Heiress in Distress

•Chapter 39: Part 1•

Word count: 2,300

How easily someone could mistake a person for another isn't lost on me. However, how often someone mistakes their own -deceased- mother for another person is beyond me.

My parents died a year ago and my mother could not possibly appear in my way like that. Despite the vividness of the image, I'm beginning to suspect that it's nothing more than a fragment of my imagination.

When the darkness and my exhaustion are added to the equation, an image of my deceased mother would conveniently appear.

"How was your test?" Armin meets me at the hallway after the test, walking by my side.

I shrug once, "It was alright,"

Today is the last day of exams, hence concluding a year full of not only emotional but also academic turmoil. Now it's time to sit back and enjoy the holidays. Except it's not.

Armin and I agreed to hunt down Damien McCoy, the second man in my father's list, after exams.

That evening, I plan to take Élise with me to the Bastians to spend some time with Frau Marlene as Armin and I follow leads, so I knock on Clara's room to tell her we won't be back until tomorrow, but I'm surprised to see suitcases and boxes in her room. I frown.

I walk into the room, slowly, "Clara?"

She's not here, but I notice her wardrobe is empty. The whole room is empty. It's as if she's leaving with no plans of coming back. I hear shuffling by her bedroom's door and I look up.

"What's this about?"

She's only halfway into the room, as she looks at her luggage on the floor, "I'm leaving-"

"-why?"

She lifts a shoulder, "You're done with school, and we agreed I'll be looking after Élise for the time you're either working or busy with school. But now you're graduating and-"

"-but that was a year ago. When I only needed a babysitter. Now I need a sister," she winces when I say 'sister' and it makes me wonder if I'm imposing so much on her.

I walk slowly towards her, "I thought we were sisters, Clara, are we not?"

Her eyes glisten slightly and she swallows, "Of course we are, it's just..."

I immediately grip her hands in mine, "Then what? Why would you leave us?"

She bites her lip, shaking her head, "My online courses are almost over and I have to go back to my family,"

The thought of Clara leaving makes my heart clench, but I have to remember that she has a family. Even if she's the only family Elise and I have. I'm looking at our hands between us but the image begins to blur.

"Come here," she says softly as she pulls me into her. I can't help it, I cry into her shoulder.

"I'm sorry, I should have brought this up earlier, but I knew counting down the days would be painful," she sniffles, her voice coarse, "And I didn't want to distract you from your exams," I squeeze her tighter.

I knew this would be inevitable, but I haven't prepared myself or Elise for a life without Clara. Then again, I can't be this selfish to deny her the right to return to her family. I have to remind myself that. She has a family.

We stay like that for a while before I pull back, looking at her, "Can you at least stay until my graduation?"

She seems to be contemplating, but then she concedes, "Alright. But I'll be preparing the theme for your graduation party,"