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Star

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I was in my room trying to write my vows for the wedding. I was told I didn\'t have to if I didn\'t want to, but Artem had said such beautiful words to me when he proposed to me that I wanted to do something just as special for him on our wedding day. I felt that he deserved my heartfelt words of love and appreciation.

While I was trying to think of what to say to him, the door burst open, and he came running inside. I could tell that he was excited about something just by the look in his eyes.

"Artem? What\'s going on?" He was running at me with a smile on his face.

"Come with me, Star. I need to show you something."

"Come with you where? I thought you went to LA with the boys. Did something happen?" I was starting to get nervous now. If something happened, something bad, then I don\'t know what I would do. Did something happen to one of my children? Did something happen to my dad? I am looking at Artem so I could tell that he was fine. So what had happened. 

"Artem, what is it?"

"I have something important to show you. Please, Star, come with me, baby. This is a surprise that you will want to see. I promise you it is nothing bad. This is a joyful occasion."

"OK, I will come with you. I know you would never do anything that would hurt me so I don\'t have a reason to be afraid. I may be nervous, whatever it is, but I will at least know that I am safe no matter what."

"You don\'t need to be nervous. I promise you, sweetheart, you are going to be happy."

Artem took my hand then and led me from the room. He didn\'t let go of my hand at all as he hurried me though the house. He was like a little kid that was excited for something they wanted.

I could smell that everyone was all gathered in the dining room when I got downstairs. There was also the smell of food, lots of food, coming from the room. It smelled like someone had prepared a feast for us for some reason. I don\'t know why, there was no reason for us to be throwing a party right now. 

I heard the sound of happy voices as well. There were a lot of people that were talking at once so I couldn\'t make out who all it was that was talking or what they were saying but I knew that it was all positive. I guess Artem was right, it was all positives for this impromptu surprise he supposedly had for me.

I followed after my mate as he pushed the door to the dining room open. He was still pulling me so I really didn\'t have a choice but to follow him inside the room anyway.

What I saw when I went into the room didn\'t make sense to me. There were too many people, and there seemed to be someone here that looked too familiar.

I saw the usual people that were always here. The normal brood that made up the family that I have come to know and love. I saw my dad, who was looking happier than I ever saw him. And I saw a woman who looked like a ghost.

The new woman in the room, the one that wasn\'t usually here, looked just like my mother. She had the same hair, she had the same eyes, and she looked to be almost the exact same age as in the pictures that I have studied recently. But I know it wasn\'t her.

I knew it wasn\'t her because one of my oldest memories from when I got locked up as a child had been of Uncle Howard dragging me outside to show me my mother\'s dead body. He told me that she had died because I had been bad, and that if I didn\'t want more people to die I needed to be good. That was the worst thing that I had seen in a long time. I had run to her side and cried while holding onto her. I begged her to come back. While I was still sobbing, Uncle Howard had pulled me away from her and thrown me into the basement. That had been the first day that I was locked up.

Had my mother\'s ghost come back to see my dad? Did she want to be reunited with him that bad?

"Star?" The woman\'s voice called out, and it was alien to me. I had long ago forgotten what she sounded like. I only had her face in my memories now because of the pictures that I had been given recently.

"Yes, my name is Star. Who are you?" I refused to accept what it was that my heart was trying to tell me.

"Star, she\'s your mother." Artem\'s voice was soft and quiet as he whispered to me, but the room was so quiet now that I am sure everyone heard what he had said.

"No, she\'s not. My mother died when I was two. I saw her."

"He did it to you too?" Artem sounded like he wanted to cry, and I saw a misting in his eyes.

"What are you talking about? Who did what?" I tilted my head in confusion and raised one eyebrow.

"Howard." The woman spoke in a soft voice. "He showed me your dead body, he told me that you were murdered. He told me that he killed you himself." She sobbed as if she was having trouble with a memory.

"I am not dead." I shook my head at her. "But you are."

"No, Star, I am not." She rushed toward me, and I flinched reflexively, but she just took my hand and held it tightly. "I\'m no more dead than you are. We\'re here, together. Howard lied to both of us. He wanted to separate us, but he wasn\'t strong enough to kill either of us. He was a coward and a wimp. Please, Star, you need to believe me. Remember who I am."

I smelled her then, a soft sweet scent of cinnamon and sugar. It was the smell that I would sometimes remember in the middle of my dreams. It was the scent of my mother that would calm me down when I had bad dreams. I would smell it when she held me close to her chest.

That smell, that face, the explanation, could they all be real. C..could she really be my mother. My heart begged me to believe it, and the problem was that my mind was starting to believe it too.

"I..I..I..I don\'t know." I was still in denial.

"Please, sweetie, remember." She pulled me into her arms and hugged me tight. While she squeezed me tight, she sang a little song. A song that I had thought I forgot and would never remember. "Star, Star, Starry, Star don\'t you fret you\'re going to go far. Mommy\'s going to love you no matter what you are. So calm that frown and turn it upside down. Smile for mommy and let\'s laugh for a while."

The words clicked into a long lost memory from my childhood, and I finally understood it all. I believed what she was telling me, but that didn\'t make it easier on me. The memory opened the floodgates, and the tears started to fall down my cheeks.

"Mom?" I sobbed as I wrapped my arms around her. "Momma?"

"Yes, Star, it\'s me." She cried right along with me. "It\'s me, baby. Oh how I\'ve missed you. I am so sorry that I left you. Please forgive me. Please forgive me honey."

"Momma."

That was all I was capable of saying at the moment. I couldn\'t get past what was happening right now. After a moment of just Mom holding me tight, Dad came over and wrapped his arms around the two of us. He held us both securely in his arms, and I felt as if the whole world might finally be falling into place. Slowly, the three of us sank to the floor, kneeling and sitting, just letting the weight of the whole situation sink in.

"Why? Why did he do this to me? Why did he take the two of you away from me?" I sobbed into my mom\'s chest for the first time since I was a very small child.

"He destroyed us all for so long. He stole everything from us, but he couldn\'t keep it that way. We found each other. The love of a family won out in the end, and we\'re finally together. I finally have my baby back, and the mate that he kept from me. Aaron has me and the daughter he never knew, and you have the two parents that he robbed you of."

"This is the best way this could have ended. If I can\'t change it and stop it from happening, Star, then I am glad that this is the way that it all comes to an end."

"Artem?" I reached out for his hand, and as soon as he took it, Dad pulled him into the hug as well. The four of us sat there like that for several minutes, unable to let go of each other; most likely afraid that the person we just found after so long would disappear once again. I don\'t think that I will ever let go of them again. I would keep them close to me for as long as I could. I had missed so much, we had all missed so much.