The days that followed were not especially hard, at least emotionally, as James had already come to terms with everything concerning his mother. Between them, things went smoothly.
They talked about life, about her wish to enjoy what remained of it away from death, blood, and the torment that inevitably followed him. She made it clear that this choice did not mean she was abandoning James. She simply wanted to remember him as the boy he once was, not to relive every pain tied to who he had become, which James understood, and he let her go, though not without setting a few rules.
First, the house Erika would live in had to be inside a gated community with constant security, and even if she went out, there would be people following her to protect her… something that Erika immediately denied, as she wanted to distance herself from all of that.
