Chapter 798
Judy’s POV
“My mother was a rogue?” I asked, my chest feeling tight and my stomach rolling into a knot. My mother and father looked at one another, sadness in their eyes. My mother had tears glistening in her eyes as the memory came back to her. It’s been about 23 years since all of this went down. I knew my mother couldn’t have children, but it seemed like her sadness came from something else… something deeper.
“She was,” my father finally replied. “And she gave your mother and me a gift before she left…”
“She didn’t want me…” I whispered, feeling a heaviness weighing me down. My mother didn’t die… she wasn’t forced to give me away…she just didn’t want me. Plain and simple.
“Oh, sweetheart… she was so young,” my mother told me gently, reaching out to grab my hand. “She was a rogue. She had no home… she was in and out of different homes, and none of them were good. We got to talking a lot during her labor… once she started to trust us, she opened up a bit more about her homelife.”
“What about it?” I couldn’t keep the bitterness out of my tone.
“She got pregnant by a rogue whom she fell in love with. Her parents were incredibly controlling, and they weren’t good people. They were rich and snobby, but terrible to her. They treated her more like property than anything. Her birth father, the only one who ever showed love towards her, died when she was much younger, and her mother remarried someone else…someone who already had kids.”
My mother paused to gather her thoughts, and I remained quiet, listening with my heart in my throat.
“Your mother, Meg, didn’t get along with her stepsiblings at all… especially her stepbrother, who was older than her. He was cruel and mean. She didn’t really tell me much about him, but I knew she feared him more than she feared anyone else in her life. She tried to run away a few times… but the very last time she ran, she met a rogue. A boy about her age. She fell in love with him almost instantly. But then she was found and dragged back to her family’s home.”
More tears filled my mother’s eyes, and I fought the urge to go to her. I felt numb, and I needed to know what had happened all those years ago, so I remained quiet, waiting.
She found out she was pregnant a month later, and her family was furious. They kicked her out, and she left to find your father. They found one another, and they planned to run away together so they could raise the baby themselves without her family’s influence. But before they could make an official run for it, they were found, and he was killed by her family’s people.”
My heart shattered from her words.
My mother’s family killed my father? I let out a shuddering breath.
“They dragged her back home,” my mother said softly, more tears spilling from her eyes. “And they were so cruel to her. So very cruel. They wanted her to either get an abortion or lose the baby. But your mother didn’t want to lose her baby… she didn’t want to lose you. She knew that the love of her life, your father, would never want that. He wanted a family… he wanted you more than anything and was willing to give up everything to keep you. Eventually, Meg met someone. An older woman who gave her a way out. She had a carriage filled with goods that was going into another territory and offered Meg a ride. It was her only way out, really… so she took her up
on the opportunity. She hitched a ride, hiding out for many days and many nights. When they finally reached the new territory, she lived her days as a rogue in hiding. She feared her family would find her out. She heard rumors that her family was looking for her, and she feared that they would find her… that they would find you. She couldn’t settle down in a new pack out of fear; she avoided Alphas and packmates. She kept to the shadows and ate scraps for food. Her life wasn’t her own… she lived in fear, and she knew that it would never get better. That they would ever stop until she was and you were found.”
I swallowed the lump in my throat and stared down at my hands, tugging at my trembling fingers, trying to get
them to stop.
“Then, she went into labor and ended up in the hospital where we met her,” my mother continued. “She loved you so much, Judy. She wanted so badly to keep you safe… but she knew that the life she lived could never be the life you deserved. She couldn’t let you be on the run with her for your entire life… living in fear like she did. She didn’t want that kind of life for you and wanted only the best. So, when she gave birth and she held you for the first time, crying and kissing your cute little cheeks… I saw the love she had for you. It was undying and real; she said that you looked so much like your father, and she was so happy that you were born healthy… that you were safe for right now. But she knew the second she left that hospital with you in her arms, you would no longer be safe…”