Page 50 of Wounded Angel

After I click the “submit application” button, I close my laptop. Almost on cue, my phone goes off. It’s a text message, so I unlock my screen and go to my messages app. Only, it’s not anyone I expect to hear from right now.

Mom

I’m in Grozny and would love to go out to lunch with you. Can you meet me somewhere?

Yara’s still in town, so I walk out of my room and shout for her. “Yara!”

“In the living room!” she shouts back with her thick accent. It’s funny how, after being in Grozny for a year, my own accent has softened.

“You’re never going to believe who texted me just now.” I widen my eyes and raise my brows.

“Who?”

“My mother.” It almost feels surreal saying it. Things haven’t been great with us as of late, and I’ve tried reaching out from time to time to get some answers and maybe even some closure from her, but she’s been avoiding me. It’s left me with a lot of questions that I don’t have the answers to, and unless I do see her face-to-face, I don’t think I’m going to get the answers I seek.

“Wow. That’s unexpected. What did she say?”

I read off exactly what she sent me. “I’m in Grozny and would love to go out to lunch with you. Can you meet me somewhere?”

“Hmm, maybe she’s trying to turn over a new leaf. Are you going to meet up with her?”

I know if I don’t, I won’t be able to get the answers I want so badly. “Yeah. I need to. She and I have some things we need to discuss, and she’s been really good at avoiding me lately.” Avoiding me except for the conversation where she told me she was being paid to take care of me. That conversation has completely screwed with my head. It made me doubt so many memories we made together and wonder about so much more.

“Okay, so set something up,” Yara says as I text my adoptive mother back.

Xava

Meet me at the Grozny Hotel in an hour?

Within a few seconds, I get a reply back.

Mom

Okay, see you then.

The fact I scheduled a lunch with her should make me feel better, right? I should be happy that I have the opportunity to speak with her and discuss anything else I have questions about. Yet, instead of being happy, it feels like my stomach is on a roller coaster ride.

“Do you need me to go with you, or do you want to be alone?”

I love Yara for being as supportive as she is. When all this happened with me finding out I was really an Umarova, she was my rock. She’s the person who made me feel like my entire world wasn’t being pulled out from under me. Without her, I would have been a mess the entire time everything happened.

I shake my head. “No, I think I’ll be okay. It’s probably better if I have this lunch with her alone anyway.”

“Understandable. I’ll be here relaxing until you get back. I… I did want to talk to you about something if you have a few minutes, though.”

“Yeah, I do. What’s up?”

Yara sits up a bit straighter on the couch and puts her tablet down. “So you know I do a lot of my work from my tablet or my laptop. They’re closing the office I work at in Prague, and in doing so, they’re making our jobs remote. I was wondering how you felt about possibly having a roommate?”

I can’t hide the smile that starts to cross my face. “Wait, do you mean that… you mean that you’re going to move here?!” I can’t help it. I’m practically screaming in pure joy.

“Yes, if you’re okay with it. If not, I can find another place to live that’s close by. I saw online that there are a few apartments that are actually within my budget in this very building.”

“You’re not getting an apartment. You can live here with me. It’ll be so much fun! God, I’ve missed you so much, and this has seriously become the best day ever!”

Yara smiles brightly, and I walk over to her and give her the biggest hug in the world. Yara isn’t only my best friend. She’s like a sister to me.

“Okay, I just didn’t want to impose. Now that I know you’re cool with it, I’ll start making some plans on how to get my stuff here. I probably won’t be completely moved in for a month or two, though.”

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