Page 119 of Oceansong
“Beau and Emily are not happy with me that we agreed to peace.”
Angie grimaced. “They weren’t the ones fighting at the front lines. They’d rather see the rest of us dead? If not from the mer, then withering away from starvation?”
“I would not think so. But, dealing with them will be for another day.” Bàba leaned his head over the headrest. “Brokering peace was the right thing to do. I only wish it had not come to you being captured or losing your mer-prince in the process.” His voice pitch dropped another notch, and he shifted his weight from side to side.
“Please don’t remind me of that, Bàba.” A fresh wave of tears rose to meet her eyelids, but she wiped them away with the back of her hand.
As much as she thought of Kaden and how Mia was dealing with being a single parent, another question gnawed at her.
“What were you going to do with Nick? After you found out what he did.”
“Demand he tell Mia, or I would. And that I would stand by whatever Mia decided. Then demote or fire him, I hadn’t decided.” Melancholy haunted his eyes. “He’s not the man I thought he was.”
Angie stared at her lap. “She all but told me he abused her, and she was going to leave him.”
“I would have funded her divorce.” Bàba rubbed his temples. “Your Mama and I did not raise you two to tolerate that sort of behavior.”
She sat upright at Mama’s mention. It was time to tell him.
“I saw Mama.”
The teacup slipped from Bàba’s hand, and the bottom met the saucer with aclack. He rolled his lips between his teeth, and his eyes were wet. Time stretched and stretched until he responded. “What do you mean?”
Angie’s lower lip trembled. “Kaden took me to her resting place almosttwo months ago. She’s buried with the mer. Looked so peaceful. Kaden said they found her floating, but I thought she had a diving accident.” She blinked, trying to stop the tears from falling. “I didn’t know how to tell you.” Bàba nodded his understanding. “Did you know what happened to her?”
Bàba gripped the arm of the couch hard. He dropped his head and Angie stayed glued to her spot.
“Yes. I knew Ning wanted to die with her first love, the sea. Her sickness was terminal by then, and she didn’t have much time left. She didn’t want to live out the remainder of her days in hospice or a nursing home.” Bàba took in another shaky breath, and Angie put a hand on his forearm and willed him to continue. “I tried to stop her. Suggested home hospice so you and Mia could be with her. She agreed.”
He took a tentative sip of his tea.
“But when I came home from work one day, she was gone. I never saw her again. Could not reach her.” His voice thickened. “I suspected she went diving with the intent to die, but I could not believe it. What you told me, you confirmed what I had thought all these years.”
Angie swiped away the tears falling from her eyes. “Why didn’t you tell us? We spent so many years wondering and grieving and not having closure. If you knew, you should have told us.” The timbre of her voice came out laced with invisible flames.
Bàba scooted away from her. “I couldn’t burden the two of you with simple suspicions! You had to focus in college and Mia was raising a young child. How could I explain that I suspected your mama took her own life?”
“I wish you told us the truth. It’s better than hiding it from us for so long,” she insisted, closing the distance between them. It was the same thought she had about Kaden and the mer, when she found out they had buried Mama.
“She didn’t want to strain us and her parents financially, and she didn’t want to live in pain until death finally took her. She did not want the two of you to worry.” Bàba didn’t move.
Angie swiped at the stream of tears that escaped one eye. She should have been there with Mama on the day she went into the sea, for the last time. Angie would have stopped her, or insisted on diving with her and forced her to come back. She could have given Mama her supplemental oxygen.
Angie inhaled a shaking breath and exhaled slowly, silencing her rabid thoughts.
She could have saved Mama, but for what?
So, she would suffer an even longer, more painful passing?
Mama made her choice a long time ago. She must have known that her daughters were in good hands with Bàba, and she spared them from watching her wither.
A flood of emotion threatened to swallow her whole, and she thanked him. “Thank you for telling me. Will you tell Mia too?”
“Yes, I will. She deserves to know. I will tell her when enough time has passed. She lost Nick, after all.”
“That’s a good idea. I’ll check in on her too.”
Angie had been calling Mia daily, talking as much as she wanted to. With Angie’s injury, Mia and Rosie had come to stay with them for the first four days after Nick’s death. Yesterday, Nick’s parents and brother and sister arrived at her house, and Mia and Rosie had left to be with them.
