She Quit Her Family and Found Herself novel Chapter 29

Mom seemed really mad yesterday. Is she still going to pick me up today?

Miles felt a knot of anxiety in his stomach, but then he remembered what his grandmother and aunt had told him.

Valery and Cora had both said that taking care of him and his dad was her only job. If she couldn't even do that right, his dad was going to throw her out.

So, she definitely had to come.

Reassured by the thought, he stopped staring out the window, a smug, confident little smile spreading across his sweet face.

As the final minutes ticked down, the other kids lost focus too, chatting as they packed their backpacks.

"My mom is so good at playing the piano. She teaches me every day!"

"My mom bakes the best cakes! I'll bring some for you guys next time."

"My mom is super awesome. Our living room is totally filled with her trophies!"

"Well, my mom is the coolest..."

Once someone started, all the kids joined in, loudly bragging about how amazing their mothers were.

The little girl sitting next to Miles turned to him. "Miles, what about your mom? Is she super awesome too?"

Miles hadn't wanted to join the conversation, silently stuffing his books away. Caught off guard by the question, his cheeks flushed with embarrassment.

"My mom..." He fiddled nervously with the straps of his backpack. "My mom just takes care of me and my dad. She doesn't know how to do anything. There's nothing to brag about..."

He pressed his lips together, desperate not to lose face in front of his classmates. Forcing himself to sound proud, he added, "But I have an Sylvie! She's really smart. Sylvie is a scientist, she..."

"Is she your mom?" the girl asked innocently.

"No. She's not..." His voice trailed off, his chin dropping to his chest as resentment toward Hulda flared up inside him.

Why couldn't Sylvie be his mom!

If Sylvie were his mom, he could tell everyone that his mom was a brilliant scientist who worked in a laboratory all day!

Hearing this, Miles's eyes went wide. He stared at the girl in total disbelief. "Are you sure? Are you sure it was my mom?"

"Yeah, I'm sure," the girl nodded confidently.

Miles blinked, completely stunned.

Mom spoke French?

But she never spoke French at home!

Then again, he remembered seeing her watch movies in French without the subtitles, and her study was filled with books in different languages.

Did she actually speak French?

It felt like he had just discovered a secret superpower. A thrill of excitement rippled through his little chest.

The boy sitting behind him chimed in. "Yeah, I think your mom is awesome too! Last time our car broke down, my mom had no idea what was wrong with it. Your mom just looked at it for one second and fixed it right away! Then she started talking to my mom, and she used all these big words I didn't even understand."