Written on April 8th, 2018

P R O L O G U E

'How can you do this?' Tara shouts furiously at her parents. She stares in disbelief at the people in front of her. 'Please tell me you're not serious,' continues the black-haired girl. The only emotion Tara feels right now is hate. Hate and anger. All her miserable feelings are building up and the almost sixteen-year-old has to do her utmost to hold back the burning tears.

'Honey, please,' Evelyn tries to calm her eldest daughter, but she fails terribly. It seems to have a counterproductive effect because Tara now starts shouting as many Argentinian-Spanish curse words as anyone in the Délgado household has ever heard. 'Enough!' Alfonso roars, interrupting his daughter. His face is twisted in disgust, but the unmistakable emotion of hurt is clear to Tara in his eyes. However, she does nothing with it.

'You're terrible,' she sneers, a tear escaping. 'It isn't even five months since Mateo-,' Tara says, her voice breaking and she doesn't get any further than those words. 'How dare you speak his name?' Evelyn hisses, seething of anger. 'No one talks about him, Tara Valentina Délgado!' Tara's mother pronounces her full name with a thick Argentinian accent and a vicious undertone.

'Why not? Just because you want to forget him doesn't mean I want to do too!' Tara, now completely freaked out, shouts at her mother. Her body begins to shake uncontrollably and black spots begin to dance in front of her eyes. 'You weren't there that day, you didn't see him-'

Soon Tara will lose consciousness. That is something she should have learned over the past few months. Since the accident that resulted in the loss of her beloved older brother, Tara has not been the same. She lost a part of her, which has had major consequences for her health, and causing Tara's body to shut down when she's worked up.

'Enough now,' Evelyn interrupts. In the meantime, she has put her tanned hands over the ears of Paloma – Tara's nine-year-old sister – to prevent her from hearing the rest of the conversation. Alfonso took little Lucio in his arms, as he started crying when his voice became louder than normal.

'Watch what you're doing,' Evelyn continues, without the slightest understanding towards her daughter and why she's behaving like this. 'Look what you're doing to your family, how you're making Lucio cry and how you're scaring Paloma. Look at what you're doing, Tara!' Tara looks insulted at the woman she once had the utmost respect for. 'What I am doing?' she repeats in a trembling voice, this time not with fury, just with sadness.

It is also then that the most eerie silence falls in the house that has ever fallen, and will fall. Evelyn realizes that her words may have gone too far, something she will never admit because of her pride, while Alfonso looks wryly between wife and daughter. This news should have been something beautiful, should have been celebrated. It shouldn't have led to an argument so bad that it might tear the family apart.

'You know what-,' Tara breaks the silence angrily, 'I'm leaving.' She raises her hands high in the air to prevent her parents from responding. 'And since you apparently have no problem replacing Mateo, it won't be a big deal if I go. You will just make another one to fill my spot in the family.'