Daisy Pov
His words had the impact of an atomic bomb, even if I know it wasn't true and he was the one with the problem. It hits so hard knowing that he hardly hesitated to take that blow at me.
I crumpled into the floor bursting into tears, he stood there for a while not leaving but also not reaching out to me. Then when my heavy cries turned into silent sobs he mumbled that I should go to bed and then he left.
We didn't talk for a few days after that, more than anything I wanted to apologize and just put all of that nasty stuff behind us. I seemed to be going crazy trying to find a way to approach him, but either he had an insane grip on his emotions or he simply didn't care that we were no longer interacting anymore.
I wanted to believe that it was the former and not the latter.
One day I sent him an email, it was weird. Living with somebody under the same roof and yet doing something as stiff and professional as an email, not even a text, but I was worried that a text would be too easy to ignore. So I drafted a mini presentation which was an amalgamation of several articles about adoption and the benefits.
I was working on shards of glass before I got a response from him, it was the same answer as always.
"Sure, if that's what you want."
No–that wasn't. I wanted him to come back home for us to sit together on the table and talk, something we haven't done in forever.
But I guess that was too much to ask for now.
The months that followed after I got that miscarriage passed like a blur and we all came to a conclusion we had a new addition to the family–Eliza.
She was five by the time the adoption process was over, a charming little girl with curly black hair and lovely hazel eyes. She was shy and it took a while for her to open up to us, but slowly and steadily she did.
With Eliza in our lives, my husband became less cold and would spend more time at home. Suddenly it felt like our endless fights were just a thing of the past. A prolonged nightmare that had finally come to an end.
Finally I had my happy little family, and it felt like nothing could go wrong.
Until it did.
I had dropped Eliza off at daycare, then I decided to stop by one of mine and Eliza's favorite bakeries. She loved the donuts here and I adored their cheesecake. Robert was not a fan of sweet things, he often liked his coffee black and bitter, also freshly made with quality coffee beans, so there was no need to buy anything for him here. I was looking for Eliza's favorite chocolate donut when I heard a light chuckle come from behind me.
I could have recognized that chuckle even in my sleep, and almost like a reflex I turned around, my whole body stiffening.
It was my half sister, Becky.
I hadn't run into Becky for a while, and whenever I dropped by the company, I always made sure to contact my husband beforehand to keep her busy so we wouldn't run into each other but I had been painfully naive to believe that we would never eventually cross paths.
"Why are you looking at me as if you just saw a ghost? Don't I get a hug or a greeting from my own sister?"
"Hi," I said coldly, her fake look of hurt made me want to punch her. I wanted to turn around and focus on what I was going to buy but she kept hovering around me.
"So I recently heard I had a niece,"
Again I was not able to ignore her and found myself looking straight at her again and not at the donuts.
"Don't you have work today?" I reminded her sharply.
"Daisy, you don't have to be like this. I hope you're not still angry about the past. We were just kids messing around after all, right?"
When she said that I was violently hit with a memory from the past, in our highschool days. She and her little minions had pushed me into the cramped Janitors closet at the close of school, I was locked there until night came and the other janitor clocked into their shift by the time he found me I had cried till my voice went hoarse and my stomach was growling animalistically.
Arriving back home my father didn't even wait to hear my side of the story, Becky had fabricated some tall tales to him about me hanging around with some boys and that was all he needed to hear and believe.
"Daisy," she called out to me in a sing-song voice, if the donuts were not going to be sold out I would have left and come back at another time, so I just tried to ignore her as I bought the donuts alone and forgot about the cheesecake.
I was about to leave when I noticed something that made me freeze and look at her hard. She was holding a debit card with my husband's name on it.
She made sure to pull it out in a way that I would definitely catch it with my eyes and when she saw that I had finally seen it she was barely holding back from smiling.
"Oh, I hope you don't misunderstand. This card is purely for buying his morning coffee…"
"Is that so?" Crossing my arms I asked her, "... Because last time I checked, this place is a bakery not a coffee shop,"
Her smile broadened, "Well my boss is quite generous, he said I could buy one or two little things while I'm going to fetch his coffee, it's no big deal, now if you excuse me Robert… errr I mean my boss will be waiting for me now,"
I made my way towards the bakery's exit.
When I got in I told the chauffeur to drive while I was choking back my tears.