"What do you mean she's gone?", I ask the nurse, frowning and glancing at Elen. She just shakes her head and runs her hand through her short brunette hair.

"I mean that Stella Max is gone. When the nurse came in this morning, she found an empty bed and there was no sign of her."

"No sign of her", I mumble in my chin. 

Where the hell are you Stella? What the fuck did you do? Are you in trouble?

I sigh, didn't knowing that I was holding my breath. My head made that scenario in which Scott took Stella and locked her in his house, which I surprisingly never visited since we always used to hang out in Maya's school because her parents were never there. But, fortunately, this isn't the case, it's just my brain being a dark place, and creating these stories with no happy ending. 

Did someone kidnap you?

"So no one took her?", Elen questions, snapping me from my thoughts. The brown-haired nurse just shrugs, fondling some papers. Before Elen has a chance to open her mouth and speak again, my hand hits the counter and all the papers this bitch has been fondling fly everywhere.

"Listen, here, bitch!", I yell, and she frowns focusing her brown eyes at me that she should have done since the moment I started talking to her. It's so rude when you avoid people's gaze. "I demand you to tell me where the fuck is my sister, and how the hell she managed to escape from this well-secured hospital?" I lose my breath when I stop yelling.

I'm so pissed off at these idiots who didn't care about Stella and let her sneak out. Where the hell did you go, S, and why didn't you for fuck's sake inform me? 

But, it's not that I'm just pissed off and angry. I'm actually hella sacred beneath that anger that I'm showing to this nurse right now. Scared that something bad might have happened to my lifesaver. If my lifesaver loses her life then what the hell am I going to do? 

"Chloe." Elen's hand touches my waist, but I brush it off, moving from her, and leaning on the counter.

"You are some kind of a good hospital with tons of nurses and not to mention security that threw us out two nights ago, and one girl escapes and no one, but fucking no one notices. I want to see camera footage. Right the fuck now!", I hiss, patting the floor with my foot aggressively, while the bunch of faces just stare at me without doing what I've just demanded from them. 

"We don't show our camera footages to anyone if you don't have a warrant", the brown-haired nurse shrugs and starts collecting the papers I blew when I hit the counter with my palm.

"A warrant!", I scoff, turning to Elen, whose face is worried and she again tries to touch me, but I move before she can do it. "They want a motherfucking warrant. Your patient is nowhere to be found and you don't even care about it." I widen my eyes not understanding how no person here cares that Stella left in that condition of hers. They aren't even concerned and I am here shouting again like a madwoman, just how I was when she fell in that pool at the party and no one wanted to help me. Why no one ever wants to help me and I always have to beg for help?

The better question is why are you always so useless?

Oh, shut the fuck up. 

"Miss, I have to ask you to leave." Security man appears. looking down at my tiny frame that looks ridiculous next to his. I open my mouth in shock, and glance at him, stretching my neck, then back at the nurse who is still looking unbothered by this whole situation. Like someone forced her to work here. Ugh, I hate those people who are always unbothered and not interested in anything, even if the world was ending they would be okay with it. But right now I hate everything and everyone. 

Right now I'm not acting like that scared Chloe who fears her father and the Chloe who had to suffer every single night whenever her father would come back home drunk and take off her pajama, touching her skin the way she despised. I'm not that Chloe was beaten to death and almost got killed by her own father. Now, I'm not the Chloe that shivers at every single movement of everybody, especially men, and flitches even when she hears some noise, scared that is doors creaking, knob opening, revealing that her dad is back, No, hell no. 

Now, I'm that bad bitch Chloe, who learned how to act like a badass, by her friend Maya, writing and studying whatever she used to say, as if it was some kind of lesson at school, of some assignment that is so important and my grade depends on it. Studying it every night, after I had to suffer from my father's gross hands that were so strong and harassed me in every way possible. Of course, those ways would always be painful. I'd studied to be a bad bitch every day little by little, putting the mask on my face, to cover my tears and my fears, replacing it with the fierce, wildness, and sometimes even boredom. I acted like I didn't care because that was what Maya would be doing half of the time. 

But, now I understand one thing. Maya doesn't have a mask. No, her face isn't covering her real one, because this one is her real one. She is a bad bitch. Stella, and I weren't. We were just holding a mask this whole time until destiny didn't decide to put us together so our lives could be a little bit easier. But just because of that stupid mask that was hiding my troubles, my real emotions, my real self, Stella couldn't recognize herself in me. She was sure that I was the same bitch Maya was, and that every other girl in our company was. But both her and I were wrong about each other, and thank God for the destiny that brought us together, thinking that we could feel stronger if we had one another by our sides.

So, now that batch bitch is back. She's fearless and she doesn't care the rules some sucker made up, because just like every good bitch knows rules are meant to be broken, anyway. And I'm breaking 'em for my sister. Because I won't let anything bad happen to her. And I'm being a bitch because of the fear that is laying on the bottom of my heart, now covered with courage. But, it's still present, and it's the one that woke up the bitch in me, who disappeared the moment I met the real Stella.

"Miss, please..." The big man dressed in the dark blue uniform takes me by my elbow, but I step back, jerking his hand.

"Do not touch me, idiot! Does no one here care about what could have happened to your patient?" I scan the bright white hall and a couple of faces seem to care about my outburst. 

Ugh! Sometimes I just want all of us to die, and then get bored again, so we can clean ourselves, because nowadays' society is so toxic and sick. Or, I just want to start a revolution. But, I know that, unfortunately, no one would follow me, so I prefer the first option of being reborn along with the whole planet, not only people, but mother nature, too, that we humans ruined, but what we haven't ruined, actually? Everything. We ruined everything that comes into our hands, it's how we are made. Maybe, I was a bad bitch, but I always cared about nature, especially about the garden I used to watch my mom taking care of, who learned me everything about plants, but last years of my life, I just stopped caring about it, being tired from everything, from... I know mom is probably mad at me, but that house is now sold anyway, or at least I hope it is. I don't know, I don't dare to go and check it. I don't have the courage, that I have to start outbursts here so someone wakes up, and decides to help me find my sister.

"Chloe, please let's just go, and...", Elen whispers and caresses my hair moving it aside.

"But, Elen we don't have any clue where she is!", I squeak, turning to her, my expression softening, and my eyes beginning to water.

"Yeah, sweetheart, but..."

"Where the fuck is she?", a deep voice growls, and I follow the direction of it, turning to it to see a man. He is pushing everyone aside, marching to us, and before I can see his face clearly, I remember the growl. I know it. It can be no one else, but him. Stella's foster father.

Elen immediately pulls me closer to her, and I glance at her, parting my lips, seeing her eyes focused on Scott and a frown on her forehead.

"Huh, where is she?" He hits the counter the way I did beforehand, only stronger, so again the papers are blown on the floor, But this time the nurse with the thin brown hair, that is in desperate need of a haircut lifts her gaze to him, and gasps.

"Sir, I don't know. We, we...called you....and... She just.."

Sir. She even called him sir, and she didn't albeit glance in my direction. What a bitch. And look at her stuttering like that.

"Stop fucking stuttering!" He hits the table one more time and the annoying nurse bounced back in her seat. "Show me the camera footage!", he demands. 

"Y-yes, sir." She gets up from the seat, and leaves and I turn my head to Elen, mouth-opened.

"She just said she needed a warrant and now when this, this..." I turn to Scott, pulling away from Elen's grip, hearing my name falling for her lips, warning me not to go to him. I lock eyes with him, and I swear I saw thunderbolts shining in them, so I shut up, shivering. Elen again wraps her hands around my shoulder.

The flashbacks of that night when he almost hit Myles before Jason came in and prevented him from doing that, from breaking me down since I was so close to start screaming, being reminded of my father, appear in my mind. How I shivered just like this, nuzzling my head in Elen's body like a coward when he asked me who was I. I barely answered him that I was Stella's friend. I didn't have the courage to tell him that I was her best friend, her sister. I was so afraid, such a coward. But, no, not now, now I'm a bitch Chloe and I'm going to push that fear because this is a revolution time, isn't it?

"Oh, who do I see here? Isn't that a little friend of Stella's?" He turns to look at me over his shoulder, resting his elbow on the counter, and his chin on his palm.

Oh, I hate that I'm a woman. If I were a mam then everything in my life would go smother and no one could hurt me. Because men can't be hurt, but they can hurt. And they usually hurt us, women. We are the weaker gender and I hate that we always have to stay quiet and obey to whatever they ask from us. We can never speak freely, we can't disobey because if we do... Then we'll be punished and have to learn the lesson the harder way that we have to be quiet, to shut up, and never share our opinions out loud. Because no one will acknowledge them anyway.

Just like this nurse didn't want to show me camera footage, but when this big bad wolf came she immediately ran to do this, because she knows better than to disobey him. But when the woman growls it's like the dog that barks but doesn't bite. We can just bark, but we can't bite. And when men bark it's the last action before they bite.

"Chloe, let's go home", Elen says, and I don't miss to notice her shivering while averting her gaze from Scott's strong one, though decorated with an amused grin.

She's scared, too. Every woman is scared of the man who barks because they know that they are going to bite. And a woman doesn't bite. Yeah, sure, but I'm here to prove you wrong.

I push the fear somewhere from where I can't hear its cries and begs me not to do this. Not to comfort a bad wolf because I'm just a naive sheep that's gonna end up eaten. But guess what? The naive sheep can and will turn into a bad wolf just how ugly duckling transformed into a beautiful swan.

"Yeah, I am", I say proudly, lifting my chin, while feeling Elen's shaky hands touching my bare shoulders, and whispering into my ear that we should do. No, no, not yet.

Actually, we are sisters, you dumb idiot, but you wouldn't understand that, now, would you? I keep it for myself.

"I thought I told you that she's not allowed to have friends, didn't I?"

I don't care for what you told me, I open my mouth to say this, because the part of my mind that approves my bitchy side, thinks that this is badass, but just when I get its approval, Scott beats me. Ugh, it's always them talking, we never get an opportunity to say anything now, do we?

"I assume you helped her run away, huh?"

"If I did that, I wouldn't I be here now, asking for the same thing you are. But I'm a weak girl, so no one is listening to me, but when you come everyone listens to you." I wave my hand through the air, feeling anger boiling in my veins, and making my body warm.

It's anger that I've been depositing all these years while I had to bow my head and live in a shadow. All these years when I had to obey the man who ruined my life, only because he was my father so that somehow gave him a right to hurt me. And me, as a good daughter who obeyed her father even though what he asked me to do wasn't normal, I still did it. But it was my father after all, so how could I say no?

We can never say no, we always have to nod and bow our heads. But, guess what? I'll lift it now, and I don't care if I get hurt. I was being hurt even while obeying, so what's the difference. It doesn't matter if I do get hurt. It matters that I'm standing up for myself for the time in my life, I'm done being a victim and I don't care if I'll get hurt, because either way, I'd be.

The only difference is that this time when I'm standing up it is going to hurt less because I finally decided to take my life in my hands not handing it over to another man to ruin it and break it, while I'm just obeying him, forced to watch my life being shattered in front of my eyes. Because I just didn't want to get hurt more, so I obeyed the best I could. So, fuck this! Hurt me again I don't care. I'll stop this violence and people who think that women are the weaker gender. I'll show them that we are not, but we are stronger than those bastards called men.

"Oh, are you angry because of it blondie?", he teases me, chucking and clicking his disgusting tongue that I want to cut off, so he can't call Myles a bastard anymore or Stella a bitch.

"Yeah, I am!" I approach him, even though Elen is pulling me by my shoulder to stay still. "And I'm angry because they called you when obviously you don't care about Stella!"

"Oh, but I'm her foster parent, of course, they called me. And how can you say that I don't care when the first thing I did when I got that call was coming here?" He blinks rapidly, acting innocent, and his smile with bright white teeth gets wider. Like they are his, the idiot must have replaced them when he gained some money from that dirty business of his.

"Just so you can beat her as soon as you find her!", I bark. "Does no one here remember how he attacked Myles that night when Stella arrived? Huh? No one?" I turn to the workers of the hospital, but they all avert their gazes the moment my eyes lay on theirs. They bow their heads, so sure that the girl will lose over this man.

Madwoman. They must be calling me a madwoman in their thoughts. It's how women are called when they want to change something. When women wanted to wear pants, suits when they needed to use tampons and napkins so they don't get infections, about which no one cared. And many centuries that were fighting, but in the end, they won. And we do have our own day that celebrates us, and the effort we put in every day. So, no, I won't lose this fight. Mark my words.

"Look, I don't know what are you talking about, girl. But, I'm suggesting you stop accusing me of something I haven't done."

"Haven't done?", I scoff, nervous and angry, squeezing my fists and digging my nails into my palm. "Haven't done? You are the same as my father!" I point my finger at him and he just cocks his big black messy eyebrow.

"Your father? See, blondy, I don't know who your father is nor what you are trying to prove here, but I'm asking you to stop whatever the hell you are doing and leave me to find the kid who is under my care." His expression is soften even, and I frown stronger, not letting him fool me like that. Merely two days ago he was on edge to punch Myles' face.

"You shouldn't have been given a chance to take care of children. Because you are a monster!" I approach him and before I can calm down my anger or at least let my mind think, I spit him right in the middle of his gross face imagining my father and doing what I always wanted to do but never had guts to, knowing how bad I'd be punished later.

He opens his mouth then closes it, shaking his head as his jaw dances. I know that he's angry, pissed off really, I learned that movement of my father. He would always do it when I would disobey him or refuse to please him. The fear I thought I buried shows up like it was never gone, and I gasp at the action I did. I step back, shivering, my eyes wide open, crossing my fingers, praying that I don't regret what I did. I curse my anger, myself, and that fucking idea of mine of revolution, trying to prove how girls aren't weak. What the hell have I been thinking?

Elen pulls me behind her back and steps in front of me, ready to get the punishment for my childish behavior and naive thoughts of how I could change this upside-down world. When in fact no one can. It is ruled by men and no girl, nor woman can stop them from being kings and we are their slaves, there are no queens, no queen Elizabeths here.

But, just after he wipes off his face, and my saliva, he starts laughing. His head is tilted backward as he's laughing stronger and stronger, reminding me of those villains in cartoons that I used to watch while mom would be making lunch.

"Oh, silly girl. Security, take her out before she harms me, I don't want to risk here and bring her anger issues on the surface and she surely has it", he says to the guardian, beckoning him, and immediately his hands are wrapped around my tiny body. I try to fidget, digging my long nails in his fists, but he doesn't let me go, and I catch Scott mouthing to me:

"You're dead when I see you."

"Look, look he's threatening to me!", I yell, pointing my finger at the monster who even though doesn't resemble physically my father, mentally is his brother. He just laughs, shakes his head, and turns to say to the people who came to the hospital to heal themselves, instead of getting a free show of a...

"Madwoman."

"You idiot!", I growl, fidgeting, and trying to free myself from the really tight grip of this security man. "Leave me!" I try to punch him with my legs that have been lifted off the floor.

"Let me go!" I try to loosen his grip, by using my hands and digging nails further in his strong arms, but he doesn't move them, and I remove my nails, seeing the red marks I left on his skin. Did they train them to be proof even to this type of pain?

I'm done with men tightening their grip around my body. Tightening it so much that I can't breathe. Tightening it until I choke.

The flashbacks of my father, holding my hands so I can't move them until he's finished, comes into my head, flashing so bright that I have to shut my eyes not to let it blind me, and changing like the traffic lights, just like those lights on the dance floor on that party where Stella almost lost her life, making me feel as if I suffer from epilepsy.

Finally, I feel my feet brushing the ground as the security man puts me down, pulling his hand on which I left marks, from my waist, and turning on his heel to leave, without any word.

I scream and groan when I let out a shriek, patting the pavement with my foot as a child who lost in the game again, even though she gave her best, decisive that she is going to win this time, but now seeing that she lost, it upsets her, makes her sad, and angry at the same time, because she is sure she played better than the last time. Instead, there wasn't last time. It was her first time, and she gave it all and lost. But, no one won for the first time. Even if they did, it's just the beginners lucky.

"Chloe..." Elen snaps me from my outburst and I open my eyes, confused about where I am.

I was in the dark room of my father who was moaning and putting himself in me. In the position where I was naked and his hand was over my mouth, preventing me from screaming. Now I wish I bit it and left him without it. Now I wish I outburst earlier and spit in his face the way I dared do so to Scott's face seconds ago, without realizing what the fuck I was doing, letting myself lose in that adrenaline that was guiding me. Now, it's gone, only leaving the bitterness of loss lingering.

Then I remember that they are about to show him the camera footage and turn on my heel to come back to the hospital from which I was just thrown.

"Where are you going?" I'm pulled back, and when I turn my head I see Elen's frowned face. Unlike the other night when Stella was first taken here, and I was scared that my foster mother was angry, now that doesn't even cross my mind that is occupied of possibilities where Stella could have gone.

"We have to go back! They are going to show him the camera footage!", I yell, raising my arms in the air as if they can explain to her how important this situation is. I thought she cared for Stella.

"No, we are not." Elen stands in front of me, blocking my way so I can't go back. I look up at her, stretching my neck to meet her brown eyes, widening mine. Sometimes I wish I was just a little bit taller. Just a little.

"What do you mean we are not?" I tilt my head to the side, crossing my arms. "We have to go if we want to find out where Stella is."

"Go in the car", she demands, pouting her lips and looking at me sternly, blinking rapidly, crossing her arms.

"But..."

"No, but!", she cuts me off. "Go!", she orders, pointing to the car that she parked close, and I pat the ground with my foot once again, before going to the car and getting in angrily, buckling the seatbelt, though this time sitting in the backseat, because I'm angry with Elen, so I don't want to sit next to her.

The whole life I've been demanded and not once have I disobeyed. I mean, yeah sometimes I would stay the night out with Maya, but I would have been punished either way staying in or out, it didn't matter, the punishment would be the same, and even if it would be worse, I'd clench my teeth and suffer through the pain, telling myself how I had a good time, and it was worth it those spanking I  was getting. So, no, I don't count those times that weren't that often.

And now the first time I disobeyed, they throw me out, not realizing that I wasn't the real culprit. The real culprit is sitting there, probably watching camera footage at the moment, finding out where Stella is and thinking of the ways he is going to hurt her, just how he treated me. I shiver, but shake my head, trying to stop my body from doing unwilling movements.

Slowly, they are going to apologize to me. All of them. But then I will be the one who is going to laugh at them, the way Scott laughed at me, calling me no different, but a madwoman. He tried to make me look crazy, justify himself and clean the sins he did, but that can't be done. Not even water and soap can wash his sins away. And I'm going to put him in the prison just where my father ended in. Because I'm done with abusive men doing violence over women. DONE.

Oh, I know, the ways those monsters function. My father was acting the same. Always laughing outside, being a soft man, caring for his daughter, hugging and kissing me whenever neighbors would pass, so none of them could guess how he was treating me when we were at home.

I remember once Stella asked me, why I didn't report him. Oh, poor Stella didn't know that I tried, but no one believed me, and I got so beaten, hurt so bad that I thought that I was going to die. So, never again in my life, I thought of repeating that mistake. I told her that they wouldn't believe me, keeping the information that I tried for some unknown reason. Guess, I was still scared myself, too, to share all the information of my fucked up life.

Though I quickly let go of that fear when it came to her, knowing that she could never hurt me, but she still hasn't let go of it. Just considering the fact that she didn't tell me anything about Michael and what happened between them, speaks for itself. But, I don't blame her. Right now I'm just terrified for her and for what Scott is preparing to do when he finds her. I need to find her before him.

    
                             ☆☆☆

"What the hell was that?", Elen asks, the second she pushes the door open, and storm into the house, marching through the hall and in the living room, leaving me to run after her.

"What was what?" I shrug, playing dumb. I perfectly know what she's talking about. About my outburst. About my silly attempt to make a revolution.

"Don't act like you don't know, Chloe. That thing you did in the hospital!" She points her index finger at me, slightly nervous, knitting her eyebrows together. Well not slightly, but really nervous.

"What I did?" I shrug again, crossing my arms, trying not to look in the eyes of the fire that is burning in my belly, spreading through my whole body. I sigh, trying to extinguish it. But it's impossible. Not even an extinguisher itself can do it.

"Do you still have the audacity to ask?", she scoffs, turning to me, and running her hands with nice jewelry and french manicure, through her thin brunette hair that comes a little above her shoulders. "Chloe, why do you act like this? You weren't like this..."

"Yeah, I wasn't like this when you took me is that what you want to say?", I snap, putting my hands aside of my body, squeezing my fists strongly, digging my nails into my palms, almost making them bleed, but currently I'm numb to any pain, if not I'm enjoying the discomfort I'm feeling right now, by harming my hands.

"No, Chloe..."

"Well, guess what? Turns out that I'm sick of being pushed because I'm a weak girl! I hate that men hurt us! Me!", I correct myself, remembering that Elen has a husband who loves her, being in a happy marriage with him. "I hate that they hurt me! I hate it!" I shake my head, trying to stop tears from forming in my eyes and blurring my vision.

"Chloe, I..."

"No, Elen! You weren't the one who has been raped almost every day of your life for past... more than... since I know for myself!", I spit, shaking and sobbing. "You weren't the one who had to feel your father between your legs every night and been beaten because you couldn't satisfy him the way he wanted. You weren't the one who had to turn your head to the other side, not to feel his stinky breath from alcohol, and try hard not to bite his tongue when he would kiss you.

You weren't the one who had to hide your bruises and sanity your wounds whenever they would start to bleed. You weren't the one who had to put the smile on her face or at least frown so nobody could see that you cried the whole night while trying to forget your father moaning while coming inside your mouth! You weren't the one... " I fall on my knees, my voice breaking, when tears overcome it, falling on the floor from my eyes.

"Chloe..." Elen kneels next to me, tugging my hair behind my ear gently.

"You weren't the one whose life was ruined by a man. I hate them!", I hiss. "I hate them!" I start sobbing. "I hate them!" I scream from the top of my lungs, closing my eyes. "I HATE THEM!"

"Shh, Chloe, shh, let it go, honey." She embraces me and I scream into her chest while sobbing at the same time.

"Shh, it's okay. Take that from yourself. I'm here." Her knees adjust on the floor, and she caresses my hair while comforting me.

I sob and sob until I have nothing more to sob. I pull away and she looks at me with watery eyes. Did she cry, too?

"I hate them, Elen. I... I couldn't explain to you what I felt when I saw that man. He... like... my father... and he..."

"Shh." She puts her finger on my mouth in order to silent me, but I take it gently in my hand.

"No, don't shush me, please", I beg. "I have to say it. You have to understand me. No-no one understands m-me."

"I do. I do understand you, Chloe. I'll do anything to make you forget those bad moments of your life. I'll do anything to fill your life with joy so you can forget about that man hurting you. I promise. I do, sweetheart." She pulls my head slightly toward her lips and kisses my forehead.

It reminds me of something. Of someone. Of my mom. Of the mom I once had. Though I lost her really young, and I completely forgot how this feels. Having an only father in your life, no matter if he's abusive or not, is not enough, you just need to have both parents in your life. It's not the same, it's not the full story, the full life if you don't have both mom and dad. No dad can replace mom, and listen to your girl's problems, not mom can replace dad and try to act with authority even though she is tough and stern. You need both of them. Not in the same house, maybe, they can be divorced, yeah, but they still have to exist in your life.

Mine left, and only dad stayed, and for a couple of years, I thought that he was enough. But I longed for mom, for her hugs, her kisses, I'd longed for so long, that I forgot how that feels like. And now, feeling Elen kissing me and comforting me, I finally remembered what I once craved for. What I actually have been craving for, though that vanished, sinking somewhere deep. But this is what I craved for. Motherhood. Elen is motherhood. Elen is a mother. My mother.

"Elen?" I call her, pulling away and searching for her brown eyes. "Do you... I'll understand if you don't want me to be anymore here if you want me to take another girl to be your daughter." I try to keep my voice steady on this part, remembering the story she told to Stella and me that night when everything started fine but finished terribly.

"I must have ruined your picture of me. I'm not perfect, Elen. I'm not that nice blonde girl you saw when you decided to take me. I'm broken. I'm broken, Elen. And, I understand if you don't want me anymore." I bow my head, feeling terrified that I ruined my last chance to be happy. Last chance to have a mother. Only because I had that silly idea of starting some fucking revolution that was impossible.

"Oh, Chloe." She cups my cheeks, wiping tears that have fallen on her thumbs. "I don't want you..."

"I knew it!", I squeal, sadly, bowing my head. "You don't want me, I should know..." I start getting up, but she pulls me and takes me back to the sitting position on the floor.

"No." She shakes her head and a couple of her brown strands fall on her face. "I wanted to say that I don't want you to go." I let out a sigh I didn't know I was holding. My chest feels less heavy now, and I inhale again, to make sure that I can breathe. She wants me.

"I don't want another daughter. There's no other daughter for me. You are the only one. And I don't care if you are broken. Everything that is broken. Can be fixed. Everything. You hear me, everything?" She cups my face stronger, though I don't feel any pain, blinking away tears so I can see her beautiful face clearer.

"Even broken people. And you are my daughter, Chloe. I don't want anyone else over you, understood?" I nod, and more tears fall, and I feel my chin trembling under Elen's finger that is holding it. Though happy tears.

"So... are y-y-you my m-mom?", I sniffle, feeling odd pronouncing that word. It's been so long since I last said it. More than ten years. And it feels odd since I'm not sure if my real mom is upset because I'm calling the other woman the name I should be calling her. But, I can't call her like that.

So, I can just hope that she is happy for me that I finally found someone who is going to take care of me, the way she used to take care of me, and the way she would continue to take care if she didn't die that day trying to take care of another girl, forgetting about me, and what would happen to me if I lose her.

And for a long time, I blamed her, blamed my mom, and then I stopped. Just how I stopped longing for her, stopped hating father, just stopped feeling. And that was even worse. The fact that I couldn't feel any pain while my dad would thrust in me, the way he would beat me, I couldn't feel it, and it was so different, so boring that I even found myself wishing to feel it again, just because I felt numb, not like myself. Not blaming, not hating, not loving, not caring.

"Yes, Chloe, I'm your mom if you want me to be", she smiles and tilts her head and a tear falls on her cheek. My thumb rushes to wipe it and I move hair that has fallen on her gorgeous face with a few barely visible freckles on her nose that melted with her skin tone.

"I want. I want."

I need. Again I need. After a long time, I need. I stopped needing things. But once I found out that Stella was dealing with the same problem, well, similar, it's like the feelings came back, the needs I didn't know I had, the need of having a best friend, a person to whom you could finally say all your troubles, the limbs you had to go through during that worst period of our lives... With her, it all came back. She started the process of my emotions coming back to place. The process of myself coming back to how it once was. Sensitive, and messy, but I missed it, oddly, I know, but I still didn't. Numb it's so weird, that you don't need it. Numb, feeling numb is in fact worse than being in pain, even the worst physical pain.

"Then I am!" She hugs me and happy tears continue to stain her chest.

"Can I join?", some male voice asks and I lift my head, startled. I meet with Jason's tall figure dressed in a grey suit with a white tie and white vest and shirt being seen under his jacket.

I tilt my head wanting to tell him, yes, but I still don't feel comfortable with being touched by a man. Even if that man is Elen's husband, which automatically means that he's safe, not wanting to hurt me.

"I... Yeah", I lie, stuttering.

"Jason, Chloe needs to rest now. Maybe another time", my mom smiles at him, and shrugs, still stroking my hair. I nuzzle further in her. Jason just nods and smiles at me kindly, too, and goes to his room without any word.

My mom. How weird it feels to be able to say this again. It feels as if I can breathe freely again. My mom. I have to get used to saying this word more often.

"Thank you", I whisper, but she doesn't hear me, as she gets up, making sure that her clothes aren't wrinkled. I get up, too, straightening my pink skirt.

"Actually, can I go somewhere?" I tilt my head. "It's... It's a house of Stella's friend. She might be there. I... I just need to find her Elen... mom", I correct myself quickly. "She..."

"Of course, you can Chloe... daughter", she corrects herself as well, chuckling. I start laughing and she joins me. "But make sure not to spit men in faces", she warns.

"I'll try to", I chuckle, biting my lip, wiping my tears, and running from the house. Running somewhere where I pray Stella is. And there is only one place where she can be. Next to him.

A/N
Would you want to see more of her past life, that of course would include more pain, more her father, but her mother, too. It would be so dark, but yes or no?

And love, too maybe you even know who is gonna be her love