This voice was too familiar to Su Xiqin. It was a voice she hadn't heard for five years; it was her mother, Su Huayin's voice.
Undeniably, she was startled for a moment, but she soon calmed down. Her mother left her five years ago without a word, but she guessed that she had returned when she saw Su Xixue some days ago. However, Su Xiqin didn't expect her to call and knew that she must have something to ask from her.
With the knowledge of the situation, Su Xiqin still asked the question calmly.
"What is it?"
"I'd like to meet with you."
Su Xiqin closed her eyes as she hadn't seen her mother in years, but her voice was still as indifferent as ever. She couldn't figure out why she wanted to meet with her. Was there any reason to meet her if she was abandoned without a word?
"Same thing over the phone." She opened her eyes and leaned into the sofa, crouching with her hand over the phone and one arm wrapping around her body.
In fact, she had never felt the so-called motherly love from Su Huayin; it was always the same coldness like over the phone.
"I know you're angry that I didn't tell you when I left you, but you have to know that I couldn't do anything else back then. After what Xixue had done, I had to take her away from the Mo Family."
"Let's meet; there's something I need to tell you."
————————
Su Xiqin ended up going, and they met in a café's private room. When Su Xiqin entered, Su Huayin was already seated in the middle of the sofa.
It had been several years since they last saw each other, but Su Huayin's face didn't age even the slightest, she had just become more feminine.
She wore light makeup and was in a set of violet Western clothes that accentuated her pale skin. Her hair was tied up casually with a few fine hairs hanging down by her ears. She didn't look like she was close to 50 at all, more like she had just reached 40 years of age.
She didn't show much expression on her face when she saw Su Xiqin, and she said faintly with those red lips, "Come, sit down."
Su Xiqin sat down across from her, and neither of them spoke before the waiter brought in coffee, after which Su Huayin spoke up to break the silence.
"Xixue told me that she saw you."
Su Xiqin's eyes were indifferent as she stared back at her. "Well, she also said we are strangers."
Her tone was flat, as if she was just recounting a perfectly normal thing.
"She's too young and doesn't understand things, but you're not. " Su Huayin furrowed her thin eyebrows, and her pitch got a bit higher.
"Is she a three-year-old kid? How can someone be so ignorant if we were born at the same time? If she's naïve and ignorant, how did she crawl into her own brother-in-law's bed five years ago?" Su Xiqin said as her eyes turned red.
She didn't understand why they were being treated so differently even though they were both her twin daughters. No matter what Su Xixue had done wrong, her mother always turned a blind eye and said she was just childish and ignorant.
"Qin, Mom knows that what happened was taboo, and I chose to take her away at that time because of this as well."
Su Xiqin's red eyes couldn't focus as she stared at the face in front of her, and she smirked after a while. "Yes, you lived a good life, but what was left for me? You don't know what kind of life I've been living for all these years."
"Do you think I was better off? I took her away because I wanted you to have a good life with Mo Xigu."
"If you wanted me to have a good life, you shouldn't have said the wrong room number that night. Do you know what what you said cost me? " Su Xiqin wondered why her mother would tell her the wrong room number.
Her mother went silent, and Su Xiqin pursued for an answer. "Mom, why did you tell me the wrong room number that night?"
"I didn't. That was the room number your father-in-law told me. If you don't believe me, there's nothing I can do about it."
Su Xiqin bit down onto her lips as she stared at the bright white wall light. "I want to believe you, but there's no explanation that can convince me."
Su Huayin looked at her with cold eyes and didn't speak a word as she took a sip of the coffee in front of her, then she said, "Have you two been living separately?"
Su Huayin's sudden change in topic made Su Xiqin sneer. "Did you think we can still get back together after something like that?"
"Qin, some things are in the past, so why hold on to them?"
"One just can't get past certain things," she replied grimly.
"
"And we're getting ready for a divorce. No, not getting ready, because we've already signed the divorce agreements, and all we're missing is a divorce certificate. Doesn't Su Xixue love him? No need to worry about me anymore; she can pursue after him boldly."
As if she had heard something terrifying, Su Huayin's whole face changed color. "What? You can't divorce him."
Su Xiqin leaned her body into the chair, with her eyes cold as ice. "Why can't I divorce him?" Su Xiqin couldn't think of what her mother had in mind to stop her from getting a divorce, and her heart grew colder by the second.
"You two just can't divorce."
Su Xiqin didn't know how to respond after hearing what her mother had said. Should her mother know what kind of life she was living?
Her hand clenched harder on the chair's armrest.
"Qin, don't blame Mom for saying this. I know that you love him in your heart. Xigu has an opinion of me, so I left the Mo Family. You can't let my sacrifices go to waste."
Su Xiqin smirked. "Mom, is that really what you think? It's impossible that you don't know how I've been living all these years, and you really want me to live like this for the rest of my life?"
"Mo Xigu just hasn't seen the good in you yet; he will."
Su Xiqin's expression was cold. This is my mom? Why?
"You're deluding yourself! But I can't do this to myself, or maybe you're just trying to deceive me."
Su Huayin raised her head with her face ice cold. "What are you saying? Why would I harm you?"
"Then, have you ever thought about this from my perspective?"
Su Xiqin's sharpness made Su Huayin silent and cold. The coldness was reflected in Su Xiqin's eyes, and she slumped backwards and fell onto the sofa dispiritedly.
Su Xiqin looked at her mother's exquisite face that was somewhat similar to her own, and it became more blurred in her vision.
Su Huayin tried her best to suppress her anger, and after a long time, she looked at Su Xiqin and exhaled two deep breaths. Her hands with bright red-colored nails picked up the cigarette case on the table as she took one out and lit it up.
Behind the smoke, Su Huayin squinted at her and said in a hoarse voice.
"You didn't think about this. Do you think the Mo Family is really that easy to deal with? Don't be naive; you might not even be allowed to see your child in the future."
In Su Huayin's opinion, this was the only way to dispel Su Xiqin's idea of divorcing.
Su Xiqin looked at her mother's enchanting appearance; it was evident that both her mother and Su Xixue lived a great life over the past five years. Yet, she had a downbeat and. She wondered if she was going to continue living like that?