Moving On

That day, I walked out of the venue unnoticed while everyone had sat there shocked and covered in cake. I spent my summer with the Harlands, who helped me to open up my own bank account to put away all the money I had earned. There were quite a few more zeroes than I had thought there would be, and I had the feeling that they had added some funds to it, but I took the money with grace.

The Harland family was the closest thing to a family that I’d had, and they even flew with me to find my own place and get settled in. Their final gift to me was the car that I had been denied along with driving lessons. They were going well, although I terrified the heck out of my teacher.

When the semester started, I poured myself into my studies, focusing on all of the classes that I knew were going to be hard. Although I didn’t need to get a job, I picked one up anyways. It was at a little café around the corner of the place I had gotten near the school. A lot of people I went to class with stopped by and had become fond of my barista abilities.

I even met a boy! Henry was so sweet and charming! He had also arrived to the school on a scholarship, and was on the school’s track and field team. Whenever we had time to go out on a date, it was often on the track to help him practice or to study for exams. Occasionally, we did other things together as well but school took the majority of our time and we were okay with being minimalistic with what we did.

One evening, as we were sitting at my dining room table working on a biochemistry project together, my phone rang. It was an unknown number. Reluctantly, I picked it up.

“Sarah?” Came the voice of my mother. I was too stunned to speak. “Please. I know you’re mad at us. But would you please listen?”

I swallowed. “Theres nothing you can say that can change the past, mom.” I said as bravely as I could muster.

Henry reached out and squeezed my hand. “I know, sweetie. I know. Your father and I- We- We’re beside ourselves. We want to make it right. Please.”

“Nothing you can do is ever going to make up for taking away all the best years of my youth and giving them to someone else.”

“We know, Sarah. We know. Your father and I still want to try, though. We disowned her, you know. We kicked her out of the house and cut her out of everything.”

“So you abandoned her, the same way you abandoned me?”

There was a long pause. When she didn’t answer I did. “You can’t just abandon your children because they screw up, mom. What Kylee did was unforgiveable, but you still vowed to be her parents when you took her in. The same way in which you vowed to protect me when you chose to have me. Does that duty not mean anything to you?” I asked.

“Sure, there is a large part of me that is screaming on the inside because Karma finally caught Kylee, but that doesn’t mean she deserved it. She needed a parent to step in and teach her what was right just as much as I needed a parent to show me love and safety.

“I can forgive you, mom, but I am never going to forget. Maybe someday we can talk. That day isn’t today, though. I have a lot more healing I need to do before I can ever even consider talking to you again.” I heard her light sobs in the background as I hung up on her.

Could Kylee have learned a lesson if her antics had been caught early on? I truly have no idea. I can’t say that I have any interest in finding out, though. Maybe now that she has fallen on her face, she could finally learn some humility.

As for my parents, they were paying for their mistakes too. Aside from being remorseful for all that they did, their company was failing, too. Rumor spread about the family drama and their stocks dropped. Dad was a good business man, though. Some day, they would turn it back around. It wouldn’t be anytime soon, though.

None of it mattered, anyways. I had finally gotten away. I was living my life, surrounded finally by friends and people who loved me.

What more could a girl ask for?

The End