New World with Four Husbands

Chapter 690: Bitter truth [2]

"I fell in love, mama." Coco repeated, her voice breathy and shaky as she pulled her hands away from her eyes.

"I realized that I fell in love." She whispered, a quiet giggle escaping her lips. "Then, suddenly, everything became bright again.. I don’t feel pain anymore, I found a reason to live.. You know, the cringe and cliche things that happen in movies?"

Cleora swallowed thickly, shifting her weight to her other leg.

Just what is happening?

Is Coco saying all these things because she wanted her mother to know what happened all these months? Is Coco saying everything that had happened because she wanted to prove something?

Cleora doesn’t know what Coco wanted, but she stayed quiet and listened.

"I was so hurt when I found out that Quizen probably has someone he likes." Coco laughed bitterly, shaking her head. "So, I stayed at the guild and just hunted monsters after monsters."

She raised her head and looked at her mother, making Cleora flinch.

"Then guess what..?" Coco smiled softly, the crazed look on her face from earlier nowhere in sight. "Alhai confessed his feelings for me."

Her soft smile turned into a grin. "He likes me! So, I started from there."

Coco stepped forward and leaned into her mother’s face, her emerald eyes twinkling with delight. "I went after Heiren next, then Zaque, then Quizen.. And finally, I got the four of them."

Cleora blinked owlishly, sweat dropping from her back. "Uh.. Congratulations?"

"Congratulations?" Coco echoed, her eyebrows furrowing and the sight of it immediately sent warning in Cleora’s head.

"Did you know that I saw you in the main city before you found me that night?" Coco asked, changing the topic all of a sudden and giving Cleora a whiplash.

"Y-You did?"

"Yes, mama." Coco hummed and she stepped away, giving the older woman a breather. "I thought that you looked awfully familiar.. And the trail of footsteps were shining."

Coco remembered that she was confused as to why someone’s footsteps would be shining, but she didn’t receive any quest to follow that person so she didn’t ask Lala about it. However, thinking about it now.. It all made sense for Coco.

"The fairies were telling me something by letting you leave a shining trail." Coco stated, tilting her head. "But I didn’t know then."

Cleora felt like Coco might explode any moment.

She hasn’t felt this nervous since Corinne decided to have her rebellious phase at a young age, but with Coco standing before her with a look that can have someone submitted to a hospital..

Cleora swallowed the lump forming in her throat. "A-And..?"

"And?" Coco raised an eyebrow and scowled slightly. "And of course, I just had to see you after a couple of nights! Didn’t your familiar try to kill me? He attacked me with his feathers and all."

"I punished him for it—"

"Which isn’t any better, because why would you do that to someone who was tasked to be your worker?" Coco mumbled, tearing her gaze away from her mother.

"But I guess I didn’t fall far from the tree." Coco sighed heavily and pressed her fingers to her temples. "I did try to beat him, too. If it weren’t for you stopping me, then I probably would have beat his ass."

Cleora still doesn’t know the purpose of Coco’s outburst, but she nodded fervently.

"Yes, yes, yes, I’m sorry." Cleora apologized for whatever she needed to apologize for. "I shouldn’t have done what I did. Please forgive me for it."

Coco perked up and pulled her hand away from her face. "You apologized."

Cleora tensed and she nodded her head slowly. "I.. I did.. Do you want me to apologize again..? Would it help?"

"It wouldn’t." Coco stated bluntly, causing the older woman’s heart to lurch to her throat. "But you can’t start from there. Let Carina and Corinne know about the truth, then apologize."

"But Carina would want this, too—"

"How did you know?" Coco asked, cutting Cleora off with a hiss. "Did you ask her about what she wanted? Did you give her a chance to tell you what was on her mind that day?"

"I—"

"You what, mama? You love us?" Coco snapped, making her mother shut her mouth immediately. "I admire you for raising the three of us on your own, I admire you for loving us the best you could, but how can you take away your daughters’ lives so easily?"

Cleora shook her head, opening her mouth to explain further, to tell Coco that it was a decision made under the influence of grief.

"Don’t even." Coco glared and took the chance to explain away from Cleora before she could do so. "I don’t want to hear your excuses by telling me that you love us, that you only wanted us to be together."

Coco knows that she’s being disrespectful towards her mother, but she can’t stop the emotions from pouring out.

It was like a dam had broken into pieces and caused the water to come rushing out.

It was overwhelming.

It was her first time to say such things in her mother’s face without stopping to care what Cleora would feel, it was her first time to open about the things that had hurt and had been hurting her.

She always turns her back and locks herself out, opting to busy herself rather than face her problems.

It’s not healthy— she knows that, but it’s hard to stop herself from doing it.

And it seemed like her mother killing her sisters was the last straw, causing the dam to break and flow out without break.

"How can I face you now, mama?" Coco croaked out, her eyes stinging and blurring. "How can I talk to you without thinking about what you did to Carina and Corinne?"

"I.. I’m sorry." Cleora mumbled, her eyes glossing with unshed tears.

"What is your apology gonna do..?" Coco mumbled, turning her head away from Cleora. "It already happened."