Torn

Horses & memories

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Getting out of the car, she looked up at the large converted mill that used to be her marital home. She turned and looked back at the yard, still able to see herself in front of Seb's car as she'd coldly told him that she wanted a divorce, still able to see the taxi that had picked her up and taken her to the airport to get her flight back to Britain that same day. Hearing Anaya's little footsteps running from the car, she turned back to see her eagerly waiting for Seb to open the door and let her in.

"Are you coming in or are you staying out here all weekend?" He asked moodily.

His tone only reminded her further of the man she'd left behind, leaving him had the best thing she'd ever done. She nodded and noticing how he was carrying her bag as well as her daughter's, she followed him to enter the house. It was exactly as she remembered, it had barely changed except for fresh white paintwork in between the solid dark wooden beams on the walls and across the ceiling. He still had the same small pieces of abstract art work dotted around between some the beams in the walls, the flooring was still the same dark oak, varnished wood and as she entered the lounge the only differences she could see there was a different sofa and armchairs and a new looking, large tv mounted on the even larger chimney breast.

"It's not changed much, as you can see." He remarked as if he knew what was going through her mind.

Her eyes settled on a couple of photos on the windowsill; surprisingly he already had a photo of Anaya in a frame, probably taken the first time he'd spent time with her and next to that was one of his parents that looked like it was taken one summer.

"Shall I show you your room princess?" He asked as he scooped Anaya up, leaving Neev's bag on the floor. "You've got own special room for when you come to stay."

She nodded before asking, "Then can we eat?"

"Of course we can. What do you want to eat?" He smiled, he was so happy to have her here. The place had stopped feeling like a home the day that Nevaeh had left him and it already felt more homely again just by having his daughter here.

"Pizza?" She asked.

"I'm sure I've got pizzas in the freezer, we'll go and look at your new bedroom and then we'll pick out a pizza together, ok?" Turning to Neev just before he walked away, he asked, "Do you want me to show which room is yours? I mean, you could find it yourself, I take it you still remember your way around?"

"If you could yeah." She answered meekly, she didn't feel comfortable wandering around the place just yet. While he might think of this as Anaya's home it certainly wasn't hers.

Neev watched as he walked away and picked up her bag before following him. She had to smile as she went up the stairs, the sixth step up still creaked when it was trodden on.

Carrying Anaya on his hip and holding her bag in his free hand, he nudged a door open and stepped inside. Hearing her gasp and seeing her face as she saw her room was the best thing ever.

"A rocking horse!!" She almost screamed with excitement and instantly wriggled to be put down.

Behind him he heard Nevaeh gasp too.

"Oh wow." She'd just walked into her daughter's ultimate fantasy bedroom. The walls were pale pink with pine flooring and on one wall a painted mural dominated. It was a beautiful scene of a green field with two horses, a brown one grazing and a white one standing, with a backdrop of trees and mountains and a blue lake in the middle. Anaya's bed was a fairytale four poster with a string of little fairy lights going around the top. There was pine furniture, a dolls house that was taller than Anaya herself and of course, the one thing that had captured the little girls attention first, the large rocking horse. Straddling a solid pine frame, the white horse had a dappled grey effect dotted on it's sides, a long silver grey mane and tail, a dark burgundy leather saddle and bridal with reigns and even proper metal stirrups. She'd seen these kind of things online and knew it would have cost him at least two thousand euro.