Fire and Ice: Zara and Reese

Chapter 14

The week after Reese's 25th birthday, Zara's firm had been loaded with a mess of a project that another firm had mangled and then been fired from. The project was to build a dam in the Botswana section of the Limpopo River. It had been a disaster since day one on the ground, and clear mismanagement by the firm not long after. It was due to begin construction in a week, and Zara was stressed. She was sleeping around four hours a night trying to get it off the ground. The little time she had been able to spend with Reese was mostly when she was asleep. Reese missed her, and while her adult side understood well what time consuming work she was doing, her little side felt needy, and she hated herself for it. She hadn't bothered Zara in a week and she really felt her little side needing Mommy.

That morning, she had dressed herself in little clothes and was quietly playing in her room when she felt anxiety creep up. Maybe Mommy doesn't want me, she thought. The thought made her so sad she stood and walked down to Zara's office. 

Zara sat hunched over her computer, still in sweatpants, her hair unwashed and pulled into a messy bun on her head. 

"Mama?" Reese's small voice called from the door of Zara's study.

"What, Reese?" she answered, not looking away from the work on her computer.

"Can you come play with me, Mommy?" she asked.

"No, not right now. Go play by yourself, I've got work to do," she said, still not looking at her.

"Please, Mommy?" she pleaded.

"Reese, don't ask me again," she said, teeth clenched, turning to look at her.

"Mama, I miss you," Reese said, her lip starting to tremble. 

Zara stood, and Reese thought for a moment that she would give her at least a hug. Instead, she turned her around, yanked her dress up, and gave her a sharp spank to her bottom.

"Do you understand me now, Reese? I have a lot of work to do. Stop disobeying me. Go the fuck away."

Reese looked up at Zara's angry face and felt tears bite at the back of her throat. She never had been like this with her. 

"Oh, okay," she said softly, before turning and walking back to her nursery, shutting the door.

She looked at her toys and dolls strewn over the room and started to cry. Zara doesn't want to be my mommy.

Reese stripped off her dress and ripped the bow from her hair before pulling off her childish underwear and tossing the clothes to the floor. Then she walked to their room. Going into her drawers, she took adult panties, sweatpants, socks, and a t-shirt. Leaving her hair long hair loose, she pulled the panties on along with the sweats, socks, and t-shirt before going into her closet and shoving her feet into her Timberlands. 

She needed time alone out of the house, away from Zara, now that she was pulled out of little space so roughly. How could she be so cruel? 

Making her way downstairs, she grabbed Zara's quarter zip from the kitchen table and pulled it on. It was way too big but she loved wearing it and being comfortable. The keys to her Range Rover were on the hook by the door and she took them on the way out.

Getting in her car, she started to sob. Every bit of love Zara had ever shown her she felt slipping away. The look on Zara's face was enough to frighten a full-grown man, let alone her little girl. Reese didn't know where she would go, but she didn't want to be here. Putting her car into drive, she hit the accelerator far too hard and felt the car skid a bit on sand driveway beneath her. She didn't care, and sped down the driveway.