I don’t know how I managed to convince Robert that I would be fine going home by myself. All I knew was that this had to end, tonight.
When Robert had hugged me, it felt like that was exactly what I had needed. I needed his arms around me to hold me together, but when he let go my self loathing only increased. I was Dalia fucking Adler, I did not need anyone
I put my hand over the weird pain. It was on my right side, on my bump. It only lasted for a few moments before it subsided. My mom sat down on the couch and grabbed the remote, but Clara and I stayed in our spot.The child protective services lady had told me that either my mom has to go or Clara will go and live with Max and Liann. She was pregnant too now, and I just knew that even if she was forced to live there, they wouldn’t take proper care of her. It would be a full on Harry Potter scenario, she would be nothing more than their slave.I looked down at Clara. Her blonde curls were a mess, her eyes were wide and looking at me now, rather than our bitch of a mother. I had tried to kick my mom out, and it didn’t work. So there was only one option now.I picked up Clara and headed into our bedroom. I sat her down on the bed and closed the door behind us. It was a little past midnight now, but the two of us were wide awake. I gave her a
“Take care of yourself, okay?” I told Hannah and hugged her tightly. She had let me and Clara sit and wait in their secret little hideout, and kept any ill-wishing people away from us with her extensive vocabulary of curse words. Some of her… Coworkers also greeted us kindly, one even sang a lullaby for Clara.This was what I would miss about the neighbourhood. In the news prostitutes were either portrayed as horrible drug addicts or as numb girls, no one ever showed this kind side of them. They were just people, like the rest of us, trying to make the best of a shitty situation.“You too Dalia.” She smiled at me and patted Clara on the back. I had picked her up, there were a few too many needles on the ground, and she was battling the exhaustion with all her might. Occasionally I would feel her body relax in my arms, but she always woke right back up and tried to stay awake again.I said goodbye to some of the other gi
The adrenaline had worn off with me. Instead I just felt tired. Tired of having to juggle everything, tired of making choices. I wanted nothing more than to just curl up into bed and sleep the month away, but I owed Robert the bare minimum of an explanation.My heart was pounding in my throat when I approached his door. Though we were definitely closer now than we had been a few months ago, I still knew that he would rightfully so chose the baby over me. The very same baby I had been impacting with my dumbass choices.“Come in,” I heard his low voice say when I knocked on the half open door. He was sitting on the edge of the bed, his hands hidden away in his pockets. The sheets on the bed had been discarded to one side, the pillows were messy too. I had definitely disturbed his sleep.“I am so sorry.” I said. I really was, I hated needing other people to depend on. I hated being this much of a liability.“What happened?
I dreamed that I was standing on a high tower, with an entire crowd of people watching me from the ground. They were screaming things at me, but I didn’t hear what they were saying. All I heard was Robert telling me to jump.I opened my eyes, but I wasn’t greeted by my yellow walls and sleeping sister. I wasn’t lying on a lumpy mattress with the sound of the TV from the other room. I had woken up in this bed before though.Why was I in Robert’s room?It all came back to me in pieces. Saying goodbye to my home, having a panic attack for the first time in years, I would really have rather just forgotten all about it. It felt like waking up to a bad hangover, I just wanted to turn back around and let my dreams distract me again.When I did turn around though, I caught sight of his alarm clock. It was already ten o’clock, and Clara’s school wasn’t exactly next door to this place.I shot
I definitely did not raise Clara to know this.We were seated at the large dinner table. The private chef still could not look me in the eye but did give Clara a friendly wave. My head was playing an endless loop of Clara knocking her glass over or spilling her food all down her shirt. We weren’t even in a restaurant, but it still felt like this place was way too fancy for her to do that.Robert was at one end of the table, while I was on the other. Clara sat to my right, looking either silently at me or at the silverware in front of us. Things certainly did not look this shiny at our place, though I saw that she had a special kids’ set where the knife wasn’t that sharp.This time, the silence was awkward. I had at least informed Robert that Clara thought he was just a friend of mine, so we couldn’t discuss any pregnancy stuff. I was the one link between the two people, but I was coming up empty on conversation starters.
Her long blonde hair was cascading down her back. She wore a light pink dress with high heels and smiled a pearly white smile when she saw me.“It’s good to finally meet you,” she said and walked up to me to shake my hand. “I’m Emily.”She was a bit taller than me, with the most impossibly light blue eyes. That seemed like a family trade apparently. Robert was still standing near the door, watching this play out with interest.“It’s nice to meet you too,” I answered and got up from my chair to greet her properly. “I’m Dalia.”“I’m Clara.” Clara budded in, looking at Emily with big eyes. Even though she now knew that Robert wasn’t a vampire, this newcomer was definitely a strong contender to be one too. She was stunningly gorgeous and very pale, a perfect match to what we had seen on TV.“Well, it is very nice to meet you too Clara.” Emily smi
I laid in the comfy bed, staring up at the perfectly white ceiling. Clara was softly mumbling in her sleep beside me, her body all curled together in a fetal position. I placed my hand on my bump.We had spent the last three days here, but tomorrow we would leave. I found a nice apartment in a better neighbourhood than before. Robert would be paying rent while I was pregnant, but even after I would still be able to afford it. It was in a great and colourful neighbourhood, with loads of (legal) street art and even a little flower shop right outside our building. It was perfect.I patted the bump. It really was perfect, but it would still take some time for it to become our home like our last house was. It still hurt me that I would never get to see it again. There was already some furniture in the house, but buying a new mattress was high on the priority list.I quietly got out of the bed. I was never going to fall asleep. I could postpone it every other ni
My last apartment didn’t have a doorbell. It kept getting stolen off the wall and I grew tired of paying $30 every time to replace it. That’s why every time someone ran my doorbell in my new apartment I figured it must be on TV.“Sorry,” I apologised to Kiara after she had to ring three times until I realised. “Come in.”Kiara still smiled when she saw me, but it wasn’t her usual bright smile. She was unsure, because she had seen the tabloids with me and Robert in it. She didn’t know he was a billionaire, and the tabloids had certainly kept digging up things about my past.Over the last two days, I had looked through some nearby thrift shops, another pro to living in an artsy neighbourhood, and found a wooden dining room table, a closet for in my bedroom and some new toys for Clara. This was the first time she had her own room in my house, and we were determined to make the most of it.“Oh,