AMYBELLA WAS UNABLE TO SAY
anything. She wasn't even able to think of anything.
After a year, her mother married a complete stranger, as if she had forgotten her deceased love.
Hence the move to Canada.
He had given her the big house and enabled her  all the expense of the trip.

"Then you must be Amybella! I'm Marcus, a friend of your fathers!." He stood up, approached the blonde girl and shook her hand. But Amybella only gave him a stare in return.

"I can understand if that's a bit too much for you right now, of course, but I can assure you I'll take good care of you both." He explained.
Bella looked at her mother.

So she needed him for his money.
She needed him for them to survive.
Bella had come to understand, that they couldn't live forever on the money their father had left them.
However, the fact that her mother would bring a new man into the house after a year without her knowing about it was not at all to her liking.

•

School without Anne was truly boring. Amybella was walking home afterwards as usual, when she was suddenly grabbed by her arms. The girl was about to scream when Gilbert's voice rang out.

"Shhh, it's just me," the boy said and she punched him indignantly on the upper arm.

"How dare you scare me like that?!" She scolded him and received a giggle.

"Come with me," he said and started to pull her with him.

"I have to go home." Amybella disagreed but Gilbert continued to drag her along.

"Gilbert! Don't do that." She complained. He laughed heartily while Amybella stumbled after him.

"I'm expected home!" she protested as Gilbert's house came into view. They ran towards it and climbed up the terrace.

"You could have just asked me and not dragged me here." Amybella grumbled again.

"Would you have said yes?" Gilbert asked and Bella couldn't give him an answer.

"Come on, my dad wanted to see you again, you left so quickly last time." He said as they stepped in. They walked through the hallway and to the right on a door. Gilbert knocked before opening the door.

"Hello Mr. Blythe." Bella greeted the old man who laid in bed.

"Ah Amybella." The man smiled and Bella stepped on further.

"How are you?" she asked nervously, after all, she hardly knew the man.

"Hrm.. fine." he smiled warmly. Amybella nodded and there was a hint of sadness in her gaze as she thought of the fact that Gilbert would soon be alone.

"Gilbert should make you some tea." He nodded towards the boy and Gilbert left the room. Soon after that Bella heard sounds coming from the kitchen.
She looked around the small room a little and discovered small carved wooden figures. She stared at them and immediately thought of her father.

When she was little, he had always sat with her at a small, cozy lake behind the house and carved.
He had said that knives were not for little girls when she had watched him carve.

After all, little girls were only supposed to use a knife in the kitchen, but he had never said that. He never made her feel less worthy just because she was his daughter and not his son. If she had sat with him by that lake long enough, he would have put the knife in her hand at some point. But it never came to that.

Her father was different than her mother.
Her mother would have loved a boy for a son.
He would be her source of money and not some man, she just met.

"Do you like them?" Mr. Blythe interrupted her thoughts. She looked back at him and he nodded to the figures.

"They are very beautiful." Amybella replied and looked at them once more.

"My father and I used to carve all the time too, it reminded me of him." She then smiled.

"Why don't you anymore?" Mr. Blythe asked and Amybella's smile faded a little.

"Oh he passed away last year." she smiled sadly. She refused to meet his eyes and looked down at her shoes.

"Oh, I'm sorry, child." he said sympathetically and she nodded. Her lips formed a thin line, then she looked towards the door as sounds came from the kitchen.

"Amybella can you come here please?" Mr. Blythe spoke and pointed to a chair next to him. Amybella got a strange feeling in her stomach. She sat down on the chair and his wrinkled hand took hers.

"Will you look after Gilbert, when I leave? He's a good boy, I don't want him to go down the wrong path because of my loss." he looked deep into her eyes.

"How could I look after him?" She asked and her father smiled.

"Make sure he doesn't let himself down. He cares about you and he'll listen to you."

Amybella wondered why the old man was asking her. After all, she hardly knew his son. Didn't Gilbert have so many friends who cared about him?

"I promise." she then answered and smiled and he smiled back.

"I'm glad my son has met someone. You know, he talks a lot about you." His voice was almost a whisper, but his eyes shone as he spoke of his son. Bella looked at him in shock.

"Oh really?" She felt her cheeks heat up.

"Bella, your tea." Gilbert came back and pressed a steaming cup into her hand. He gave the other cup to his father. Mr. Blythe began to cough and took a handkerchief out of his pocket.

"Dad what's wrong?" Gilbert stood up hastily. Mr. Blythe waved his hand away.
For the first time, Bella saw fear in Gilbert's eyes.

"Is there anything I can do?" She asked worriedly. The man just shook his head.

"Everything's fine it's just-.." he coughed again.

"The winter is coming. Better if I rest now." He said, smiling at Gilbert. Bella got up from her chair and left the room. Gilbert followed soon after and closed the door behind him.

They sat down on the sofa in the living room.
Amybella didn't know what to say to the boy. She could feel how worried he was about his father and how it also drained him, that he couldn't do anything about the situation.

"How are you?" Gilbert then asked, looking at the girl. She bit her lip.

"I should ask you that." She said and the boy shrugged.
He stared at the ground in front of him.

"I just don't want him to pass away, all alone." He said, shaking his head. His brows were drawn together and his jaw was tensed. He obviously didn't want to talk about it.
Bella nodded, staring at her hands.

The boy then turned his head to looked at her. How she still held her cup of tea in thought. How her blonde curls fell into her face. He nudged her slightly.

"What about you?" He asked. Bella locked her eyes with his and turned her head.

"It's complicated." She said, which caused Gilbert to frown,

"What is it?" He asked and Bella debated whether she should tell him.
She wasn't very fond of him a few days ago when he had pulled Anne's hair. She had a huge dislike for him until now. Now she realized the way he hid his pain with jokes and snickers.
The way he immediately changed the topic when it came to his feelings.
But he cared. That was something she had to admit.
He truly cared about others.
And it made her question her point in not trusting him.

"My mother is marrying another man," she whispered and didn't even know if he had heard.

"Oh." Gilbert said quietly. He didn't quite know what to say to that.

"That was the only reason we moved here. Because he has his house here, because he has his finances here, because he's here."
She noticed the first salty tears running down her cheek and immediately felt humiliated to have shown him her feelings.

"I should go," she said and stood up hastily.

"Amy-.." Gilbert wanted to say something but didn't know what. Bella grabbed her coat and ran out.
The black haired boy ran after her, but stopped at the front door.
He watched her getting smaller in the distance.
Amybella ran until she arrived in the woods, there she leaned against a tree and took a deep breath.

No one was supposed to ever see her tears and yet, Gilbert had seen them.

•

"What took you so long?" asked Marissa as Amybella came through the door.

"Gilbert invited me over after school." She said, and Marcus came out of the kitchen.

"Gilbert. A boy?" He asked.

"Yes." Amybella nodded.

"You're letting your daughter meet a boy? Do you know what rumors are coming?" He turned to her mother.

"His father wanted to see me, he's terminally ill in bed." Bella's voice got louder, than she intended.

"Watch your tongue. Marcus is right," Marissa hissed.

"People talk a lot especially a small town like Avonlea." Her mother had taken a step towards Bella. The girl shook her head, confused and angry.
She didn't recognize her mother. She didn't recognize the woman who had raised her. Who had once smiled.

The blonde girl ran up the stairs to her room. She opened the door and let herself fall into her bed. She soon heard steps coming towards her room.
The door opened and her mother stepped in.
She closed the door behind her.

"I know this is not easy Amybella, but I did not raise you to be so incredibly rude to others, especially the man who you owe your new dress, your room, your horse and this house to. He is the man of this house and to be your stepfather so I expect you to respect him as that." her mother said and Bella.

"He will not replace my father and I think it's horrible if you to marry another man after just a year. How long has this already been going on?" Amybella said, her anger rising.

"Marcus reached out to me, a few months after your father died. We know each other from different times, he is an old friend of your father." Her mother said and her voice was cold and absent.

"I don't care who he is or what he has to do with my father. He won't be part of my family and I will not treat him as such." Bella said and buried her head in her pillow. She heard the door close after a long, heavy moment of silence. Her body relaxed and she sighed into the pillow. Slowly she felt the soft texture getting wet from the tears as she allowed herself to cry.

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