Chapter 2

“Jessie!” My mom yells out my name as soon as she sees me. She rushes towards me and engulfs me in a hug, the impact almost causes me to fall on the ground. Then she keeps kissing me and tears start to swim in her eyes. My nose is filled with her perfume and all of a sudden, I feel truly relaxed. If there is anyone left in the world who I can trust, that person is my mother. She would never betray me or give up on me. Smile appears on my face, and this is the first time I smile in the past couple of days. I feel so comfortable in her arms.

“Jessie! You’ve grown a lot! I missed you so much!!”

“Well, mom, I think we just met two weeks ago.” I chuckle and continue to say, “I missed you too, mom.”

I hear my father clears his throat. Is he trying to say something now? What does he want this time? I turn around and stare at my father, but he just smiles at me. When he feels my gazes, he turns to smile at my mother.

“Angela, you look gorgeous as always.” He greets my mom. Well, I have to admit that my dad is telling the truth this time. My mother is forty five now and yet, she still looks like a maiden in her twenties. Her long straight hair is pulled into a pony tail. She wears a black dress and it fits her body perfectly. Her high cheekbones compliments her brown eyes and her red lipstick helps her look professional. I closely resembles my mother, except that my hair is slightly curled at the bottom and my eyes are bluish green, I inherited that from my father. I wouldn’t deny that I am a good looking girl. Actually, Most of my family members were models when they are young.

“Thank you, Hughes.” Mom replies and then turns to me, “Jessie, I have a meeting in an hour. I hate to leave you since you’ve just arrived, but I’m afraid I’ll have to.” She says apologetically. “I’m so sorry for this, Jessie. I thought I wasn’t going to be this busy today, but… I hope you understand.”

I turn to look at the mansion that my mom calls “home”. It’s beautiful, and it’s huge. It is two stories high, and inside, there are ten bedrooms, nine bathrooms, one large kitchen, two dining rooms, two living areas, two work shops, one attic and one basement. Oh yes, finally, there is a huge meeting room which can allocate more than twenty people at the same time.

I shake my head smile at mom. “Don’t worry mom, I understand. This is your house, after all.” Mom smiles back at me.

I see Cara coming out of the house, she is one of my mother’s maid. I quickly run towards her. A huge smile appears on her face as soon as she sees me. Then she embraces me in her arms tightly. She is more like an aunt for me. She has short curly gay hair and she is short but strong.

“Aunt Cara, how are you doing?”

“I’m good, Jessie! Don’t you worry about me, my love. How are you doing?” She replies as she smiles at me. “Oh, by the way. I made your favourite apple pie, remember to have some later!”

“I’m alright. Wait, what did you just say? Apple pie! I can’t wait to eat that!” My mouth is already watering once I hear her words. She chuckles at me.

“Cara,” Dad says to Cara, “it’s nice to see you again.” I wonder when he could stop interrupting my conversation. Then dad turns to look at me and says in a serious tone, “Jessie, can we talk for a minute?”

“No.” I reply without even giving a thought, “There’s nothing we can talk about.” Then I turn to my mom. “Mom, I’ll see you inside.” I see a nervous expression comes to her face. She starts to twiddle her thumbs and bite her lip. She often does this when she is under pressure or when she is deep in thought. Anyway, I walk towards the main entrance of the house and Cara follows behind me.

“Jessica Turner.” I suddenly froze in place when I hear my father calls out my full name. My tense starts to build up, Cara notices this and steps away from me. She knows that when I am tense, I’m likely to go crazy. And believe me, it is not a good idea to stand close to me when I’m crazy.

“Jessica, I expected you to understand. You are not a kid anymore.” Dad sounds angry in his tone. He is apparently getting impatient with me, which pisses me off some more.

“I do understand, Hughes.” I turn around to look at him and start to reply, “I do understand that you love your new partner more than me.” I spit out and walk into the house without looking back ever again. I think I’m on the verge of crying again. How much tears could a girl hold? I’m merely an ordinary seventeen-year-old girl and I shouldn’t even be worrying about these things. I can’t handle this crap anymore. I wish I have a normal life, a normal family, and a normal relationship with my boyfriend. My parents are still married, my dad cares about me more than anything in this world, and my boyfriend loves me unconditionally. But, I have none of these. My life is far away from normal, because I’m Jessica Turner.

About half an hour later, dad finally decides to return to his home. He tried to say goodbye to me before leaving, but I simply ignored him. Mom goes to prepare for her meeting, and I am enjoying Cara’s apple pie. I wish my brother is here as well. If he is here, he would have been comforting me, he would have told dad to go away and leave me alone, he would have protected me, he would have done everything that could keep me smiling.

My brother Andrew is two years older than me. He is now at the university all the way in London. I miss him so much. He is trying hard to get a degree as an engineer. Dad wanted him to become a surgeon, but Andrew didn’t listen to him, and that’s how I learned to stand up against my dad and to chase after my own dream. His voice pops into my mind. “Keep your head up high and smile. Stand up tall, remain strong.” Then he would turn to look at me and say in a soft and tender tone, “Always remember, you are strong, because I am your brother.”

It’s getting dark already and I can see the stars begin to appear in the sky. I’m resting in my huge bedroom and looking out the window to the backyard. The only thing I don’t like about this place is the forest feet away from the mansion. It looks strange and scary. The trees are surrounded by mysterious fog and I shiver at the thought of going into the forest, because I’m not sure what would happen if I do.

As I’m thinking about that, I saw something black zipping through the trees. What was that? I can’t help but start to panic. Was it a dog? But it was certainly larger than an ordinary dog. Was it a bear? But I don’t think it is possible to move that fast for a bear. My heart starts to going in overdrive as the tension starts to increase inside me. I shake my head with my eyes closed and look back at that forest. Thank goddess, there is nothing this time. It just looks creepy as usual. Maybe I’m just tired and I have some hallucination.

I hear someone knocks on my door. I clear my previous thoughts and get up from my bed.

“Come in.” I say. The door is opened slowly and mom’s head pops inside. She looks concerned and worried.

“Dear, are you alright?”

“Yeah, I’m fine, just a bit mad at dad.” I sigh.

“Of course, you should be. I still can’t believe that he married that little…” She suddenly stops before the “s-word” comes out from her mouth. “I can’t believe he chose his new partner over his own daughter!”

I decide to remain silence as my mom rants about the reasons she divorced my father. “He is a selfish person. He wants everything to go in his way. And he never learns from his past mistakes.” Mom keeps going on and on until I stand up from my bed and start to unpack my stuff. She stops ranting and comes to offer me some help. I truly appreciate it, since I don’t want to talk about my father anymore.

When we are half way done, my right should starts to ache. I wince and start to rub it, but it doesn’t help at all. Mom notices my actions and she looks at me worryingly.

“What’s wrong, darling?” She asks.

“Well, nothing, really. It’s been happening for a week.” I continue to rub my right shoulder. I close my eyes and count to ten, hope I can calm myself down in this way. “It’s probably just because I’m tired today.”

“I think you should…” Mom suddenly stops as she wants to say something. She looks scared for a moment. She bites her lip again and she looks off into space.

“Hey, mom?” I have no idea as to what she is up to. I try to jolt her out of whatever she is thinking. “Are you alright, mom?”

“Yeah… I mean, I think you should have some rest. You must have been stressed these days. You’ve been through a lot.” She says in a nervous tone and tries to cover up for her previous behaviour.

“Jessie, you do realise I’m sorry? You don’t deserve any of this.”

“No, mom, it’s not your fault. Don’t worry about me anymore, because I’m with you now, and I couldn’t wish for anything else.” I hug her as she starts to cry.

“Jessie, I know I’m a horrible parent. I wasn’t by your side to support you when you needed me.” She says upset. She thinks this is her fault, which makes me feel painful in my chest. But soon, she wipes her tears away and says, “Let me at least make it up to you, darling. How about a spa on Saturday?”

“Mom, it’s not your fault, you know. But still, how could I reject a spa offer from you?” I smile at her and embrace her in my arms again. I miss these moment with my mom. The moments where I’m by her side, either shopping, relaxing or just talking. I always feel happy and comfortable with my mom.

“Good. That will ease the aching in your right shoulder a bit.” She winks, “And… you smell terrible. You really should take a good bath.”

“Thank you mom! I love you so much!” I say dramatically, “But anyway, what did dad say to you before he left?”

“He didn’t say anything, actually.” She rolls her eyes, “It was I who was talking all the time. I asked him to leave you some space. I also said some harsh things, but I don’t think you need to get to know about that.” Her voice sounds surely proud. She loves the moments where she protects her children so that no one could mess with her kids. Then she continues to ask, “So, how’s you and Phillips?”

My world crushes upon me as soon as I hear that name. I can’t hold back my tears any longer. My heart starts to ache some more. My mom looks at me while my hands are held by hers. There’s curiosity in her eyes. She probably thinks that I miss him so much. I decide to tell her the truth.

“We broke up, because he cheated on me.” I say as tears start to stream down my face. She is speechless when she hear my words. She gasps and embraces me in her arms. I continue to say, “With Jolene…”

“What?!” She exclaims angrily. Her face looks furious and it feels like she is going to kills some one to revenge for me. “I swear, darling. If I ever see those two bastards, I’ll -”

“Calm down, mom, just forget about it.” I try to comfort her, “They now mean nothing to me. I don’t want to think about them anymore, because I am here, and I want to start a fresh new life.” I say as I put a fake smile on my face. “I’ll take a shower since you just said I smell terrible.” She laughs. I love it when mom laughs, because I’m happy when I know she’s happy.

“Do you have some Epsom Salt? My shoulder hurts a lot.” I ask as I start to rub my shoulder again.

“Yeah, you can find it in your bathroom drawer.”

“Thank you, mom.” I walk towards my bathroom. “Good night, mom. I love you. Thanks for everything you offer me.” Even without looking at her, I know mom must be smiling now. I can feel the happiness radiating off of her.

“No worries, darling. Have a good night.” She replies softly, “Oh, by the way. Your school starts in two days.”

Awesome, I love my school life –

No, not really.