The Misfortunes Of Carrie

Chapter Twenty Nine| The Misfortune In Fights and Faults

Chapter Twenty Nine| The Misfortune In Fights and Faults

"How is he?" I ask Alec, stepping into the hospital room on the third day since Mark got hurt.

"He's good. The doctor says that his wound is getting better and healing, but since there's such a high risk of infection, they're going to keep him another week and then giving him immune-boosters before vaccinations," Alec reiterates what the doctor told him and his family. Mark slept peacefully (and under the influence of morphine) while we waited and sat by his bed.

The silence was awkward.

Alec and I were, you could say, still in the middle of our argument. We silently agreed to "pause" it until this was all sorted out and Mark was better but still... we were undeniably awkward.

I was hurt by his words, however true they were. I didn't need them rubbed in my face.

"You don't even have a family."

The same words haunted my mind over and over but... they were true.

I didn't have family I could count on. Aunt Beth was busy with her new husband, daughter and city. I had a niece, a beautiful little niece who I worshipped. She would have to be enough. She was enough. She could be my family.

The truth of the words stung, what burned was where it had come from.

I had expected a comment like that from snarky Rose, maybe even Val when she's mad. I had never thought it would be Alec who dumped cold water on my head as realization faced me.

I was completely and utterly alone.

More than that, my niece depended on me.

I was alone, with my only family depending on me.

Financially, I was fine. I had a lawyer and an accountant I could trust. But actual support, emotional human support from family. Fuck, I knew nothing about that bullshit.

I opened the random book I had grabbed off the shelf of books in my apartment before I realized which one it was.

I opened the worn copy to a random page and something fell out. I bent down to pick it up.

It was a pressed flower.

It was my mother's pressed flower.

How?

Jane Eyre. I looked at the front cover.

Huh, my mum's favorite book, with her favorite flower pressed into it.

"M-mum, h-how long be-before we can take, take the flower out?" I asked my mum as she picked out her favorite book from the stack she had me collect.

"How about this, when the baby is born... we will take it out and give it to the baby?" she suggests and I nod.

"Kay." I agree reluctantly and look at the cover of the book. "M-mum, t-this book is c-called Jane 'Erie.' W-who is sh-she?"

"It's pronounced Jane 'Air.' And she was a very strong woman. See, Jane had the worst luck ever. She had a horrible aunt and she went to a school where people wanted power over principle but she was strong and eventually she found happiness," Mum explained to me, smiling down at the book in which she pressed the flower into.

"I-is she y-your favorite, mum?"

"Yes, this is my favorite copy because your dad got it for me. He found it back when we were in high school at an antique fair. It's a really old copy, falling apart but I can't throw it out. He said that day he gave me this book, 'All my heart is yours, Isa, and with you it would remain were fate to exile the rest of me from your presence forever.'"