Chapter forty four

I looked on as my foster mother got out of the taxi at the airport. I thought that ending it like this way too impersonal for my taste so I called her phone from my special 'Persephone' burner phone as she trudged through the snow with her heavy suitcase, I saw her pause in the middle of the crowded plaza when she noticed that her phone was ringing. She picked up the phone and started to speak right in the middle of that crowded plaza as countless people were moving past her in every direction,

"Hello, who am I speaking to?"

"Hello thorn queen."

I saw her expression shift , all the blood drained from her face and her eyes widened in shock and the beginnings of fear started to appear in her eyes, "Who is this? How did you get this number?"

I couldn't help but snicker when I heard the little tremble in her voice, I had to admit that I was taking a bit of sadistic pleasure from seeing this vile woman squirm. She had always been off limits since she was married to dad and that actually kept him safe in a round about manner but now she was no longer protected by that fact for two reasons. The first was that the Atelli really were leaving Russia, the risk they posed and consequently the reason I couldn't kill her would be gone with them.

The second reason was that she was no longer married to my dad. She had served my father with divorce papers one morning with not even a how do you do, she hadn't even bothered to make up an explanation as to why she was leaving him and it had broken my father's heart. She might have been a cold and almost robotic woman but dad had truly loved her since they were kids and was genuinely devastated when she decided to leave him. In his depression he threw himself into his work and barely ever came home. At some point his own staff at the hospital forced him to stop before he worked himself to death and called me to the hospital to get him because they didn't trust him to drive in his ragged state and it was Kazimir's day off.

As I was driving home with him in the front seat next to me I noticed that his eyes were red and bleary, he had bags under his eyes that were so dark that they looked almost bruised. The gray hairs in his wavy chestnut hair had multiplied exponentially and his face had new wrinkles I had never seen before , it was as if he had aged years in the past three days.

"Dad , why did you marry Mariana?"

He seemed startled by the question, " I married her because I loved her. We grew up together as children and I knew we were destined to be together since I realized that I had feelings for her in highschool."

"What I am about to say might sound cold but seriously think about the answer before answering my question, while you were married did you still love her? Was she truly the same girl that you fell in love with?"

"That wasn't her fault! Her work was very stressful and I didn't give her enough time because of my job, it's not her fault that she was a little emotionless sometimes. Maybe if I had spent less time at the hospital and more time with her she wouldn't have left me."

"That's bullshit dad. If being together with somebody kept you away from something you truly believed in then it isn't really love anymore, because someone who truly loves you would understand and support you when something is important to you. For example I love you dad , I would love to spend more time with you but you know what? I love you even more because you are willing to sacrifice so much to help people. I love you more because you are so selfless and giving ,not less."

For a moment he just stayed silent, digesting my words so I continued,

"You know what I think? I think that you loved Mariana very much, I think that you loved the person she used to be so much that you made excuses for her as she changed into the person she is today. I know this sounds harsh but Mariana isn't a very good person dad. In fact she might put on a civilized veneer around us but underneath that she is cold and uncaring, I mean what kind of person serves divorce papers like she did? No explanations , no warning , not even an argument like normal people have when they get divorced. I'm sure that the Mariana you fell in love with was a wonderful person but that Mariana was long gone. You didn't marry your highschool sweetheart, you married nothing but a memory of her."

After I finished talking he broke down and cried, not for the divorce but for what he had lost when the Atelli had taken his sweetheart from him.

.

.

.

As the memory replayed in my head my smile turned more grim, " I am quite hurt that you wouldn't recognize me thorn queen, I would have thought that I constantly occupy your thoughts thanks to recent events."

I could see her knuckles turn white as she gripped the phone and breathed a single word, "Persephone."

"Ding ding ding. That is the right answer, and the grand prize? An all expense paid trip to total annihilation."

She started to turn her head in every direction as she searched for me, but she wouldn't find me. I was in a multistory parking lot two thousand meters away from the airport and I was seeing her through the scope of my sniper.

"But there is another name that you know me by, mother dearest."

I could see her expression change as all the pieces suddenly fell together in her mind but it was much too late because a fraction of a second later a high caliber bullet obliterated her head.

That day I was finally able to kill the creature that was masquerading as my mother.