Dar was rendered speechless. His mother's words tugged his heartstrings, that even if his heart was made of iron, the emotion behind each word was enough to melt it.
Maybe he was too overwhelmed with facts and forgot that, vicious as a tigress can be, she never eat her own cubs.
At the end of the day, Sabreen was still his mother, his first world and a person got only one mother. Thus, regardless of how unwilling Dar was, a mother needs her child and the child also needs their mother.
"Hundred of days. You can imagine no life in me"
Sabreen laughed bitterly recalling the lonely days hitherto.
Looking at the globules of his mother's tears, Dar felt even more tempted but the guilty conscious within him was unignorable. He found himself betwixt and between.
The name Rasha crossed his mind.
For the same Rasha, he disapproved his relationship with his mater the moment he discovered that Sabreen was masking her true self.
In fact, she and Satan were like siblings in committing sins and due to the strong throe of guilt he was experiencing, he had forsaken his roots, in other words his home, to look for Rasha without paying attention to the passage of time, and time is like a shuttle for it's nearing nine years now.
"Dar" Sabreen closed their distance and threw her arms around him, her pristine motherly love enveloped him as well.
However even after moments passed, Dar never replied the hug and simply stood like a statue, a tacit reminder that their relationship won't be like before unless she was ready to do the right thing by taking off her mask for the entire world to see who exactly she was.
He truly did not want to hurt his mother's feelings but the fact that she was still on the wrong really repulsed him a lot.
Right now, his desire to find Rasha was blazing, thus since the night Maiden Houdini was sighted, he set out for the forest where Rasha was said to have lived immediately after he was informed.
The previous morning, he thought his eyes were lying when he caught sight of Sabreen's men leaving the forest area in vans. The vans were speeding as though they have committed something suspicious, like getting hold of the Maiden Houdini, thus prompting his visit to VDM.
Thus far, he hadn't gotten a concrete answer from his mother because she kept evading using emotional responses of what he never asked.
"Mother, you always claim that you love me but do you know how much you are hurting me?"
Sabreen chuckled lightly when she heard him but without leaving the one-sided hug. She replied
"How am I hurting you dearest Dar? Have I not provided everything that you want since you were this young? Do you not trust motherly love?"
"A mother's love is the most pristine feeling in the world" she added
"I wish your heart is pure, then I would have believed that you love me"
"I don't mind coz we all have flaws, no one is perfect"
Dar sighed and gently pushed his mother away from him. He took two steps back and Sabreen watched as his face turned more serious than ever. She heard him ask
"Where is Rasha?"
Sabreen chuckled again, taking two deep breaths
"Somewhere you and I don't know. But I think now that she showed up, it is only a question of time before she ends up in the hands of death. I will especially host her mourning ceremony in my VDM"
Sabreen sounded like the most kindest person but the hate in the depth of her eyes stick out a mile, despite maintaining a serene outward.
"Not one mother, two mourning ceremonies. With how much I love my dearest cousin to the extent that I am challenging my mother and devoted my time in finding her, don't you think it is only right to perish together?"
"Mmm. We all want to die with our loved ones, maybe I should die with you too"
Dar then said
"And that would be the best thing you will ever do in your life because with you gone, the world will live in peace mother".