feed him properly.

Both of them became good friends and good roommates. Avinash stopped sleeping on the sofa. He slept in the bed instead.

"You can ask me" Avinash smiled at her during lunch. She was stealing glances at him throughout the lunch hour. He sensed that she wanted to ask something but didn't know how to initiate conversation.

"It's nothing," She said. Suddenly, she felt guilty for wanting to ask him a very personal question.

"Is that about Kavya being my cousin?" Amelia didn't say anything, she kept quiet. Avinash knew he was right because of her silence.

"I'm sorry"

"It's okay, you kind of have the right to know" Amelia was his wife, even if none of them approved of the way of their wedding. Amelia was still his wife. She did have the right to know about Avinash's life.

"It's okay if you don't want to" She assured him. She may want and need answers but she doesn't want to upset him.

"My real mother was Malti Verma, an Indian lady" He started narrating, silently gesturing that he wanted to. He fished out Malti's photo from his wallet and showed it to her.

"She's beautiful," Amelia whispered. Avinash got most of his features from Malti. You could tell that they were related in a second.

"She was a second-generation migrant. She died when I was seven years old. She died because of a car crash" He said remembering all his happy days with his mother. Malti was indeed a beautiful mother.

"But you're just two years older than Asher" Amelia raised her question. Does Matthew have two wives? She said to herself.

"The only problem was that Mum was brown. Dad's father was a very racist man and did dad do many awful things to her" His voice was laced with anger. He was angry with his dad. He was angry about how he lost his mum.

"Then why is your mum's family still so connected with you? Shouldn't they be angry"

"Mum's brother and his wife, Maama and Maami, were understanding. Sure, they still didn't forgive dad but they knew that Cadence was not at fault. Both of them took good care of me. Even Cadence, she looked after me just like a mother should. The only reason my maternal grandmother, Nani, allowed me to stay here was because of Cadence. She's like a sister to my Mama. She always loved me like her other two real children. She even gave Avni, an Indian name, because she didn't want me to feel left out. She deserved the title of mom"

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