MY MOM, MY WORST NIGHTMARE

Hello, everyone! I'm Sasha, from a modest community in Greece.

All along, my own life was never about me. It dealt with my mother. Mom told everyone when I was born that I was so big that she was barely able to give birth to me. Despite the fact that it was false, it got her attention which was precisely what she desired. She couldn't resist the urge to lie about everything just to be taken note of:

"This child is killing me, she never sleeps, she bites, and she hates me." she would say.

Despite the fact that I slept like a baby and Mom spent the entire day watching television, all of the neighbours believed her lies and felt for her.

I'd never met my dad and whenever I asked mom about him, she had new answers:

"He's a secret spy like James Bond, but he loves you," she would say. Or, "He's in the Navy and his ship will be back in five years, but he loves you." Or, "He's an astronaut on Mars, but he loves you." At some point, I just stopped asking because I didn't believe anything she said.

She once called me when I was seven and offered to take me and all of my friends to Disneyland for my birthday. I was overjoyed. However, on my birthday morning, she simply left after announcing that her friend needed to be with her because of an emergency. The worst part wasn't even close. When she got back that evening, the police were with her.

''Tell the decent officials honey, the entire day Mom was here and just went out to purchase a birthday cake''. She said and then turned to the cops: "See, I couldn't have broken into that jewellery store."

"But Mom, you weren't home all day, and where's my cake?"

She was detained and given a community service sentence. Word spread that Mom was a thief and kids at school also said things about me.

"I cannot locate my markers. Who has taken them?''

"Maybe Sasha probably picked up a few tricks from her mother,"

When this happened a few times, I got angry and attacked a child. After that I lost every one of my friends and nobody wanted to sit with me at lunch, yet I was good with it. I couldn't rely on anyone, and being alone was much safer. I made plans, schedules, and rules for myself that I have always followed. If mom made me some promises, I just wrote them in a contract and asked her to sign it.

''Psttt!!!! Another contract? what is the matter with you?''

''Seriously, I have trust issues because you always turn your back on your promises. Sign please''.

Not that the contract stopped mom from breaking promises, but she couldn't deny making them, and calling me a liar since I had physical evidence.

Growing up, I never really knew what Mom did for a living. Honestly, I wasn't sure I wanted to know. Some days, we didn't have anything in our fridge, and on others, mom would take me to the mall so we could splurge on clothes. I decided to always take advantage of the moments when she had money. One of such days when we were leaving the clothing store, an alarm suddenly went off and the guard asked to check our bags. He found a dress in mine. Of course mom had put it there:

''Oh Sasha, why do you keep doing this? I'm so sorry my daughter is a little bit of a klepto. This isn't even her first time. Oh I'm so embarrassed''.

I tried protesting but it was mom who had everyone's sympathy as the poor lady with ‘the problematic daughter’. And even worse, two of my classmates saw the whole thing.

''You promised not to do that again''. I yelled at mom once we got home.

''And did you see the price of the dress? It was worth a shot.'' mom replied.

The next day, the word ''Thief'' was written on my locker. And my classmates were snickering at me. I shrugged them off and went to the library to study. It was my safe space.

''Hey! I see you here everyday and I was wondering if you could help me with maths''. It was Nick, a superstar at our school. He was handsome and his parents were rich.

I agreed to help him and we started spending a lot of time together. Nick was hilarious and made me laugh a lot, and I found myself falling for him. When he finally tried to kiss me, I was ready and gave him a contract about our relationship. He signed it without reading it and kissed me.

''I feel safe with you Sasha, and I haven't felt that way ever since my mom left us''.

I never mentioned my mom and didn't invite Nick to my place, so we always met at his house. He lived with his much older brother Jason because their father was always away for work.

Jason, who was 15 years older, seemed to like me instantly and even invited me on a holiday with him and Nick. But at the last moment he couldn't make it and it was just me and Nick alone in Paris, and

It was the best experience of my life. We spent two weeks in a fairyland, but when I got back I was shocked to find Mom:

‘’Welcome home children!! Why are you at Nick's Place?’’

Apparently Mom had started dating Jason who was 15 years younger than her. Soon she was even talking about getting married to him.

‘’Would I be your step uncle or would you be my sister-in-law?’’ Nick joked.

‘’It's not funny Nick!! You don't know my mother.’’

I made mom sign a contract that she won’t deceive or steal from Nick's family, but I still felt uneasy. A week later when Jason lost his favorite watch, I was sure who did it.

‘’Nick, I think my mother stole this watch’’.

‘’Come on Sasha really? I know you did it. Your mom told us about your history and I've heard things in school too. it's a sickness I understand but maybe we should date secretly. I want to be with you but I don't want to ruin my reputation.’’ I was so mad I slapped him.

‘’You've just broken our contract by not trusting me and shaming me for no reason.’’

After that I didn't answer Nick's calls and totally avoided him in school. And I refused to talk to Mom. She was a psycho. Then one day after school, Jason came to our house when I was alone and said something bizarre:

‘’Look Sasha, I love you. Not your weird Mom. I just couldn't say anything while you were with Nick. And now that you two have broken up, maybe you could give me a shot.’’

‘’Are you insane?’’ I yelled. ‘’No. I'm not gonna date you. Get out of my house.’’

He left. But mom had walked in just then and heard everything.

‘’You're such a snake.’’ Mom scolded. ‘’You will regret that you took him away from me. And I will be sure Jason regrets this too’’.

I contacted Nick and told him to move away somewhere for a while with Jason. But Mom was a completely psychotic ex. He didn't take me seriously and a few days later, Nick's house caught fire. Luckily, there was no one inside at the time, but the house was ruined. Nick and Jason accused mom but a police investigation found no evidence against her. Soon the brothers left the city for good, just to get away from Mom.

I turned off my emotions and just concentrated on my studies. I had to work hard and get away from my mom too. I decided to be a lawyer and I was one of the youngest students to land a prestigious internship in a huge tech company in California.

One of the other interns was the CEO's spoiled daughter Gladys, who had no skills at all.

‘’Oh gosh!! I don't understand a word. Why should I even read this stuff if I'll just be the boss one day?’’ Gladys exclaimed.

‘’How can you be anyone's boss if you don't understand anything?’’ I replied.

‘’I don't need to understand because they'll have servants like you, poor Bookworm’’ She said with a smirk on her face.

She was pretty and every boy around was drooling over her. But when she opened her mouth in class she had my ears bleeding. I just couldn't respect her and mostly tried to avoid her. But she did her best to irritate me:

‘’Guys look!! This is the most boring, stupidest person around and she'll never work here’’.

Surprise, little witch. I was the best student and was offered a part-time job in the company during the internship. That's when I met HIM. Leo was the head of the legal department where I'd started to work and he sent butterflies fluttering in my stomach. Also, he seemed to be as obsessed with tables and Excel sheets as I was. No doubt this was my soul mate. Leo was my work mentor and we were naturally spending a lot of time together. Then we started having lunch together too, and while most of our talks were work related, I felt that he enjoyed spending time with me.

But my bubble of happiness burst soon because I saw him hugging Gladys one day. Of course!!!! She was a beauty and the boss's daughter. I started avoiding him after that and didn't even think he'd notice but he did;

‘’Hey, are you avoiding me? Have I done something wrong?’’

‘’You better worry about the boss's princess not me.’’

‘’Oh so that's the problem. Sasha, she's my sister.’’

‘’So you're the boss’ son? Wow!! you two are so different.’’

‘’I know my little sister's chaotic. But you got jealous, which means you like me.’’

‘’Yeah maybe. so what if I do?’’ I said blushing.

‘’I like you too Sasha’’.

I told him about the contracts I signed for relationships and he loved the idea. We wrote a contract for ourselves and signed it. But when Gladys saw us together as a couple, she was livid;

‘’Don't mess with my family Roach. I've looked into your history deeply and I know your secrets. I'll tell everybody that you're a thief. You are not gonna steal our money.’’

‘’Leo, that's not true. They're just rumors.’’

He believed me. But Gladys was still Furious and told me I'd regret being with her brother. Soon, she did make me pay because one day my mother turned up at the company demanding to see the CEO.

‘’My father is out of town.’’ Leo said

‘’But I need to talk to him NOW.’’ She persisted. ‘’Call him. Tell him it's urgent.’’

Everybody was watching while Gladys was laughing in a corner.

‘’Mom, just leave I beg you or I will call security.’’

‘’You said you're the CEO’s son.’’ She turned to Leo. ‘’ Then you need to hear something really important about my daughter.’’

She refused to talk in front of everyone, so Leo took her aside into an office with Gladys right behind them. Ughhh!!! Sometimes, I really hated my mom.

‘’What did she tell you?’’ I asked Leo as soon as he stepped out.

‘’That you've given some very sensitive information to our Rivals.’’

‘’What!!!! I can't believe she'd say that. Leo I haven't done that.’’

‘’I know.’’ He said.

But it appeared that sensitive information about our company had been leaked to our competitors and I was the only one with access to it. I couldn't explain it. And both contracts were over; for the job and my relationship. I was heartbroken and furious.

‘’How did you even know that any information was leaked to our competitor's Mom?’’

‘’Apparently, you're not very well liked at your workplace. A beautiful girl there helped me get the information and I sent it to your company's Rivals.’’

‘’What!!!! Why would you do this? You've destroyed my life.’’

‘’And you destroyed mine when you took Jason from me. This will teach you not to mess with your mother's plans.’’

Before leaving the company, I asked Leo for one last thing; to check all the security cameras. Sure enough, we found Gladys sneaking in one night and taking information from my laptop.

‘’You don't need this criminal in your life Leo. She's not good enough for you.’’ Gladys defended.

Leo's sister was expelled from the internship and the company forever. He apologised for breaking the contract without investigation and we agreed to start over. I testified about everything my mother had done and she was sentenced to five years in prison in the court. I cried. She was my mother after all. But I couldn't let her go around hurting people anymore, especially me.

A few months later, mom asked me to come see her in prison and she actually apologised to me.

‘’I've been receiving therapy here and I'm realising how toxic and selfish I've been. You deserve a better mom.’’

I couldn't forgive her right away, but I was glad she was trying to change for the better. After completing my University degree, I got an amazing full-time job offered to me at Leo's father's company and my life was finally shaping up to the way I'd always wanted it to be.

In the summer, I went on vacation with Leo and I bumped into Nick and Jason at our Resort. Nick kept trying to catch me alone and he told me that Mom told him I was here. He tried convincing me to get back with him again.

‘’Nick, things between us ended a long time ago and I love someone else now.’’

‘’But I still love you and I won't give up so easily.’’

Later that night, I heard a knock on my balcony door and found Jason there.

‘’What do you think you're doing? Get out of my room.’’

He fell on one knee and proposed to me with the biggest diamond ring I'd ever seen. I was shocked beyond words. And just then, Leo walked in.

‘’Sasha, who is this man? What is he doing here in the middle of the night?’’

‘’I-I-I-I can explain.’’ I stuttered.

‘’Has he just proposed to you?’’

‘’Apparently, yes.’’ I replied.

‘’I don't know what all this is, but I came here for the same reason. Sasha, will you marry me?’’ Leo said while going down on one knee and pulling out a beautiful diamond ring from his back pocket.

Before I could catch my breath, Nick suddenly appeared and looked shocked to see Jason on one knee.

‘’Jason, how could you? I told you I wanted to propose to Sasha bro.’’

‘’Who are you guys?’’ Leo asked angrily.

‘’Who are you?’’ Nick said provocatively.

Suddenly, all three of them started fighting and the stress of the situation made me collapse. I woke up in the hospital and the first thing I saw was the three of them looking at me.

‘’I'm fine, I'm fine. and I have a clear head now to reply to all of you. Nick, I was in love with you a long time ago but I can never feel the same way about you again. Jason, I never even liked you and you're a creep. And Leo, you are my soul mate and I love you very much.’’

‘’Does this mean you'll marry me?’’

‘’Yes, but we should prepare a solid contract.’’ I was with a winky smile.

Mom was allowed to leave prison for a day to attend my wedding and I was happy. She got to witness it and even though I'd started to forgive her, I knew that we'd never have the perfect mom-daughter relationship. And I'd build my own life away from her and I was at peace with my decision.

THE END