Chapter Thirty-Two: Mother

The small green-eyed lump ran straight into my arms from the brown-haired woman holding her as if she were baggage.

“Uby!”

Elle raises her hands in an ‘up’ motion; it's hard to say no to her, especially when her innocence is plastered on her face.

"Sally, I presume."

I utter as I lift the warm bundle that immediately begins to play with my hair.

"Ruby?"

"Yes, I am the one you spoke to on the phone. I’d welcome you in for some tea, but your engine is still running.”

She offers a sheepish smile to my statement, and as if that’s not bad enough, I can see luggage in the door she left open.

"Yes, I am in a bit of a hurry, but you did say I could still see her?"

She asks.

For all her crying, I never expected that she would try to skip town immediately after signing over her custody of Elle to me.

"For now, she will be in a boarding school for less than a year, at most ten months. But once everything settles down, then, yes, you can still see her."

I answer humouredly.

I will not see her aga