Page 58 of Severance

Dahlia’s eyes widen slightly and she sucks in her bottom lip as her gaze meets mine.

They were in the dark as much as we were.

I nod lightly as we both look back at Bonnie. She watches us in confusion, with worried eyes.

“Until a few days ago, we never even knew that Mia existed,” Dahlia explains softly. “They lied to me about the C-section and kept her a secret for this long. She was taken from us before we even knew of her.”

Bonnie covers her mouth as she gasps. “Oh, my goodness.” Her eyes quickly fill with tears as her hand falls from her face. “We were led to believe that neither of you wanted her… but here you are now.”

“We’re not here to take Mia from you,” Dahlia explains, keeping her voice even and gentle. “We simply wanted the chance to meet her. She’ll never have to know who we really are to her.”

Bonnie nods quickly as she wipes away a stray tear. “We would like to keep it that way,” she admits. Her eyes are troubled as they shift between the two of us. “She’s a very happy little girl and we don’t want to create any turmoil in her life.”

“The last thing that we want to do is disrupt her life.” Bonnie’s eyes land on me as I speak in a softer tone. “We just want to meet her.”

She’s our daughter, the miracle that we created together. Rightfully, Mia is ours and there’s nothing to stop us from taking her from their grip. But for Mia, it isn’t the right thing to do. Bonnie and Paul are all that she has known and what kind of people would that make us to completely uproot her like that?

Hell, we don’t even know what kind of people we are anymore. We’re not in a place to take her from them, not when we still need to figure out our own life together.

“Will you at least give us that?” Dahlia asks quietly.

Bonnie glances between the two of us before nodding slowly. “You two wouldn’t be here if I didn’t want you to.”

Her face is soft, her voice vulnerable, but there’s a threat laced within her words. My body grows rigid and Dahlia sighs. Where I’m ready to fight, she’s ready to submit. This isn’t a fight to be won, it’s a compromise and an opportunity that we should be grateful for.

“Where is she then?” I ask as I survey the room, taking a mental note of how silent it is in the house.

Folding her hands in her lap, Bonnie fidgets nervously in her seat as her eyes drop to her feet. The uncomfortable silence settles in the air around us as it fills the room.

The house is too quiet and a happy child would be heard… if she was actually here.

Dahlia

Kai’s back straightens as he sits forward in his seat, crossing his arms over his chest. There’s an awkward tension between the two of them, as if it’s some sort of power struggle, but there’s no power to be gained here.

I just want to see her; I need to see for myself that she is happy and being cared for.

We both stare at Bonnie expectantly, as she’s abnormally silent. Kai cracks his knuckles and the irritation rolls off his body in waves. His patience is waning and I need to intervene before this heads south.

“Bonnie,” I break through the silence and her eyes quickly find mine. “Where is Mia?”

“When I said that she was a happy little girl, I wasn’t lying,” Bonnie evades my question with a sad smile. “We were never able to have children of our own and were looking into adoption. That’s when your mother and Anthony got in touch with us. Your mother knew of our struggles from my mom and when she said that she had found us a baby, we couldn’t say no. Anthony handled the legalities, although I am beginning to question whether anything that they did was legal…” Her voice trails off as she stares at the wall behind me. “We signed NDA’s and all of the paperwork required and that’s how we ended up with Mia. We had so many questions, but now I can see that we were fed so many lies.”

“They told you she was a rape baby, didn’t they?” I ask her bluntly as I stare her down. Kai’s head turns quickly in my direction and I feel his eyes on me as I avoid his gaze.

Bonnie’s lips are pursed as she nods lightly.

“She wasn’t,” I admit. “The specifics aren’t important, but she was made out of love and I loved her father very much.” I look over at Kai and take his hand in mine. “And I still do.”

“But surely you knew that you were pregnant?” Bonnie questions me with a confused and conflicted expression.

Kai squeezes my hand as I shake my head. “It’s complicated… but no, we didn’t realize it back then.”

“Oh, my goodness,” Bonnie breathes. “You poor things. I had no idea that neither of you knew. We knew that the two of you were young, so it wasn’t something that we really questioned.”

It makes sense, given the information they received, but it doesn’t make any of this right.

I don’t know what is right or wrong right now.

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