The countryside was eerily quiet, the only sound being the crunch of Ellah's boots on the dirt path. The once-vivid memories of a vibrant rural landscape from her novel-reading days were nothing like the harsh reality before her. The fields looked barren, the houses weathered and worn from years of neglect.
Ellah's heart tightened as she approached the rundown house at the edge of the village—the home where her twin sons, Xavier and Zachary, lived with their late grandfather. A dilapidated wooden fence leaned precariously to one side, and the yard was littered with rusted tools and broken furniture.
How did it come to this? she thought bitterly. She might not have been their real mother, but the memories of the novel filled her with guilt. These boys were supposed to grow into bitter, vengeful villains, shaped by abandonment and suffering. That cycle of misery ended today.
As she stepped closer, Ellah heard faint voices coming from inside the house. She paused, her heart pounding.
Inside the house, Xavier slammed a cupboard shut, his frustration evident in the harsh scrape of wood against wood.
"There's nothing left to eat," he muttered, running a hand through his unkempt dark hair. His twin, Zachary, sat silently at the rickety kitchen table, his sharp, intelligent eyes staring blankly at a cracked window.
"Maybe if she had stayed—" Xavier began, his voice rising with anger, but Zachary cut him off.
"She's gone, Xav. Forget about her," Zachary said coldly. "She's not coming back. Neither of them are."
Ellah winced as she heard their words through the open window. The bitterness in their voices was sharper than she expected. She had prepared herself for resentment, but the weight of their pain still hit her like a physical blow.
Taking a deep breath, she knocked on the door.
Xavier flung the door open, his scowl deepening when he saw the stranger standing on the porch. He was tall for his age, with a lanky frame and piercing eyes that mirrored her own. Zachary appeared behind him, quieter but no less intense, his sharp features shadowed by the dim light inside the house.
"What do you want?" Xavier snapped, his tone guarded.
Ellah hesitated for a moment, unsure how to introduce herself. Hi, I'm your mother who you thought abandoned you and is now back from the dead didn't seem like the best opener.
Instead, she softened her voice. "I'm here to help. My name is Ellah."
Xavier's eyes narrowed. "We don't need help from strangers."
"Really?" she asked, gesturing to the sagging roof and the empty cupboards visible behind him. "It doesn't look like you're doing so great."
"Get lost," Xavier growled, moving to shut the door, but Zachary stopped him with a hand on his arm.
"Wait," Zachary said, his voice low and calculating. His gaze locked onto Ellah, his expression unreadable. "You look... familiar."
Ellah braced herself. They were bound to notice the resemblance sooner or later. "That's because I'm your mother."
The silence that followed was deafening.
"You're lying," Xavier said, his voice shaking with disbelief and anger. "She left years ago. She's not coming back."
"I didn't leave you," Ellah said firmly, stepping closer. "I was forced to leave. But I'm here now, and I want to take you away from all this."
"Why should we believe you?" Zachary asked, his tone more measured but no less skeptical.
"Because I came back for you," she replied, her voice breaking slightly. "I know I can't undo the years you've suffered, but I'm here to make things right. I want to give you a better life."
The twins didn't respond immediately, their expressions a mix of suspicion, anger, and a flicker of something softer—hope, perhaps.
"Better life?" Xavier repeated bitterly. "What do you even know about us? About what we've been through?"
Ellah stepped forward, placing a hand on the doorframe to steady herself. "I know that you've had to grow up too fast. I know you've felt abandoned, unloved. But I promise you, that ends now. I'm not leaving you again."
Zachary's eyes darted to Xavier, silently communicating something only they understood. After a long pause, Zachary finally spoke.
"If you're lying..." he began, his voice quiet but filled with steel.
"I'm not," Ellah interrupted. "You'll see."
The first step had been taken, but Ellah knew it would take much more than words to win their trust. As she followed them into the dimly lit house, she vowed to herself: she wouldn't fail them.
The twins may have been hardened by the past, but Ellah would fight to give them the future they deserved—even if it meant rebuilding their lives from scratch.