The reason she left him

"What?!" They both exclaimed in shock.

"Hold on, Amma." Eliza caught hold of her hand and let go as soon as she did. "I still don't get it. You need to explain it to me first. I don't know and will not know my Appa except you explain things to me. Even if I see him and he tells me he's my father, I will not recognize him as such." She said in a rush and finally slowed down. "What's going on?"

"You see," her mom held her hand and beaconed her through the flower fields "...when I had you, I..."

"So am I just gonna wait here or go ahead?" Allison asked, interrupting them annoyingly.

"Benson, take Alli to one of the rooms." Mrs Songue instructed and Benson who stood as a guard nodded and directed Allison to a different direction.

"Where was I?" She asked, having a bit of a short term memory loss.

"When you had me." Eliza reminded.

"Oh yes, right." She cleared her throat. "When I had you, there was a situation on ground. Your father hardly came home and that was a strange development especially at the time he just had a daughter after the long wait..."

"What do you mean after the long wait?" Eliza asked, interrupting her.

"Forget that for now. What you're after is why your father left you." She reminded and Eliza nodded. "A friend of mine told me to do a digging on your father in case he was seeing someone else. At first I didn't want to. I had total trust and faith in your father so I didn't." They got to a bench and sat down there. Eliza paid keen attention to the story. She didn't want to miss out any detail. "I finally decided," she continued, "...and that was when I found out there was a lady." Eliza gasped. "Now hold on, listen to the rest of the story before you judge." Eliza calmed down with a lot of thoughts running through her mind.

'Where's this story leading to? It must all end in him leaving, is there any other thing to it?' Eliza thought.

"Focus, V!" Her mom snapped, noticing Eliza's absentmindedness.

"Sorry!" Eliza shook her head.

"You've already gotten your head twisted up with thoughts and questions that need answers. But don't worry, I assure you, the end is going to answer all your questions." She assured and Eliza assured tiredly. "I always wanted to know why he only came back home once a week and why he didn't even want to see you. Although he had given you the name Valestine which marked the date you were born, February 14th, that was not the main reason why he named you Valestine."

"It wasn't?" Eliza asked, confused.

"It meant the love he had for you, it was so deep and dear to him." She explained.

"If he loved me so dearly and deeply, why did he refuse to see me?" Eliza asked fiercely.

"Calm down, V! Relax, let me finish."

"Go on, Amma." Eliza said.

"I confronted the woman and asked about the relationship between her and your father but she simply said they were just friends. I stuck to that belief until I followed your father one day and it landed me in the lady's house. When I confronted your father openly, he quickly admitted his love for her and that he didn't love me anymore. Not wanting to hear anything else, I ran away. Only the thought of it made me break. I was already dealing with postnatal depression so it was hard."

She paused for a moment,g then continued.

"I felt I had nothing to live for anymore and just wanted to die. But in the course of this, I remembered you, I just gave birth to you and was unwilling to leave you to a cruel life and end up having to be the stepchild of some lady. Only God knew what she would do to you."

"Turn me into a maid! Send me packing once I was 2 to live in the street! Orphanage home! Child trafficking!" Eliza counted her fingers like it was a joking matter but her Mom stared sternly at her. "Sorry." She apologized and her mom sighed seeing Eliza was still growing. "What happened next?" She asked with interest.

"Well, I stole you away and ran away to somewhere safe, somewhere I knew no one would find me."

"Velinda Island." Eliza said. "That's where you brought me up and the first place I met Allison."

"Yes, but then when you turned 12, we had to move again just so you could start highschool someplace else."

"And that's when I met Alison." Eliza pointed out. "Again."

"Yes, that's when you and Alli became really good friends. Such a sweet little girl she was." Her mom emphasized.

"I don't understand. Where does forgiving him come from?"

"Oh V!" She sniffed.

"He claimed not to love you anymore but why did he come back?" Eliza snapped angrily.

"It was all my fault." Her mom stated.

"Huh?" Eliza felt confused.

"I failed to realize the change in his face and that he was deteriorating in health as well. I thought it was just a face he made because he didn't love me anymore but it was actually the face of pain." She said,

"Pain? I don't understand." Eliza said.

"V, your father was suffering from bittermarrow and I didn't know it. He said those words back then just to save me from worrying and keep me away from the truth. I finally realized that he never cheated on me but was faithful all the while. He always wore a scarf just to hide the red veins crawling up his neck." She sobbed.

Eliza stared blankly at the distance while her mother cried. Bitter Marrow was a deadly disease. It causes a sharp pain in the 206 bones in the body. The pain comes up if the patient shows any form of emotions and that was why he didn't come to see Eliza when she was a baby.

He didn't want to show any form of emotion so as not to trigger the pain in front of his wife and the baby. Once the swollen red veins spread over his cheeks, he would surely die. She didn't know when tears started falling down.

"So Appa, was suffering from bittermarrow?" Eliza asked sadly.

"Yes! I misunderstood the situation. He loved us so much to the extent of hurting himself by denying himself of you. He has never seen you in person since you were born, V." She pointed out sadly.

"Appa, had bittermarrow!" She repeated. "Is he okay now? How is he?" She asked all of a sudden with much concern.

"He's alright. All you need to do is prepare yourself for tonight. He will be delighted to see you." Her mom said.

"Alright, Amma. I'm also looking forward to seeing him." Eliza said.

"Are you alright?" Her mom asked and she nodded.

"Yeah, it suddenly feels alright to cry." She cleaned her eyes with her sleeves.

"Don't think too much." She got up and Eliza followed. "Plus there's another surprise tonight." She said,

"Surprise?" Eliza asked, confused but her mom would speak no more.