Accidentally Aphrodite - Dakota Cassidy Page 0,62

While I was hating David for divorcing me, she was raising herself and living out the lives of the characters in her mountains of books.”

“You really loved David. His betrayal didn’t make any sense, honey.”

Helen shook her head. “No. I never loved David, Maude. I wanted to. I tried to, and when I just couldn’t, I took it out on him. Took it out on Quinn.”

Maude’s face was astonished, the wrinkles of concern on her forehead deepening. “But—”

“I know, I know. Appearances can be deceiving. When I got pregnant with Quinn, the only thing to do back then was get married or have my parents disown me. David was my first sexual experience and we were foolish. But he tried so hard to make it work. It just didn’t. It could never have worked.”

Quinn was floored, but she kept listening and clinging to Khristos.

“I came into the city while I thought Quinn would still be in Greece because I knew you’d be here visiting your sister this week, Maude, and I know how much you love this café. I wanted to tell you something here—in this place where we’ve shared so many happy memories.”

Maude grinned and patted Helen’s hand. “We’ve had some great times here, haven’t we?”

“Some of the best in my life. You’re one of the best things in my life, and I want you to just listen to my words. You can walk away when I’m done, and I’ll understand, but will you please just hear me out?”

Quinn held her breath, sucking the cold night air into her lungs.

Maude held her breath, too. Quinn saw her slight chest rise as she nodded.

Her mother gulped, the hard sound of her swallow riddled with insecurity—something new and foreign to Quinn. “David was my first male sexual experience, Maude. Wouldn’t you know I’d get pregnant, trying to please everyone but me? He was a good guy. Funny and smart, and it just sort of happened. And even though it was an accident, I’ll never regret Quinn. But back then, well, you just didn’t do what I’m about to do, and all these years, I’ve been angry about marrying someone I didn’t want to marry. Would never have married in this day and age of awareness and rallies and Twitter.”

Maude continued to sit quietly, her hand still in her mother’s, the other on the stem of her wineglass.

Helen took a deep breath. “I married David because society said to marry him. Because my parents expected me to marry him. I thought by marrying him, I could hide who I was, stamp it out, but it only made me hate myself—hate everyone around me, and when he left, which was the right thing to do, he told me to be true to myself, no matter the cost. Instead, I lashed out until I didn’t know I was lashing out anymore. Until it became second nature to bash anyone I could touch. Mostly anyone male.”

A tear slid down Maude’s and Quinn’s cheeks simultaneously, but still, they both remained silent.

“My frustration at hiding who I am all these years boiled over this week as I tried to prepare myself for this conversation. I hurt Quinn and her friends and insulted them enough that she booted me right out of her house. And she was right to. I deserved it. I went too far over to the other side. But I want to come back. I so desperately want to come back. With you. To you, if you’ll let me. I love you, Maude. I’ve loved you from the moment we talked about seeing the Black-cheeked lovebird in Zambia. When we dreamed someday we’d take a trip somewhere exotic to observe rare birds.”

Quinn and Maude gasped in unison.

That moment, that silent, palpable moment, would stay with Quinn forever as she mentally prayed Maude felt the same way about Helen. Prayed her mother had finally found peace, contentment—joy.

Maude slid from her chair, tears streaming down her face, and knelt in front of her mother. Letting her head rest on Helen’s lap, she whispered, “I’ve waited for you for so long…”

Quinn’s heart stopped beating then and she only heard the sound of their hearts. Of their love—a love her mother had been too ashamed to admit. A love she’d fought and tortured herself over. A love Maude had waited twenty years to experience.

Everything made sense in that moment. Everything.

She turned and looked up at Khristos with wonder. “Them,” she whispered.

“Yes, Quinn. Them.”

Closing her eyes, tears still falling from