Letters to Isabella

twenty.

"I - I hear you." Mom nervously agreed.

I smiled and threw my hair over my shoulder. "Good. I'm glad you said that."

Mom raised her eyebrow slowly. "Why?"

I kept quiet, awkwardly shifting my trainers back and forth on her squeaky wooden flooring. "Rydel why?"

"Because..." I began, drawing a deep breath. I laid my hands out on my lap and shrugged. "I've set you up on a dating site."

Mom gasped in what I could only assume to be annoyance. "Rydel Mary Lynch you did not -"

"Please don't be mad!" I pleaded. I suddenly felt extremely guilty for making a choice that perhaps wasn't entirely my own. "I just want the best for you. I'm trying to help -"

"I'm too old for those sites, Rydel!" Mom sighed. She was stood up now, pacing back and forth in front of me and causing quite a bit of draft. "Who the hell would want me now, huh? I'm a mother to five children, I have four grandchildren and I'm probably about to go through a divorce! I've got absolutely nothing going for me."

"Mom." I bluntly stated, shaking my head in disappointment. How was I supposed to love myself if my own mother couldn't? She was beautiful, smart, funny — the list could go on for decades. It disappointed me to hear her express such negative emotions and feelings about herself. "You're really allowing one man to shatter every last piece of confidence inside of you right now, aren't you? This isn't what we stand for, you know this. You've always taught me to be independent and love myself no matter what... so why aren't you taking your own advice?"

"Because... honey," Mom sighed. I could see tears forming in her light brown eyes. The last thing I wanted to do was bring her down but I had to talk some sense into her. After all, as the only female in the family aside from our new half sister Adeline it was kind of my duty to be here for our mom as much as I could and to support her; woman to woman at least. "your father and I have been together for thirty... nearly forty years. It's so hard to forget about someone you've spent nearly half of your life with."

I anxiously began to bite my bottom lip. I understood exactly how my mom felt. The thought of losing Ratliff when I was past my days of dating and forming relationships with men and finding out that he had some secret love child somewhere in the world with a woman I'd never met definitely wouldn't sit right with me either.

"I'm sorry mom." I whispered.

It was all I could say.

I couldn't think of any advice or any meaningful quotes to try and cheer her up — I had nothing.

She placed her hand on my knee and shook her head. "Don't be sorry baby." She grabbed a hold of her mug of coffee and took a sip from it, relaxing her once tensed shoulders. "That's life, right?" She handed me her phone and slowly her lips curved into a smile. "How about you show me that dating site you set up for me?"

I found myself smirking back and eagerly snatched her phone away from her.

Mission complete.

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Laura's POV

Monday morning.