Spent All 99 Favor Cards, The Unwanted Daughter Escaped Chapter 09

Spent All 99 Favor Cards, The Unwanted Daughter Escaped Chapter 09

Mom developed a habit.

Every evening, she’d sit on the stairs outside their apartment and copy the 99 wrongs from my

journal. One by one.

She wrote each one carefully in a new notebook.

She planned to give it to me herself if she ever got the chance to see me again.

She wanted to tell me she’d remembered every single one.

That she’d regretted them every day.

But deep down, she knew this was only a way to make herself feel better.

Tavia wasn’t coming back.

One day, while Dad was out working, he spotted a set of research materials in a bookstore.

He bought the whole set without a second thought and brought it home.

No one needed them anymore.

But he kept them anyway.

Maybe it made him feel like he was making up for all those years when he hadn’t given his daughter a proper place to study.

Then winter came.

The apartment was freezing.

Cold air slipped through the cracks around the windows at night.

They shivered under a thin, old blanket and huddled together for warmth.

Back then, they’d never thought about buying Tavia a warm winter coat.

Now they finally knew what that kind of cold felt like.

One night, Mom woke from a nightmare.

In the dream, ten-year-old Tavia was holding a strawberry cake.

She looked up at Mom, nervous but hopeful.

But Mom had pushed her away and handed the cake to Sabine.

Mom woke up drenched in sweat.

She sat on the edge of the bed and quietly cried for a long time.

Dad woke up and gently rubbed her back.

Neither of them said a word.

They just sat there in the cramped room, drowning in regret.

They often wished they could go back.

They would’ve treated Tavia better.

They would’ve never told those lies.

But Tavia had already built a new life at Royal Ashbourne Academy.

Everything she’d gone through was in the past now.

She would never turn back toward the Pack that had hurt her.

Her parents stayed behind in that cramped apartment with Sabine.

All they could do was live with their regret.

For years to come.

Three years after graduation, I stayed in Boston and joined a prestigious research institute.

My career was taking off, and life was good.

That’s where I met my mate, Lucan Fairchild.

He was a senior researcher in my lab.

Last year, we officially became mates.

Early this spring, I gave birth to our daughter, Eira Fairchild.

The moment I held my tiny, warm baby in my arms, I knew.

She would be my only child.

I knew too well what it felt like to be the child no one chose.

I would never let my daughter feel that kind of loneliness.

Not even for a moment.

Everything in our home would go to Eira first.

She would always come first.

On the weekends, I’d order the strawberry cream cake I’d wanted so badly as a kid.

Lucan would sit with me on the rug and watch our little girl smear frosting all over her face.

He’d smile the whole time.

I ran my fingers through my daughter’s soft hair.

And I thought about the little girl I’d once been.

The girl who’d clutched the hem of her shirt and nervously asked Mom if she could have a white

dress.

Lucan noticed the sadness in my eyes.

He reached over and took my hand.

“From now on, our Eira will never have to worry about what anyone else thinks.”

I nodded.

Every now and then, I’d get a text from an unknown number back in Spokane.

They were apologies from Mom, passed along through relatives.

Every one was filled with regret.

Sometimes she’d tell me about Sabine, too.

The debts.

How she was barely getting by.

She wanted me to feel sorry for her.

She wanted me to send money.

I’d read them, delete them, and move on.

The pain I’d left behind was a long way away.

Now I had a warm, loving home of my own.

At sunset, golden light spilled through the floor-to-ceiling windows.

Eira was asleep in my arms.

I lowered my head and kissed her forehead.

My heart was at peace.

The love I’d never received as a child, I gave to my daughter.

All of it.

For the rest of my life, this was all I needed.

(The End)