CASSANDRA answered after a long moment, “If you know you’re ready, you’ll have to brave your mind to face him.”
Aanya walked back to the table and sat with her friend, a worried look on her face, “I’m not sure I’m ready, but the more I run, the longer it will become for me to see my children.”
She sighed deeply, uncertain of what to do, and the two friends relapsed into silence. Then Aanya said firmly, “I will have to face him so I can stop running and take full control of my life.”
“A woman reborn,” Cassandra applauded her, “I’m proud of you.”

So Aanya did not go on the trip to Guatemala but continued working in the forested regions of Guyana, learning new skills from the indigenous people in archery, canoeing and swimming. During that time, in the quiet of the evenings, she and Cassandra would discuss and formulate plans for how she could face her husband and gain access to her children.
There were nights, though, when she lay down to sleep, her mind would reflect on the past.

“If only my father had invested in me as his daughter, believed in me and supported me instead of pushing me into a marriage for wealthy gains.”
And yet, for all he had gained from his rich son-in-law, it couldn’t save him from the cancer that ravaged his body. She had visited him at the hospital on his last days, and he had looked at her with tears of deep regret, “I am so sorry, my child, for what I did to you.”

Aanya smiled wryly, “It’s too late to say sorry, father.”
She had gotten up from his bedside and walked away, still hurting. The news of his death three days later had not stunned nor distressed her, for he had departed and left her in a literal hell.
“I managed to free myself,” Aanya said quietly, “But it’s not over yet.”
The plan she and Cassandra had been working on for two months was finally ready to put into play.

It was a post on social media that documented Aanya’s life of an abused woman who was forced to leave her children to save her life, hoping one day to reunite with them. It featured pictures and videos of her work as an environmentalist and the award she received for her great work. She succeeded through determination despite having to work deep in the South American jungles because of the ten million dollar reward her husband offered for information on her.

The post went viral for her touching story that awakened society to the horrific abuse of women that, over time, seemed to have become a norm. Not enough strong voices had been raised, and not enough had been done to save these helpless women and help them start a new life.
One woman was brave enough to walk away and take her life back.

Now, she had exposed her tyrant husband, despite his power and influence, and women empowerment activists came out in a protest march to support her and other abused women.
Human rights organisations cautioned her husband to withdraw the ten million dollars reward he had on her, and child protection services contacted him to make arrangements for the children to meet their mother at the river lodge.

He was adamant, at first, that she should come home to see her children. Furthermore, she had lost her rights when she left them, but the official from the agency pointed out to him that that’s not how the story is being viewed right now, and a mother cannot lose her rights that way.
“This would be an epic face-off with him,” Aanya voiced.

“Nervous? Scared?” Cassandra asked her.
“A little of both, but mostly happy that I can now reunite with my children and they can get to know more of how I am living and the work I am doing.”
“I’m sure they would be very thrilled,” Cassandra said.
Aanya waited, her heart beating at a fast pace as two SUVs pulled up with her husband and the kids, his mother and brother and two personnel from child services.

Aanya stood just behind Cassandra and Nicole, two ex-military women sitting around in support, and she was the entire team she had been working with.
“I must brave my mind,” she kept telling herself, “I cannot show fear, be confident.”
The Director of the Research Center went forward to meet the visitors and cordially requested that they stay at a comfortable distance with only the children going forward.
“We need to see the mother,” one personnel from child services said.

Aanya stepped forward from between the two women, and before anyone could move, the two children ran to her with excited, happy shouts of, “Mommy, mommy!”
She knelt down to hug them, crying with joy.
“Mommy, we missed you so much.”
“I missed you too, my babies.”
They just couldn’t seem to get enough of hugging and kissing her, and there wasn’t a dry eye among her team members.
“You look different,” her daughter said, touching her face lovingly.

“Yes, I’ve changed.”
“My friends at school think you’re a very cool mom,” her son told her, pride in his voice.
“That’s nice to know.”
“I need you with me,” her little daughter said, a little quiver in her voice.
“I can’t come back home now, baby, but I’ll do everything I can so we can spend lots of time together.”

The child smiled, though not too happy her mother was not going back with them.
Her husband, who wasn’t allowed close enough to speak with her, spoke loudly in an angry tone, with a dark look on his face. “There will be no more visits; a good mother does not leave her children!”

Aanya ignored him, and seeing tears in her daughter’s eyes and a worried look on her son’s face, she said to them comfortingly, “Don’t bother with that. I will find a way for us to be together.”
She hugged them and turned to her husband, walking up a little and looking at him for the first time since they arrived, and she said in a firm, steady voice, “No woman leaves good and run. She runs from abuse and suffering. It’s over now.”

“It’s over when I say it’s over,” he responded aggressively and rushed at her but was stopped in his tracks by the thudding of arrows in front of his feet on the deck. There were Indigenous marksmen sitting in the idle canoes around the lodge, for Aanya had asked them to stand by knowing her husband’s violent nature.
That action stunned him and his family, leaving the children in awe. Aanya looked at him with a triumphant smile. She had won her first round of battle with him, and later, as she watched her children leave, she felt a new strength rising within her for more rounds until she won to have her children with her.