"Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday dear Lyrical, happy birthday to you!" Bella sang as she walked out of her kitchen into their quaint living room, holding in her hands a single cupcake with a tiny taper candle lit on it.

The birthday girl whirled around from glaring at the television to face her mother, her different shades of pink and purple 'Rapunzel costume' twirling around her as she did so.

Bella would never get enough of seeing the spark and twinkle in her daughter's eyes whenever she was happy, and today Lyric was all over the moon. Not only was it her sixth birthday but it was also the day for her much anticipated charity event at the Academy, she had waited two long months since the date was picked to finally dress as her favorite cartoon character, Rapunzel from Tangled.

Lyric clapped her little hands together and rocked on her heels excitedly as Bella came to squat before her, holding the cupcake between them.

"I can't believe you're six already, I could have sworn I gave birth to you only last week! Time is crazy, my baby is all grown." She teared up a little but still matched her daughter's ear to ear grin.

"Do you want to make a wish now or later at the Academy with the big cake?" She asked because they were saving the real birthday cake for later when Lyric would be amongst her friends and mates.

Lyric frown adorably as she tilted her head sideways thinking over what her mother just said. "Can I make two wishes? One for the small cake and one for the Castle cake?"

"I suppose." Bella shrugged, she had no idea how the birthday faerie work if she was being honest. "Just make the most important wish first and the other one late."

Lyric brightened up again and stepped closer to the cupcake in Bella's hands. Readying herself to blow off the flame, she briefly glanced over her shoulder at the television and Bella followed her gaze, feeling her breath hitched when she saw what or rather who was on the screen; Lyric had paused one of Clouds' music video at a particular place where he was looking directly at the camera with a lazy, flirtatious smirk.

When Lyric looked forward again she closed her eyes and inhaled deeply, silently made her wish before blowing off the candle and then she beamed at her mother.

Bella didn't have to be a birthday fairy to know what her daughter just wished for and though she tried to maintain the happy smile on her face, she felt her mood instantly dampened.

Bella removed the candle and handed the cupcake to Lyric. "You're the most precious girl in the world." She said, kissing her forehead before pulling her in for a hug. "I love you so much, Honey."

"I love you too, Mommy." Lyric reiterated.

Still holding her child to her body, Bella stared solemnly at Iverson's image on the TV screen. Lyric seemed to crave her father's physical presence a little more everyday, it made Bella wonder if she was doing all these wrong.

"Okay let's get going." She stood up, plastering a smile on her face again for Lyric's benefit. She picked her discarded face mask from the couch to cover her face and complete her costume.

"How do I look?" She asked Lyric, turning around and flanking her red cape for assessment. This year Bella had decided to dress as a female version of superman, in ovation to herself and all single mothers out there. They didn't need no cape but they were superwomen in their day to day lives.

"You look like you're going to save the world." Lyric giggled and Bella laughed.

"Thanks sweetheart." She said, but Iverson was already out there saving the world with his music and beautiful voice, Bella would be content with saving just their daughter.

"How do I look?" Lyric asked, also twirling around to  flaunt her dress.

Bella leaned forward to fawn over her daughter, gently touching the golden hair they'd spent nearly two hours trying to perfect in the style of Rapunzel. "Beautiful darling, absolutely gorgeous like a true princess and your hair is truly magical."

"Your eyes are pretty too, but different from my own." Lyric said, complimenting Bella's blue lenses. She placed her opened palm on Bella's cheek while intently looking into her eyes as if trying to figure out what made it different.

"That's because yours are real and mine are false and both are different shades of blue. Yours are beautiful deep Ocean blue, mine's Azure like a cloudless sky."

"I like your brown eyes better." Lyric murmured.

"Do you want me to take it off then? I just thought it goes well with the costume." Bella said, it was the first time she'd wear lenses and it seemed Lyric couldn't decide how she felt about it. It was already clear that she didn't like how Bella dyed her hair from time to time but it made Bella feel good about herself. She finally understood why her friend, Jenna was always dying her hair back then. It was thrilling, made her feel like she could be anyone.

Lyric shook her head to Bella's question. "No, they are lovely." She said and withdrew her hand from Bella's cheek. "I don't not like them."

"Okay then." Bella straighten. "Go pee if you need to. Wash your hands, grab your backpack and your milkshake bottle. I'll go put the cake in the car and we can leave."

Bella walked back into the kitchen to pick the 'Tangled' inspired cake from the counter.

She didn't exactly like the cake, she thought it was tacky compared to the princess' tiara she had in mind but Lyric wanted the Tower and in the end, Lyric's happiness won.

She stepped out of their suburb home and carefully made her way to the car with the cake in hand, as usual the environment was clear and serene just the way she liked it. Yet, she felt a weird sensation prickled her body like she was being watched. It wouldn't be the first time she'd felt this way.

Their home was a two bedroom flat and the building like all the other buildings in the area were cookie cutter replica of each other and also quite detached from one other. There was over 20ft space between hers and the next neighbor, which mean everyone minded their own damn business just as it should be.

She'd say it might be a nosy neighbor spying on her through their windows but she'd had this feeling at different places and she'd learned to dismiss it. There was no point adding paranoia to her long list of things to worry about.

And well, if someone was indeed watching she hoped they were having a good show, it wasn't like she was hiding or running from anyone. She was just...living away from her past life.

Lyric came out of the house with her backpack a moment later and hopped into the car, Bella helped secure the seatbelt around her before going back inside the house to pick her handbag and lock up after them.

She quickly went about switching off the television and other appliances that didn't need to be on, she ended up picking Lyric's bottle that she must have forgotten on the centre table and after glancing around the room to make sure everything was in order, she stepped out again and locked the door behind her.

Just as she started walking towards her car, Bella stopped dead in her track at the sight before her. Not only was her daughter, the girl she remembered securing the seatbelt around, standing outside the car but she was also holding a bunch of bright yellow roses.

After the fleeting paralyzing shock, Bella rushed forward with her heart beating wildly and perspiration instantly broke through her body.

"Lyric, where did you get that?" She asked sternly, snatching the flower away from the child without waiting for an answer, Bella instinctively hauled it far away from them. "Get back into the car now!" She couldn't help but snapped at her daughter.

Bella was trembling so bad and looking around for whoever might have given the roses to Lyric but the environment appeared deserted.

She was the worst mother on this planet, leaving her daughter outside untended despite having the feeling of being watched. What if it was some psycho stalker who abduct children?

And she fancied herself a single mother-superwoman. What a joke.

Still literally shaking all over, she got into the car and tried to put the key in the ignition but it kept falling out of her shaky hands.

"What did I tell you about speaking to strangers, Lyric? Who gave you those roses?"

Lyric's eyes were wild with fear and again Bella wanted to kick herself for scaring her but she was still so spooked out, she couldn't reign in her emotions.

"I'm sorry Mommy, she didn't look like a stranger." Lyric said quietly, and nervously twiddling her fingers.

"What does a stranger look like?" Bella asked again, only short of pulling her own hair out. 

"Like...like someone I don't know, but she looks like...like you." Her words was like a bucket of iced water thrown at Bella in the face.

No, it couldn't be.

She was just about to press for clarification as calmly as she could when Lyric reached under her butt and forced out something she was sitting on. "She also gave me this." She told Bella, whose jaw was currently hanging open in absolute horror.

She had practically forced her daughter back into the car to get her to safety but she had failed to see what was already in the car and Lyric had sat on it.

It was an eerily familiar journal, Bella snatched it from Lyric and her suspicion was confirmed. She would recognize that brown worn out leather anywhere and it looked much rougher than she remembered but the fading 'Margaret' written in scrawny letters across it was all she needed.

Her mother had found them.

Bella swallowed hard, she closed her eyes and took in a couple deep breaths. She couldn't stop shaking, but at least it wasn't in total fright anymore.

"Stay right here." She told Lyric and stepped out of the car with the journal in her hand. She loosen the straps of her face mask and pushed it up to her head, exposing her face as she walked down the lane towards the roses she threw away.

She hadn't seen or heard from her mother in seven long years! The journal in her hands made her realized how much she missed her, she missed the woman she thought her mother was. Not the woman she turned out to be.

Bella hadn't forgiven her, neither had she stopped blaming her for what happened to Daniel, even more so now that she had her own daughter.

She would sacrifice her life for her child in the blink of an eye, so she didn't understand how her mother was able to give Daniel away and managed to live with herself.

Bella picked the yellow roses and shook out the damage petals, she looked around the empty surrounding and hoped her mother was still watching. She hoped picking those roses would be a clear invitation for her to come forward.

Bella was a lot more mature and levelheaded than she was seven years ago, she was ready to listen. She doubt it would change anything but she was curious to know what could harden a mother's heart to give her child away and never once looked back.

"Listen, Honey." She said to Lyric once she got back into the car. "Anyone you don't know their name is a stranger, okay? It doesn't matter who they look like, you don't talk to them and you don't listen to them. You don't take anything from them, you don't follow them anywhere if they ask you to. If they touch you or get too close for comfort, you scream and you don't stop screaming until you've gotten other people's attention. Do you understand?"

"Yes, Mommy." Lyric nodded.

"Good." Bella smiled tightly and dumped the roses and journal in the backseat for later.

She successfully got the key in the ignition this time, except the damn car refused to start.

Great. Just fúcking perfect. She thought.

Today was her daughter's birthday, nothing could go wrong.

After two more attempts the car suddenly jerk forward and roared to life, she saw from the rearview mirror the black smoke emitting from the exhaust pipe and made a mental note to have it checked by the mechanics soon. Although it wouldn't matter if everything went according to her plan.

Nothing would matter and she wouldn't have any use for the car or much of anything.

So really, her mother was only welcomed to explain herself and fúck off. Bella didn't need anyone in her life that might talk her out or stand in the way of her plans to safe Lyric.

->>

Finding a parking space at the Academy was becoming a real challenge, and they weren't even that late yet.

Bella wanted to cry in frustration, what happened to the day? It was going perfectly until her past showed up.

She drove down the lone lane slowly, hoping there would be a free space ahead. Both sides of her were parked full of car.

The previous year she had been surprised and excited that these many people came out to support a good course for children. In her opinion childhood cancer and other terminal illnesses were a bit slighted by the general public, so such show of awareness and support was nice to see.

This year however, she couldn't find the enthusiasm or joy with the way her day had turned out. She couldn't even find a place to park her damn car to begin with.

If she had it her way, she'd drive back home, lock herself in her room and read her mother's journal page by page.

There had to be a reason why she gave the journal to Lyric and Bella was just dying of curiosity.

The impatient honk of the car behind Bella jolted her out of her thoughts, she glared at the white Range Rover sport through her rearview and it driver repeatedly flashed the headlights at her.

Where did he expect her to go? She was almost at the end of the lane with no free space in sight and more cars were blindly following her.

The honk went off again and Bella gritted her teeth, lowering her windshield she poked her head out of the window. "Fly over me, why don't you?!" She yelled at the annoying driver.

Like a blessing from heaven, she saw a 4x4 truck pulling out of a parking space a bit ahead of her, Bella literally held her breath as she watched the driver backed out and thankfully drove down the lane and away from the premises.

She wasted no second in driving forward to occupy the space, rolling her eyes when the Range Rover quickly took the little space left beside her.

"Finally!" She puffed out a breath and gently shook Lyric awake in the passenger seat. "Wake up, Honey. We are here."

Bella stepped out and walked around the car, she heard the opening and closing of the Range Rover beside her but paid no attention to it as she opened her car boot and bend over to retrieve the cake.

"Oi Superwoman, my great-grandma crawl faster than you drive." A voice called.

Bella snapped back to her full height so fast she heard the snap in her spine. No fúcking way. She knew that voice and the moment her eyes found it owner, she felt the world tilted beneath her feet.

There was no fúcking way this was happening to her today.

Any guesses who the voice belong to?