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*
“I WANT TO see Mom!”
Floriana rushed to the door of the room, pushing Vittor away, but he tried to stop her.
“You are not going to stop me. I want to see Mom,” she shouted at him.
“I honestly believe it’s a bad idea,” Vittor said as he blocked the door with his body.
“Vittor! How dare you! Let me pass!”
“Please calm down and listen to me.” Vittor raised his hands in front of his chest. “I don’t want you to be hurt. Our mother is practically a stranger to me, so everything I have seen her doing or heard her saying these last two weeks has had no effect on me. But she was your mom for eight years. I mean, you lived with her, she was your mom, you loved her. I am sure you don’t want to see how cruel the person she has become is.”
“What makes you say that?” Floriana gave him a questioning look that made him blush.
Vittor secured the glasses on his nose and cleared his throat.
“I ... I heard her saying horrible things. She called those victims in that Macedonia village ‘filthy creatures that deserved to die’. She is full of anger and hatred. She even forbade me to wear the ring that shows my loyalty to the Order of the Black Rose. I had to keep it in my pocket,” he said as he took the ring out of his pocket and put it on his finger.
Floriana angled her head as she stepped back. “I don’t understand. She was such kind person. She would not say anything so cruel as that.”
“I don’t know what happened to her, but she is creeping me out. I even questioned that she is indeed our mother. But she looks like the person in the photos that you showed to me. And she knows details about our family life, our father, our grandpa, and she knows so much about the Order of the Black Rose. Honestly, I had hoped she was not our mother, but I think she is.”
“Then why don’t you let me meet her? It is the only way I can find out if she is who she says she is.”
“Because, Floriana, I think our mother hates you.”