Neve got to the hut and saw Maren kneeling close to his mother, looking like the most loving and devoted son anyone had ever seen.
Neve wanted to laugh at how much Maren was trying to act like the real Maren, mimicking the son his mother would have known. But seeing his mother's tears as she held her son's hand, he held back his amusement. The moment was too precious. Too real despite the deception underneath.
She looked so happy that tears ran down her cheeks like a river.
"I can't believe you're alive," she said, her voice shaking with emotion. "I thought I would die without ever seeing you again."
"I also can't believe you're alive, mother," Maren said, his voice carrying genuine emotion even if his identity was false. "I'm happy that you survived. All these years without you, wondering if you were still alive... it was torture."
