Since Eighteen

Prolouge

The hospital room was eerily silent, as were the tears rolling down her daughter's cheeks. Emilia gazed into her eyes, proud of her beautiful creation. Her chin trembled as her daughter's tiny fists clutched at her gown, rocking back and forth, back and forth as she slowly wept, "Mama, please don't leave me."
    Emilia couldn't say anything. She couldn't speak false words to her six-year old daughter, and her last words most definitely could never express the profound fear building up inside her.
     "I just want you to know, sweetheart," her voice croaked, "I love you very much." The look in her daughter's eyes told her she wanted to believe she'd stay, she truly, really did. But she couldn't, and Emilia didn't blame her for that.
          "If you really loved me, Mama, then why are you leaving me? If God loved you," she whispered, "Why is He letting this happen to you?"
Emilia smiled. She knew she had raised this one right. "I'm not leaving you. I never would." She laughed softly, stroking her daughter's beautiful, fiery red hair. "If anything, it..." She held back the tempting tears as she croaked, "it gives you a chance to appreciate, Ann. If there's anything I want you to do for me, it's to appreciate the world around you, appreciate the people around you, and most of all, please, never deprecate your self worth. I'll always be right here." She pointed directly to Anna's heart.
The once dark, eerie room, filled with despair and uncertainty soon was filled with hope and love which shined so radiantly through the spirits of Anna.
"Mama," smiled Anna as the sun kissed her pale, freckled skin, "Please never fall in love with a person like Daddy ever again."
"When you grow up, I want you to find someone who loves you as much as I do. And that's the hardest task I will ever, ever, give you because I love you more than anything." Emilia's sobs ripped through like there was a rawness to it, an open wound.
"I'll try, Mama, I... I will!" Anna's eyes widened in fear.
"No, Mama!" The heart monitor's waves beeped ever so slowly, and little Anna grabbed her mother by the shoulders, viciously shaking her. Emilia's eyes leisurely sealed shut. The tears came streaming endlessly, and Anna sobbed into her mother's chest.
The doctor rushed into the room, who attempted to pry off the little girl.
"You did this to her! It's all your fault!" she choked. "You were too late. You came too late... and now... she's--" Anna chest heaved up and down, up and down to the point where she could barely breath.
"C'mon, Anna," said the doctor impatiently. He had finally gotten a hold on her relentless squirming. He pulled on her, Anna's feet dangling from the bed.
Her pudgy, little fists caught onto something as her body began to slide down. A ring. A ring on her mother's finger. Without thinking, she yanked it off right as her body collided with the floor. Giving it a nice, hard indignant look, she angrily stuffed it into her pant's pocket. Anna wondered why her mother still had her wedding ring on.
But Mama hated Daddy, she thought. Little did she know, her mother's intentions were way far from little Anna's understanding.
Along with other auxiliary doctors rushing into the room in order to help the struggle, several hands were surrounding her, attempting to free the powerful grip of the little girl, until she was woefully carried out of her mother's hospital room. Anna could hold the heartbreak no longer. More and more tears escaped her eyes followed by her fists meeting with her carrier's back. The door closed shut, leaving a glimpse through the window of her mother resting peacefully on the hospital bed. It was the last time Anna had ever see her.