1 Ch 1: They were strong though

Maya sat at her desk, staring out the window at the city. She had only visited Paris a few times in her life, and she had always thought the city to have a subtle, captivating beauty to it.

But since moving to the bustling city it seemed different somehow; almost sinister. It was almost as if the towering buildings and buzzing city life mocked her efforts to make it her home.

Maya's husband and father of her two beautiful teenage girls had died in a motorbike accident a few months earlier, and after much deliberation, she had decided to pack up the girls and move to the city.

She had stayed with her sister and brother Clark for a few months, landing a job as a debtor's clerk at one of the local newspapers. After she had saved up a few months she went in search of a small apartment for her and her girls.

It wasn't at all easy though; rent in Paris was costly, but her job paid well and if she budgeted well enough, she knew they would make it. And so she settled on a little flat with two rooms, close to her work and the girls' school.

She had always wanted to move to Paris, but her husband had refused. Having been brought up in a small town, Keith had hated city life and though Maya herself came from a small town, she loved the city and it had always been in her heart.

Getting used to city life after living in a small one-horse town was quite a task, but with the help of her sister and brother Clark, she had managed. Though she was used to it now, she still didn't quite feel at home. The home had always been with Keith, for as long as she could remember.

But now she found herself having to make all the decisions where Keith would have been the one calling the shots. It was daunting, to say the least, but she managed. Maya had enrolled Samantha and Isabella in a good all pre-K girls school that didn't cost an arm and a leg, and they had made friends on their very first day.

They were excelling academically, and had even signed up for a range of extramural activities; Maya was proud of her girls. She knew deep down that they missed their father terribly; he was always the joker – always making everyone laugh. And it had hit them the hardest when they suddenly had to come to terms with his death.

They were strong though – like their father was, and she thanked Lord that they had inherited his strength of character. Maya never saw herself as a strong person, though she knew she could be when she had to be.

Though the one thing Maya could never get used to was being alone. Sure she had the girls, and at times she would let them cuddle up with her at night because she knew if she didn't she would die of loneliness. And every day, instead of getting better, the loneliness creeping up inside her escalated.