Mum's Consolation

I didn’t talk to anyone when I got home. I just went straight to my room and cried until the next morning, and when I woke up, I started another round of crying. My pillow was soaked, and my nose kept running. I felt like I was slowly fading away, like I was no longer myself but just a shadow of who I used to be.

My phone notification broke the silence, and I struggled to pick it up. Seeing Christopher's post on social media made me sniffle with curiosity. The caption says, "Clara Morgan, the true mate". 

The post had a picture of him and the woman he kissed last night. The moment I saw it, a fresh wave of tears hit me. I had believed I found love, but it turned out to be nothing more than a cruel lie.

I turned off my phone and cried all over again, my heart felt too broken and the pain was too much to bear. I lay on my bed, soaking the sheets with tears, when someone knocked on the door. I didn’t respond right away because I was too drained to care.

"Open this door, Isabella," my mom said calmly from the other side.

Her words that followed hit me even harder. "You’ve embarrassed our family in front of the world, and now you’re hiding in your room? In my own house?" Her voice was calm, but every word cut deep.

That was when it hit me. Someone must have recorded everything. It was probably all over social media already. That was how she found out. The thought made my head spin. I felt like I was losing my mind.

Bitterness, anger, and pain twisted inside me, making me feel sick. I was drowning in shame, and I didn’t know how to come out of it. I couldn’t breathe under the weight of it all.

"Will you keep your mum standing, Isabella?" she asked again, her voice firmer this time.

I forced myself out of bed and opened the door. She stood there, looking me straight in the eye. And just like that, tears filled my eyes again and spilled over. I couldn’t stop crying.

Seeing her face broke me all over again. "I’m sorry, Mum," I sobbed, thinking she was going to yell at me for humiliating the family. If there was one thing she hated more than anything, it was seeing our family name dragged through the mud.

Dad wasn’t home. He was overseas, busy with work and always focused on growing the family business. After all, our family had always been seen as weak, and he believed success was the only way to change that. My older brother was rarely around either, tied up with his work at the hospital. So at home, it was just me and my mum most of the time.

"I swear, I never meant to shame our family. I’m sorry for disappointing you," I choked out.

But instead of scolding me for what happened, my mother raised her voice because I was crying.

"A man played with your emotions, rejected you, and embarrassed you in public. And all you can do is cry? I didn’t raise you to be this weak. Stop listening to people who say being an Omega makes you less. That does not define who you are!" she shouted, not out of anger for what happened, but because she hated seeing me break like this.

"Did you do anything wrong?" she asked, and I slowly shook my head.

"Speak!" she said firmly.

"No, Mum, I didn’t," I replied.

"Then this was done on purpose. That boy never loved you from the start," she said and left her words hanging in the air for a moment.

"Come down when you're ready to eat," she added, then turned and walked away, closing the door behind her. That was around 8 in the morning. I stayed right there, sitting in the same spot, until 2 in the afternoon, replaying her words over and over in my head.

Those six hours changed something in me. I had dark, unsettling thoughts about everything she said. My heart was heavy, and my mind was racing.

Eventually, I forced myself up and dragged my tired body into the bathroom to wash up. Christopher had broken me into pieces. I wasn’t healed, not even close, but I tucked the pain deep inside my heart and decided to focus on what really mattered.

I stepped out of my room and headed to the dining table. The food was still there, all neatly covered. I looked around and figured Mum was resting in her room, so I sat down and started eating.

At first, I felt strong, like I could just forget the past and move forward, but even eating was hard. I had a bit of an appetite, but I could barely chew. That was how deeply Christopher’s actions had hurt me.

I felt a sharp, real pain every time I remembered what happened. Still, I forced some food into my stomach before heading back to my room. I needed rest. The dark circles under my eyes could scare anyone. I looked like a ghost.

I slept from that afternoon until late at night. But it wasn’t peaceful. That moment, the one that shattered me kept replaying in my dreams. I kept waking up and crying all over again before falling asleep once more. It went on like that until I finally got a little stable sleep.

Then someone started knocking on my door. From somewhere in my half-asleep mind, I swear I felt like I could scream or even kill whoever it was. I was trying so hard to hold myself together, and now someone was bothering me again?

"Who’s there?" I mumbled with irritation in my voice, clearly annoyed. I already knew it had to be Mum. I just hoped she didn’t wake me up just for dinner.

"I guess you live in a different world now?" I heard my mum say, and I struggled to get out of bed to go see her.

"You have a visitor, Isabella," she said in a low voice as soon as I opened the door.