Chapter 28- Face Them Instead\u00a0<\/p>\n
SERA\u00a0<\/p>\n
I stood outside Luna\u2019s bedroom door for what felt like hours, my hand pressed against the wood, listening to Darius\u2019s low voice trying to comfort our daughter. My daughter. The one who had just said she hated me.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The words kept echoing in my head, sharp and cruel despite coming from such a small, innocent mouth.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I hate Mommy.\u00a0<\/p>\n
My legs finally gave out and I slid down the wall in the hallway, pulling my knees to my chest. The tears came hot and fast, silent sobs that shook my whole body. I pressed my fist against my mouth to keep any sound from escaping, not wanting Luna to hear me crying.\u00a0<\/p>\n
What kind of mother was I that my own daughter hated me?\u00a0<\/p>\n
I thought about all the nights I\u2019d spent rocking her to sleep when she was a baby, singing lullabies until my voice went hoarse. All the scraped knees I\u2019d kissed better, all the bad dreams I\u2019d chased away, all the bedtime stories I\u2019d read until the words blurred together.\u00a0<\/p>\n
And somehow, despite all of that, I\u2019d still failed her.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t just that, there was also Darius\u2026what did he also think about all of this?\u00a0<\/p>\n
Was he truly serious about leaving Vivienne behind?\u00a0<\/p>\n
Would he blame me afterwards? Hate me for separating him from a woman who he probably shared an intense past with?\u00a0<\/p>\n
Maybe my desperation to want a family so much has made me a bad mom.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Am I a bad mom?\u00a0<\/p>\n
The door opened and Darius stepped out, nearly tripping over me sitting on the floor. His eyes widened when he saw my tear\u2013stained face.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cSera,\u201d he said softly understanding immediately dawning in his features, crouching down beside me. \u201cShe didn\u2019t mean it,\u201d He reassured quietly, his voice was soft, honest yet, I couldn\u2019t bring myself to believe him.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cShe said it, didn\u2019t she?\u201d My voice came out thick and broken. \u201cThose words came out of her mouth,\u201d I added with an uncontrollable shiver. To be honest, I thought I was done showing Darius my tears, letting him see me in such a pathetic state, yet.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s four years old. She was upset and confused-\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
I shook my head slowly.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s four years old and she already sees me as the villain in her story.\u201d I wiped my eyes roughly with the back of my hand. \u201cJust like everyone else does. Your sister, Vivienne. And now my own daughter,\u201d The thought of it was so heartbreaking. It spread an ache through my chest, slowly stealing the breath from my lungs as I tried to come to terms with just how badly my life has spiraled.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Darius sat down beside me on the floor, our backs against the wall. \u201cYou\u2019re not the villain, Sera. You\u2019re the\u00a0<\/p>\n
1\/2\u00a0<\/p>\n
Chapte 20 face them inste\u00a0<\/p>\n
+25 Bonus\u00a0<\/p>\n
person who loves Luna more than anything in this world.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThen why does she hate me?\u201d The question came out as barely a whisper.\u00a0<\/p>\n
We sat in silence for a long moment, the weight of everything pressing down on both of us.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cLuna wants to say sorry,\u201d Darius said finally. \u201cBut I think she needs some time to understand what she did wrong first.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
I nodded, not trusting my voice.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cSera, she loves you. More than anything. You have to believe that.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to,\u201d I whispered. \u201cI want to believe that so badly. But it\u2019s hard when I keep failing her. When I keep being the reason she\u2019s unhappy.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re not-\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI am.\u201d I stood up, my legs shaky beneath me. \u201cI\u2019m the reason we\u2019re moving away from her friend. I\u2019m the reason there\u2019s tension in this house. I\u2019m the reason everything is falling apart.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s not true.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
But it felt true. It felt like everything I touched turned to ash, like I was cursed to destroy the very things I loved\u00a0<\/p>\n
most.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I thought about my own childhood then. About being the orphan girl who never quite fit anywhere, who was always too much or not enough. About learning to be invisible, to not ask for too much, to be grateful for whatever scraps of affection came my way.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I\u2019d promised myself my daughter would never feel that way. That Luna would grow up knowing she was loved, wanted, cherished beyond measure.\u00a0<\/p>\n
And somehow, I\u2019d still managed to fail.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI need to fix this,\u201d I said, more to myself than to Darius.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHow?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know yet. But running away isn\u2019t the answer.\u201d I straightened my shoulders, wiping the last of my tears away. \u201cI\u2019ve been running from problems my whole life. It\u2019s time I learned to face them instead.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Souls Remember What Matters \u2014 Corey Gibson 28 Chapter 28- Face Them Instead\u00a0 SERA\u00a0 I stood outside Luna\u2019s bedroom door […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23474","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-day-i-signed-the-papers-novel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23474","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23474"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23474\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23474"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23474"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23474"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}