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It was Thanksgiving day. She didn't want to be here but she was tired of running. She knew she couldn't come up with any excuse again. It was time to leave the past behind her.

She picked up the bouquet of sunflowers from her back seat and came out of her car. The last time she was here was sixteen months ago and even that dinner didn't end well. She walked up to the front porch and was about to knock on the door when she heard her voice.

"Cristobal! She's here."

Laura was not surprised when a second later she saw her rushing out to meet her with excitement written on her face. At the moment Laura remembered how she missed her. Her ebony hair was now pepper and salt but not still affecting her beauty. Except for her hair, which she normally dyed ebony black , nobody except being told would guess that Annabelle Grace Montez was fifty-seven years old.

"Anna." Laura smiled at her pretending she didn't notice the small frown she received due to the name she called her. She refused to care about it. Even if she had forgiven them, there was no way she was going to just pretend like everything was alright and move on. No way. "I got this for you." Laura said giving her the sunflowers.

Anna beamed at her."You remembered." Then she hugged her.

Just then a tall man in his late fifties came out of the house with a smile on the face. His grey hair a slightly wrinkled face didn't make him any less handsome.

"Laura, we thought you wouldn't make it. We are glad you did." He gave her a small smile. "Come in dear before your mother suffocates you." He joked making her mum who was still hugging her release her.

"Oh don't mind your father buttercup. He's such a kill joy." She said with a hint of her original accent still present. Anna was an immigrant from Spain before she married her husband. Laura had to admit it. She missed her family.

She followed them inside as she was greeted by the scent of different cuisines. She knew her mother will outdo herself but she never expect what she saw. The meal on the dining table could feed a large army.

"I thought we were the only ones today." Laura said.

"Of course we are. Your mother and all the cooks decided to keep us stuffed because according to her you are very skinny."

She smiled at her mother. "Thank you. I haven't eaten anything that isn't fast food in ages." Only that seemed to brighten her mother's day.

"See Cristobal, I told you I'm her favorite parent." She winked and went to the kitchen to get something.

"Where is your whole staff?" Laura said something she noticed since she came in.

"Anna told everyone to go home for thanksgiving day. She was very excited and didn't want them to miss their families."

Laura nodded. It was something her mother would do. Anna was one of the most kindest and freest woman she had every met. At a point in her life she had wanted to be like her mother. Never holding a grudge and finding happiness in little things.

"Fidelis in minimis." Her mother normally said. It was her life motto she told Laura one day. "Faithfulness in little things." That was what it meant. Anna was that kind of person.

But you still wouldn't forgive her. Her conscience said.

To her that was different. It wasn't something she could just forgive and forget like the popular saying. To her that quote was a scam. It wasn't possible for someone to just forget even though it is forgiven.

She decided to distract herself from that dangerous memory as she observed the house. Nothing has been changed except for the old sofa and the curtains. They were a few decorations like some figurines and the television set but to her it was still the same. She could see herself playing dress up and having a tea party with her mother. She also remembered the water fights she had with her father. She wished she could go back to those days when her greatest worries was the type of sandwich she had for breakfast and how ugly her schoolbags were.

"She misses you you know." Cristobal said like he was reading her mind. "She refuses to change anything in the house. She even refuses to move. She said you have to be here for it to be alright."

She knew it was strange that they never moved especially since her became the mayor of the city but she never knew this was the reason.

"I'm sorry but there is nothing I can do."

"It wasn't her fault." He stated.

"And neither was it mine." She fired back. How dare he say that to her?

Anna chose the moment to come in with a tray in her hand.

"You didn't need to do this Anna. This is too much."

"I'm your mother!" She answered back visibly angry. "If I don't do this for who will I do it for?" She said. "Now dig in for I just spent four hours in the kitchen preparing this."

"Steamed crabs!" It has been a long time she had her favorite. Especially after the doctor advised her not to. But telling her mother will only destroy her mother's day and her's so she caved in. Just one day wouldn't kill her after all.

She sat with her parents on the same table sharing stories and eating like the last seventeen years didn't happen. She had carried to much anger in her for long and even though she hated the doctor and what she said, Laura knew she was right. She just had to let go.

                                                                       ⚜

Laura as a child was always brilliant. She was smarter and prettier than most people her age. At six she could read and speak three languages. At seven she won an international spelling bee. At nine she could recites three quarter of the constitution and solve some arithmetic far advanced for her age. Her IQ was 151. She was always more knowledgeable than even some people older than her so that made her an attraction for trouble. People misunderstood her, her peers hated her and even some adults felt she was too outspoken but Laura didn't care much. She never really had a best friend or friends growing up because of her supposedly attitude but she was never worried. She didn't care because she had her mother. Even though it was hard to believe now but there was a time she and her mother were inseparable. Her mother was her best friend when growing up. She loved her and was always there to protect her. Anna was never a woman to go to work or find a job. She was always a mother and a wife. Even though Laura would never in the world settle for that, her mother made her know it was a very important job.

Everything changed when he arrived. Her brother. She remembers how she hated it when her mother became pregnant. Their normal play date reduced until it stopped totally. Her mother was either too tired or was going for a doctor's appointment. She became invisible just like she was in school. The only thing her parents talked about was their son. Nobody picked her from school anymore. She had to follow their neighbor who had a son in her school that she didn't like at all. He was always picking his nose and pronouncing 'late' as 'lit'. It really irked her.

Sometimes her lunch was forgotten by her mother. She needed to write her final exams for her to be promoted to middle school. She knew she would ace it no doubt. But she was hurt when her mother slept throughout that day forgetting about her test. She had to beg her neighbor whose son wasn't writing the exam to take her to school. She was only nine and all alone. She didn't hate her mother because she knew it wasn't her fault. It was the babies fault. She just wanted her mother back again. She didn't mean anything when she wrote it. It was just something she felt and in anger wrote it down.

I wish the baby would go away.

She really didn't wish for it to happened but nobody listened.

Anna was seven months pregnant and in her bedroom upstairs sleeping. Laura was not trying to be naughty but she was always a magnet for trouble. She was trying to help her mother get a glass of water upstairs. She knew how thirsty her mother was recently and thought if she was being a good girl her mother will not chose the baby over her. Getting water and being a good elder sister, like her mom said, will make her mother happy  It wasn't her fault that she didn't notice the spilled water on the stairs. It wasn't her fault that she slipped and rolled down the stairs breaking the glass and her ankle. It definitely wasn't her fault that her mother hearing her screams, woke up and joined her few moments later.

And it didn't just end there. Anna lost the baby and almost her life. She knew they blamed her. Her mother didn't talk to her for months although she hardly talked to anyone. Her father tried to pretend like everything was okay but even him couldn't hide the blame in his eyes. She hated herself even more but never in the world expected what was about to happen to her.

She just got admitted to Easton Middle School in September and was more than excited to go. Her mother was becoming better although their relationship never came back to how it was but she was talking to her then. Laura took this as a sign that she was forgiven. She had never been so wrong.

Her father was serving as a financial adviser to someone so he wasn't always around. She remembered him coming back early one day and calling her into his room. She was scared because she was only called her in that tone when she had done something wrong. Laura remembered how the ten year old her was scared. She remembered how she cried that night when she heard she was been sent to an all girls Roman Catholic boarding school. Her father said it was a prestigious school and she would benefit a lot but to her she just saw it as banishment. She was being sent out of her house because her parents couldn't stand her again. And the worst part was that it was in another continent. She was going to Ireland.

That night she cried and locked herself in her father's study turning deaf eyes to the pleas of her parents to open the door. It was at that moment she saw a familiar book with a baby pink cover and her name written on it on his desk. It was her diary and with a page folded and the book turned down she picked it up and read the folded page.

It read

I wish the baby would go away.

Hope you enjoyed this chapter? I tried to throw some more light to Laura's background and childhood so we would understand her more.

Any thoughts? Please do share. And don't forget to vote⭐️

Love Toris ❤️