He Gave Her My Eyes A Story of Final Sight novel Chapter 111

For reasons she couldn't really explain, Theresia always told herself she didn’t care about her mother. After everything Naomi had done, Theresia thought she had moved on, or at least buried it deep enough not to feel anything. But the second Hanson called to say something had happened to Naomi, her heart nearly stopped in her chest.

She couldn’t wait for Hanson to pick her up. They agreed to just drive separately and meet in Eldervale. Theresia pressed her foot hard on the gas, desperate to get there, but it felt like every mile was dragging by on purpose. It was only sixty miles. Why did it feel endless? The more she watched the numbers tick down on her GPS, the more frustrated and anxious she got. It was like time itself was mocking her.

Eldervale was a tiny town just outside Harrisburg. Naomi had been living there ever since she got out of prison, keeping to herself and trying to live quietly. She’d thought about calling Theresia so many times. She would dial the number, her thumb hovering over the call button, but she never found the courage to actually make the call. Naomi figured Theresia wouldn’t want to see her anyway. Who wanted a mother with a past like hers? To Theresia, she must be nothing but an embarrassment.

That afternoon, Naomi stopped by the market to pick up some fresh vegetables. She carried the plastic bags up three flights of stairs to her apartment, every step reminding her how much older and weaker she’d gotten since those years in prison. Out of breath, she found her keys and unlocked her door. Just as she was closing it, a hand grabbed the edge and stopped it from shutting.

Naomi looked up and froze. A woman with perfect makeup stood in the doorway. Naomi’s breath caught. “Leila, how did you find me?”

Leila didn’t waste a second. She pushed the door open and walked right in, a few big men following close behind her. Leila looked like she had just stepped out of a fashion magazine, totally out of place in Naomi’s plain little apartment. She crossed her arms and stared Naomi down, taking a slow step forward. “All these years, and you still remember me?”

Naomi instinctively backed up. Just seeing the look in Leila’s eyes and the men with her, she knew this was bad. Her nerves were shot, fear creeping into every corner of her mind. “Leila, I already paid for what I did. What do you want from me?”

Leila screamed in Naomi’s face, not caring at all about keeping up appearances anymore. She slapped Naomi again and again, each insult worse than the last, the words cutting as much as the blows. “You slept with my husband? You had the nerve to give birth to Theresia? Today I’m going to make you pay.”

“You filthy woman, you dared to go after my husband?”

Leila let all her anger out, not giving Naomi a chance to fight back. The men held Naomi’s arms tight, pinning her down as Leila kept hitting her. Naomi’s face was swollen, her hair hacked off, and what she looked like after, even ‘miserable’ didn’t come close to describing it.