2 Weeks Later

It has been two weeks since her mom disappeared, two weeks since everything changed in her life. Two weeks since Hope began to realise everything she knew her life to be was an illusion carefully crafted by her mother to protect her.

April, her mom left behind two letter when she disappeared. As a child whenever Hope asked her mom about her past, she would always claim that she would tell her some day.

The some day turned out to be the day, her mom disappeared. The letter revealed the address of a storage box and the storage box held all the answers to Hope's questions.

April had left behind everything she needed to say in that storage box. It held two diaries, one of each for Anna and Hope. They were also letters addressed to them written by April over the years.

Then there were tangible proofs April left behind in case Anna and Hope consider her to have gone insane. The belongings April had with her on the day, she travelled back in time.

The backpack held all of April's belongings including a Phone that was introduced just two months back but it looked as if it had been stored their for over 30 years. Then there had been the wallet which held April's  driving licence stating her birth year to be the same as Hope.

Hope didn't know how April managed to find a new identity in her world. But she did find a way to start over. More than that April had found a way to protect Anna and Hope from a life of misery.

"At first, you were just a mini version of Me. I adopted you because I don't want history to repeat itself not after I travelled back in time. But when you called me, Mom for the first time. You stopped being my mini version and really became Hope, my daughter."

One of the letter April left behind said and Hope consumed those letters everyday trying to find comfort in her words over and over again.

"I was happy Hope, truly happy. My life might not have been what you call normal. But being your mother made me happy, having you as my family was the reason I woke up with a smile everyday.

I never regretted the change in my life. Because travelling back in time not only changed yours and Anna's life but it gave me years of happiness too. "

Another letter said and Hope knew it to be true. Her mother's letter were gateway into her thoughts. The diary she left behind held the story of April. It held April's past and also the answers.

"I don't know when you would find the diary in your possession. If it happens after my death, don't fret and assume you would have the same fate Hope. From what I have known life doesn't seem to work that way.

When I was four, I got into small accident with Anna. I had a big scar on my shoulder due to that and I was worried it would happen to you as well. But you sailed past that day without a scratch on you.

So while, you and me may have the same DNA, in reality you and me should have been a single person. It doesn't seem to affect everything else."

Sometimes reading April's letter made Hope sad for the countless time her mom lived in uncertainty over the future. April left behind answer to every possible question that could rise in Hope's mind. It meant she had spend hours after hours writing those letter for Hope and Anna to protect them when the illusion finally breaks.

"I didn't want my existence to make Anna feel guilty for something she had no control over. Tell Anna, just like what I told you. You and Me are not the same person. Similarly Anna, my mother and Anna, the one you know are not the same person.

Keep reminding her that I always considered to be my family. I never once looked at her and saw my mother starring back at me.

When I first met her, I only saw a teen making a mistake that would change her life drastically. I thought I prevented that because that was what I had believed to be the day that changed everything.

Anna, my mother had believed her classmate to be the father because they had unprotected sex. It didn't even cross her mind that it could have happened some other time.

A new born looking at Anna as a mother might have judged her harshly. A child being left uncared and unloved might have resented her. But when I met Anna, I was the adult who understood her fear and helplessness.

And when I first saw her hold you Hope with so much love. I know my past had no place in my present. " 

Her mother's ability to distinguish her past and the present was something Hope knew Anna struggled with even after two weeks.

Unlike Hope who grieved losing her mother suddenly. Anna shut down herself and refused to accept the truth for few days because it had been hard on her.

Hope gave her the space and time she needed to be alone and didn't want to intrude on her home and only remind her about April. But when Grace called her last night fearing for her mother. Hope knew she can't remain silent.

So she had left her home after two weeks to visit Anna. Hope didn't know what she could expect but she had to try and help Anna because that was what her mother would have wanted her to do.

There were only four adults who knew why April disappeared. To the rest of the world April had gone an vacation cruise at the moment.

Ben had been the one who came up with idea to keep anyone from digging into her disappearance. Ben and Tristan knew the truth of April's disappearance but it didn't affect them in the way it did for Anna and Hope.

Tristan knew April much longer than Ben, but his priority remained Anna, his wife who was distraught. Ben had been a solid support to Hope, he let Hope stay at her mom's house for two weeks without a complaint. He visited her daily and spent countless hours lending his shoulder for her to cry on.

Hope didn't mean to disregard the changed it brought into their lives. But the truth remained that the only two person who were affected irrevocably by April's disappearance were Anna and Hope.

When Hope knocked on Anna's house. She didn't expect Anna to open the door by herself. As Hope stepped inside she quickly realised Anna was alone. It bothered her that she was left alone after Grace's call.

"The kids are at school and Tristan just stepped out to pick them up" Anna answered her unasked question.

"How are you dealing with everything?" Hope asked her because she was worried about her.

"Driving everyone mad. I go from pretending to be normal to crying like a crazy person in fraction of seconds. Grace and Austin are scared of me at this point and avoid me like the plague I am. I am not sure why you are here  or why Tristan stays with me still when I should have been left all alone for being a monster" Anna answered back looking upset and then burst into tears.

"Have you read any of the letters mom wrote to you. If you did then you wouldn't blame yourself. " Hope answered back and knew Anna wasn't in the mindset to listen to her.

Hope didn't have to say anything more because the door opened and Anna's family walked inside and one look at them Anna ran towards them with concern because Austin had a cast on his right leg.

The next fifteen minutes Hope saw the version of Anna her mother knew her to be as she fussed and took care of her son and asked countless questions on how he got injured and did everything she can to ensure he felt less pain.

Meanwhile Hope assured Grace that her mother would get fine because even if not for herself, she would do it for Grace and Austin's sake.

"Read the letters, read the diary. If not for yourself. Do it for Grace, Austin and Tristan. This family needs you to be you. You can't be that when you are stuck in a past that doesn't belongs to you. And  I need you too. " Hope spoke up an hour later as she left behind Anna's house.

                    *********************

Healing, grieving, recovering, and accepting events that change everything you knew and believed to be true were never easy. Hope and Anna didn't recover in days, not even in weeks. But they did recover with time and moved on from the illusion they believed in to be the truth.

But they never forgot April, they never moved on from losing her. It would always be with them, the pain of a life without April. The one who protected them both from everything to the best of her abilities.

Anna and Hope would never be linked together as mother and daughter in this life time. But their link together was much stronger than that because it had been April. The one person who loved both of them unconditionally.

P.S:" The End. Let me know your thoughts and Feedbacks. Hit the votes if you liked it "

Author's Note:

This was supposed to be an OS and so when I kept writing more chapters I had assumed it would at least take nine chapters. But with the small gap I took from this book, it had become increasingly hard to get back to the book as I would have wanted too. So I did kind of rush the ending and I am sorry about that.

Juanita Reid.