We'll survive

It took a few seconds for the shock to subside. Arabella stumbled backwards, her heart pounding as she regained her stance. Her eyes narrowed at the old, wrinkled woman standing before her.

"Who are you?" she asked her voice tight with tension.

"Hello, darling. I am your mother," the woman replied, a sinister smile curving her lips and a mischievous twinkle in her eyes that Arabella couldn't decipher.

"My m-mother?!" Arabella stuttered. Her eyes widened like saucers as she gazed at the woman. After years of resentment and bitterness towards the woman who had abandoned her, standing before she evoked no immediate feelings. No love, no anger, no bitterness—just a sense of disbelief.

The emotions she felt, she believed, were not directly connected to her so-called mother. Blaze's absence influenced them, the man who had been her constant support.

"I am your mother..."

"Liar!" Arabella snapped.

Then anger surged through her. Clenching her hands by her sides, she scowled. How could she bel