“My baby…”
Choking back on my cries, I tried to reach for her. “I’m s-s-sorry… Please, I’m sorry. Please. PLEASE!”
She faded away.
My body seized and everything went black.
My body startled awake and I stared at the ceiling, sucking in desperate breaths. My chest hurt and my face was wet with tears. My lips trembled with the effort to hold back my cries but I couldn’t, so I started choking on my heavy sobs.
The absolute terror of my nightmare paralyzed me and all I could do was stare at the ceiling. I thought I was moving on, finally putting Gracelynn’s death behind me. But the memories still haunted me.
I knew I shouldn’t have read those comments online. They were my trigger and now I was trapped in a never-ending cycle of nightmares once again. How unfair was life…
That I thought I had finally found my happily ever after.
Only for my past to come back to haunt me; surrounding me like evil cloak.
“I didn’t kill her,” I whispered, as if to remind myself. “It wasn’t my fault. The accident wasn’t my fault.”
My face and neck felt like they had been scratched raw. My scars itched badly and I had to fight the urge to dig my fingers into my face; to claw at my burned flesh.
No matter what those comments said online, no matter how much they tried to paint me as the villain – I wasn’t evil. I didn’t kill my sister.
I brushed away my tears, taking in shuddering breaths as I tried to calm my racing heart. Once I wasn’t shaking anymore, I forced myself out of bed. It was only supposed to be a nap…
How did my nap turn into such a horrid nightmare?
My phone rang, snapping me out of my thoughts. A quick peek at the caller ID told me that it was Mirai and I answered the call. “Hey.”
“Tell me how much you miss me,” she said in her usual cheery voice. Mirai was almost twenty years old now, but she was still the same old Mirai I met six years ago. I didn’t know if she had a sixth sense, but she almost always called when I needed some cheering up.
“Tell me how much you miss me.”
“A whole lot. I can’t wait to see Cameron again. I miss his sweet, chubby face. I should be back before the triplets are here!”
I hoped she would. I was going to need all the moral support with three newborns. “How’s Europe?” I asked eagerly.
“It’s so beautiful!” she practically squealed in my ears. “And everything I dreamed of. While I was in France, I was honestly contemplating finding myself a nice Parisian man and settling there. But after two months traveling around Europe, I realized that I miss home. Oh, how did that fundraiser event go yesterday? Better than the last one I hope?”
“It was fine,” I simply responded. I wasn’t fine.
Actually, it was an absolutely disaster. I was given dirty looks all night look. Some people were very much supportive of me and the cause – our mission was to raise awareness about victims and survivors of sex trafficking.
While others showed clear distaste for me on their faces.
I heard the horrible whispers…
“Her father was the biggest human trafficker of the country. What is she hoping to achieve with this event? Another sob story of hers?”
“She’s trying too hard that she seems fake.”
“I get shady vibes from her.”
“Her poor sister, though.”
“Was it really an accident?”
The whispers were not any different from the offensive comments I saw online this morning. Vile and sickening. Evil and revolting.
“It’s disgusting how she married her dead sister’s fiancé.”
“She should probably go back to wearing that veil. Her scars literally gave my toddler a nightmare.”
“Why can’t she just do plastic surgery?”
“Probably using her scars for sympathy.”
“No offense to anyone, but it’s kinda ew.”
“I bet they fuck in the dark so he doesn’t have to look at the she-version of Freddy Krueger.”
“How does he kiss her when she looks like THAT?”
Mirai sighed. “It doesn’t sound fine. I saw some of the posts on Facebook. Twitter is an absolute nightmare. These people are just cruel.”
My throat closed and when I swallowed, I almost choked on my saliva. “Um, yeah. Look I have to–”
My phone vibrated with another incoming call and I pulled it away from my ear. Killian was calling. “Hey, Mirai. I’ll call you back later. Killian is calling.”
“Okay, see you!” I hang up her call and answered Killian’s.
“Hey, did you have a good nap?” he greeted me tiredly. His warm, rich voice send a shiver down my body. A good shiver. The kind that made me feel fuzzy.
“Not really,” I answered truthfully, because I had vowed not to lie anymore. No more secrets. “What are you doing?”
“Preparing for next week’s debate. Working on some notes.” There was some rustling in the background before he continued. “Which is why I’m calling. I forgot one of my files at home. Samuel is coming to pick it up, I just wanted to let you know in advance.”