AJ gave a last wave to the last guest who just left with the taxi, she did not expect it was going to be that tiring hosting a funeral but she was glad that her father had made many friends and family. She saw those tears in their eyes when they spoke about him, they have lost a beautiful man inside and out.
AJ looked at the mansion that she had 10 years ago when her company started to do very well. JJ was happy so happy that he invited all his friends to stay over for the next 5 years. Showing them what his daughter's achievement was, he was so proud that he could not stop smiling when telling friends and family.
The 5 bedrooms with ensuite attached, with an entertainment basement and a big backyard with a pool. His father always plans Sunday BBQ with their neighbors when JJ invites them who were skeptical about them the first time they meet. JJ changes them with a smile and delicious desserts.
Cassey opened the door and looked at AJ, they both thought they were ready but when JJ left them at the hospital reality kicked in, they could not move for a second as all those years it has always been the 3 of them, highs and lows just the three of them. AJ smiles and walks towards her, they hugs tightly, believing that they will be stronger than ever.
"Isabelle!!" AJ heard her name being called a name that onlyher mother called her, she let go of Cassey and looked only to see Rose was standing near the staircase. AJ looked at her with no reaction,
"I'll be leaving tomorrow... back home!" She lied as the moment she left her ex-boyfriend house she had nowhere to go, she wanted to let AJ know so that AJ would know that she would be leaving the next day forever. She planned to leave before they woke up so that they don't have to speak to each other awkwardly. But AJ did not say anything and walked away. They looked at AJ, they accepted AJ would react the way she did. Even during the funeral, AJ did not speak to Rose or even interact with her, Anna and Cassey would talk to her assuring Rose to stay until the funeral ends.
AJ walked to her father's room which was at the end of the first floor opposite the kitchen and the living room. She walks in and memories dash into her mind, from the first time she showed his father the room to the day before they sent her to the hospital until he passed. The room was full of photos of family and friends. AJ walks into his father's studies room where he would spend time there alone with the books that he reads and letters that he writes for his friends.
AJ sat down at the single sofa which was near the window, bookshelves with many kinds of books his father has read and has placed a sticky note. AJ did ask her father why he placed those sticky notes on the books he's response was for her to see and remember him when she read them.
Her heart was filled with his father's memories, she wanted to be strong but just looking at the books made her tear up. Then she saw a leather cover in front of a book that his father read for her when she was a little girl, "Madeline by Ludwig Bemelsman". AJ stood up and walked to the shelves and took the leather cover before she walked back to the sofa. The brown leather was being tied with a brown string, AJ untied the string and opened the leather and saw 3 bundles of letters with their names in it: AJ, Anna and Rose.
AJ was too busy with work, finding her sister and finding a way to cure his father, his father was already preparing to leave them. Everyday without fail he would sit in the study room and write 3 letters for them, to tell them all the words he could not say when he was alive and words he wanted to tell Anna's daughter he could not grow up with. He wanted to tell her all those things he did with AJ and words he wanted to tell her privately especially how sorry he was that he should find her sooner.
-----
The lights from Rose were still bright when Anna had finished using the bathroom. She could not sleep, she has not been sleeping for the last 3 days ever since her father passed. She did not feel so loved when she saw her father for the first time, even though it was the shortest time she ever spent with anyone but that was the most wonderful time she ever had and felt.
Then she met her mother, the person who abandoned her on the royal cruise when she was born. She looked just like her, but she had her father smile and heart AJ once told her. Anna walks towards the room and knocks on the door. Rose, who had finished packing, turned around and saw Anna walk into her room.
The first time she saw Anna, she was taken away, Anna looked just like her and her smile looked like JJ. Memories that night she placed her baby in the cruise baggage truck and came back to her. She remembered how selfish she was once when she placed Anna there and ran off even when she heard Anna was crying for her but she wanted to catch up with her former lover.
"Hi...I did not properly introduce myself to you. My name..."
"Annabella, JJ tells me and he did a good job describing you." said Rose as they stood looking at each other and didn't know where to start.
"I..." said Anna but Rose step up and says,
"I'm sorry...I was selfish and self centered. I should not have left you on the cruise. I should have taken care of you just like a mother should. But I was thinking about myself that I would stop thinking of my children's and you who was still a baby, a baby who still needs her mother. I am so sorry." Listening to her mother's apology, she ran towards her and hugged her, making her take a step back shock to see her reaction, a reaction did not expect.
"I don't care what you did, I just lost a father who was finding me and I don't want to lose you too. Please don't go!!" said Anna as she cried on her mother's shoulder like a child. Rose wants to, she wants to live with her two daughters again but she has made a grave mistake and had made AJ hate her, even looking at her for a second had made AJ anger rise. She did not want to be a burden to her daughters now when AJ is a very rich woman. She did not want to be called a gold digger mother to a daughter who she abandoned.
A knock from the door makes them jump and when they turn around they see AJ standing at the door looking at them hugging. Immediately they break apart, scared that AJ would be angry.
"AJ..I went in first..." explain Anna when AJ walk in and place 2 bundle of letter with their names on it on the side table and says,
"JJ left this for both of you." AJ did not wait for their response and walked out of the room. Anna wanted to follow her but her desire to be with her mother was stronger than explaining to her sister. Anna walks over to the table and letters with her names.
"That JJ, he must have written it for us before he goes!" said Rose as she walked toward the table and took her letter and hugged it tight towards her chest.
Right after AJ gave the letter to Rose and Anna, she went back to her room. AJ was not angry that Anna went to look for Rose, if Rose did not leave her they would be in that room now hugging and comforting each other for the loss of their dear father. AJ sat down on her bed looking down on the letter that her father left for her. She untied the string that was around the letters, the first letter dated before she sent him to the hospital.
AJ opened the letter, a sweet smell that she remembered perfectly was around the letter which immediately she remembered the first things they baked together when she was young. AJ smiled which she started reading the letter,
"AJ my child,
When you read this I might not be around you, I love you very much. You are my star and my heart. I don't know what I'll do when your mother leaves us, but you...you, my child , have made my life full of happiness and joy. You must be very hurt when your mother left and when you saw me crying with you when you woke up in the hospital, I think that is why you stop loving your mother or even another one who loves you.
We are human AJ, sometimes we fall in love, sometimes we fall out of love. What your mother did is part of a human being and sometimes we just want to be selfish but it does not mean she doesn't love you, somewhere in her heart she does. I know that you refuse to find love but I hope you find someone so that you feel what I felt for your mother once and it was wonderful even now. I'm not asking you to forgive your mother but someday I hope you do.
I love you, I prayed that you be successful and find happiness in life, know that I will always be with you.
Love JJ."
AJ leans back to her bed board with her father's letter on her chest as tears fall out from her eyes. She missed him, she missed him very much. She built everything ever since she was young so that her father would live happily and prove to her mother what she missed. Now her mother saw what she could do, she saw what wealth she brought in, she was supposed to feel satisfied but why does she feel guilty for not doing anything for her?
The next day, Rose zipped up her bag and looked around the room for the last time. A year ago she could not imagine that she would stay in a mansion or ride expensive cars around, she thought she would still be in a dirty pigsty house with her ex-boyfriend who was living off a pension while she was trying to clean his mess everyday and getting beaten every night. She has stayed with her for the last 15 years after she decided to settle down with an abuser like her ex-boyfriend as she doesn't have anywhere else to go.
Then one day a year ago, a knock on the door changed everything. A young woman who looked like JJ was standing in front of her when asked who she was, she said she was her daughter. She remembers a long silence, she knows that AJ did not want to be there, she knows why that time she did not care just like how she felt a long time ago when she left JJ and AJ with another asshole.
Rose invited her, she managed to look out and saw a dark blue expensive car outside before she closed the door. AJ then asked her if Rose gave birth to another daughter, Rose told AJ what she did to her sister. They fought, but what made Rose realize was when AJ told her that she almost died that night when she pushed AJ. Rose almost killed her daughter, she did not know how selfish she was until AJ came that day.
AJ told her that she is now a rich woman and if she would have stayed Rose would be a happy woman with family who loved her instead of living in a pigsty house with an abuser. AJ left the house and before she did AJ left her with a bunch of money telling her that was the first and the last time she would see her or hear from her. AJ left that day after waking her up and showing her what a cruel mother she is.
Rose could not sleep that night, the next morning she packed up, took the money that AJ left and left the house. Rose went to look for JJ and AJ, after asking and looking around finally she found herself in the hospital and inside the room where JJ was laying down waiting for time while AJ was looking for her long lost sister Rose left on the cruise. JJ forgives her but tells her that AJ might not be able to forgive her. Rose knows and did not expect AJ to forgive her ever.
JJ allows her to be with him, taking care of him for the last time hoping that she would atone what she did towards him. It was the most memorable time she had ever since she left them. Rose took her brown duffle bag and her handbag before walking out of the room and went down.
Rose knew that AJ would not let her stay there and she would not want to either. That mansion is not her place, now she needs to find her place where she would live alone and suffer the guilt she had done to both of her daughters alone.
Rose walked into the dining room where Cassey, Anna and AJ were having breakfast, they were laughing happily, looking at them and saw how AJ was smiling she did not want to make that smile go away Rose decided to leave without saying goodbye. Rose turned around, walked towards the door when she heard Cassey calling her.
"Aunt Rose, where are you going?" Rose stopped, turned around and gave them a smile.
"I'm going back!! I did not want to make a fuss about it, that's why I did not say goodbye." said Rose nervously. She looked at Cassey and Anna. She knows that they wanted her to stay. AJ stood up from the chair, walked out of the dining room, walked pass her and out of the house.
"Cassey come on!!" said AJ. Rose looked at AJ walking pass her and smiled. Somehow deep inside of Rose she wishes AJ would say something to her but AJ had that side of her. Cassey and Anna walk to her and suddenly push her out of the house. Rose looked at them confused as they pushed her into an SUV which AJ was in. While still in confusion, Rose got into the SUV sitting with Anna beside her holding her hand.
It was a long road ride, they stopped a few times going to the rest stop but after almost 2 hours finally they reached a neighborhood they have not stepped in for a very long time but for Anna a neighborhood she should be growing up in.
The moment Rose saw, immediately all sorts of memories rushed into her. From the first day JJ and her got there to the day she left. The driver stopped in front of a building Rose never thought she would come back. They got out of the car and Rose looked around the neighborhood, it looked different from before. The place was dirty and filthy but now it cleans, not dangerous and safe for the people there.
"Aunt Rose it looked different right!" said Cassey. Rose looked around, nod her head and smiled.
"JJ and AJ did that and I of course." explain Cassey.
"JJ wanted to make the place he felt home safe, all I did was to buy building for the people who could not afford live in JJ and Cassey did a lot of work." said AJ and smile to Cassey as she knows that she did not do much as her father and Cassey did.
"I gotta go...I'll see you later!!" said AJ and walked away from them.
"Please understand...it was hard for her when you left Aunt Rose. She was not the same after you left that night, she blocked everyone to come into her life, JJ was all she wanted to be with. It was hard for me the first time but when she saw what my parents did to me, she took me in." explained Cassey so that Rose and Anna understand that it was not easy for her to let Rose back into her life.
"I'm so sorry!!" cried Rose it was all her fault, she broke her daughter. Anna hugged her mother, she could not do anything but hug her.
"She is trying too... Aunt Rose that's why she brings you here. She made a few calls yesterday and managed to get your old apartment back. She wants you and Anna to stay here. She wants you to help manage the building where foster children in! '' said Cassey again. It was one of the projects that JJ was dedicated too. Right after AJ bought the building, they divided the apartment and they took 2 of the floors and made it a place where children that need a place to stay go to and a place where the government can place kids that need shelter.
JJ designed the 2 floor and migrated the apartment into one, right now they have about 100 kids with a team taking care of those kids and AJ plans to buy more buildings to open up more places for kids to go to.
"You want us to manage it?" asked Anna again.
"Yes...it was a JJ project, start all over again for her and hopefully AJ would accept you again!' said Cassey hoping Rose would take up AJ's offer.
"Mom...let's do that, please stay here with me!" said Anna, she wanted to feel what it felt like to have a family. Rose looked at Anna's face and was full of tears, Anna hoped to start with her. Rose knows that she has been a bad mother of one daughter. How can she be cruel to another?
"Okay...I'll stay!!" said Rose. Anna and Cassey hug Rose. They were happy that Rose took up the offer.
"Let's introduce you to everyone!!" said Cassey as she pulled Rose and Anna into the building apartment where AJ had prepared a welcome party for Rose and had invited people who knew them before.
----Please comment and vote. Thank you and stay safe :)