Free Fated Souls by Becky Flade Page A

in my entire childhood did she go out on a date, not that she wasn’t asked and often. My mother was young and beautiful. She was fantastic. She was my best friend. She worked hard to take care of us both, and I never heard her complain.” Aidan began.
    “When I got into my mid to late teens I thought maybe my mother was gay and just didn’t know how to tell me. Or perhaps she’d foolishly gotten involved with a married man and she was ashamed. All I really knew about her family was that they had been very strict and religious. Either scenario would have caused a rift between her and her relatives. Also she would want to protect me from any embarrassment or rejection. So it was just us; all we had was each other.
    “My freshman year in college she was diagnosed late with a very aggressive form of cancer; she only had a couple months. I took a leave of absence from school to take care of her, despite her arguments. Actually that was the worst fight we’d ever had; the only time I can remember that she raised her voice to me. But I won a bitter victory. I was with her each day and with her when she passed. It was terrible to watch my vibrant, funny, intelligent mother suffer every day, and it was worse that I felt a small measure of relief when she finally passed and her pain was over.” Aidan paused and took a long gulp of his drink.
    “She tried to be brave and not let on how much she was hurting, but toward the end she couldn’t hold it back any longer. I held my mother’s hand while she cried. It’s the only time in my life I saw her cry and it broke my heart. Her funeral was packed full of our friends, neighbors, her co-workers — later it was a balm to know how much she was loved, but at the time I just wanted everyone to leave and let me mourn. Afterward, people were crammed into every corner of our little home when a stranger approached me.
    “He was an attorney for my mother’s family. Imagine the shock of finding out my mother had living relatives only an hour’s drive away. The lawyer was there to request that I come to meet my maternal family. My grandmother and a great aunt were all that remained. They wanted to get to know me a little. To the best of my knowledge, they’d never expressed an interest before. I was bitter, angry, and grieving, but also curious to meet these people, perhaps get some answers to questions I never thought to ask my mother. But most important was the feeling that I wasn’t alone. I thought I’d see my mother in their faces. God, I was so wrong, Maggie.”
    “That’s plenty, Aidan, you don’t have to tell me anymore.” She knew she’d earned this measure of trust, but it was hurting her to hear and see his pain. Her heart ached for the young man who’d had his entire world destroyed in a matter of months.
    “No, it is okay, it actually feels good to get it out. I haven’t spoken about my mother in so long.” Aidan took another sip before continuing. “According to my grandmother and great aunt, my mother ‘got’ herself taken advantage of by some man and got pregnant with me shortly after graduating high school. The family couldn’t approve an abortion, obviously, and they couldn’t force my mother to marry a man whose name she didn’t know. They decided I’d be put up for adoption, anonymously. Though Mom was supposed to go to a very prestigious college, her family planned to send her abroad for the duration of the pregnancy and handle the adoption there. She would return after she’d lost the baby weight and start college a year later than expected.
    “It was acceptable for young women of privilege to take a year off to travel abroad provided she was well chaperoned. The family’s reputation would not be tarnished. Mom refused. They cut her off. Her trust and other such things were kept from her, and she was put out in the street, pregnant and alone.
    “They never had any communications with my mother again ’til she called to ask that I be taken