Hard To Love

Chapter 21. The Ugly Truth. Part 2

Emma's POV

"You... you must be Emmalyn." Caroline said letting out a breath.

I nodded "Emma."

She nodded as well and repeated "Emma. Of course. It's nice to meet you."

I studied her expression but kept mine stiff "I'd say you too, but I'd be lying."

"Emma." My mother scolded me and I shrugged my shoulders

"It's okay." Caroline said

Yeah yeah, spare me the sympathy.

"I will leave you two to talk. Give me a call once you want me to come back okay?" My mother said in a soft tone

"Yeah. Okay." I said nodding my head

My mom gave me a pat on the shoulder and turned around, eventually walking out of the cafe.

"Let's have a seat, shall we?" She asked in a thick English accent motioning her table.

"Yeah." I sat down on the opposite of her.

A waitress soon came up to us and took our orders

"I'll just have a green iced tea." I said

"And I would like another cup of coffee." Caroline said

The girl nodded and took off at the opposite direction.

And now what?

What am I supposed to do with her? What am I supposed to say?

"I suppose you have questions." Caroline said breaking the awkward silence

"That's... an understatement." I said with a tight smile

"I'm here willing to explain everything."

"Then why don't we start on why you abandonded your child." I said resting my hands on my legs that were crossed and looking at her.

"I think we need to begin a little earlier than that. There are some things you need to know."

I nodded

The waitress came up with our drinks and Carolne took out a ten dollar bill.

"You don't need to pay." I said reaching for my purse to grab money

"It's okay." She said handing the money to the waitress and receiving the change. "It's the least I can do." She said after the waitress walked away.

I nodded. Well I'm not going to argue with that.

"You already know my name. Caroline Harris. And as you can probably tell I'm English."

"How old are you?" I asked stirring the tea with the straw in it and examining her features.

"37" She said before taking a sip of her coffee

"Which means you had me when you were 17."

She nodded "Well get there in a minute" She paused "Anyway, I grew up in London. I was an only child."

"Can't we just skip the reminiscense?" I asked rolling my eyes "I don't need to know about every moment of your childhood."

"No but you need to know that I lost my mother when I was 8 and my father used to drink and abuse me." She said in a sharper tone.

I swallowed "I'm sorry... I didn't know. I'm sorry to hear that."

"Yeah." She nodded taking a breath in "It was Christmas... break. I had decided to visit a cousin of mine over here in the US. It was more of an excuse to leave my home and avoid my father and thinking about my mother. I had my cousin and aunt to call an convince him because If I were the one to ask I would get a beating anyway," She said her voice cracking towards the end of her sentence. "So I eventually came in the US. My cousin was a student in Boston University and she insisted that I went with her to all the crazy college parties. And I did."She let out a breath "At one of those parties I met a guy. I was pretty good looking back then but no one had ever paid attention to me so I was flattered. He bought me a drink and made me laugh. He then bought me another one and another one. I don't remember how many drinks I had actually. What I remember is waking up the next morning, naked on a bed with no one around."