Chapter fifteen: First choice

"You are right," she sighed.

Sofia was stunned. She didn't expect it to be so easy, on the other side Serena frowned. She didn't think that it would be easy to get rid of Sofia with her nature of getting out of situations.

But she also didn't expect it to hurt the way that it did when she saw her mother clinging to her. The girl had her killed and buried in the middle of nowhere and there was no taking that back.

Her heart squeezed in pain when she saw her mother holding on tightly to Sofia's hand. The tears she had shed before might have been fake but the pain expressed in her tears now we're too real to deny.

"I have been unfair to you," Ivy admitted.

Serena's heart shattered to pieces. Her mother had been unfair to her since the day she decided to adopt Sofia and bring her into their lives. Alex and Marga might have used her and led her astray but it became clear to her that they weren't the only ones to blame.

Had her mother taken the time to be there for her as she was for Sofia then she wouldn't have gotten lost. Her mother would have stopped her from falling prey to all the conspiracies that were planned against her.

"I shouldn't have snatched Damian from you without asking you first. You have waited for him for so long and I think that you..."

"I hope for your sake that you aren't insinuating to take him from me," Serena snapped angered by her mother's behavior.

The woman had heard everything that Sofia said to her. It doesn't matter what excuse Sofia had to offer for why she behaved like that but no mother could forgive such words so easily. It sting her to see her mother forget it so easily as though she meant nothing.

"I'm tired," she mumbled before her mother could put in a word. "I wish you loved me as you love her," she added referring to Sofia.

Ivy opened her mouth and closed them back up again. Serena stormed off to the house, it was supposed to be her turn to hurt her enemies. She forgot that in a war, both parties always end up hurting in one way or the other.

The reality of her mother was too much to bear. She had just come back to her, returned for a second chance of getting the love of a mother that Sofia stole from her along with her allies. Yet the reality of things shocked her beyond words.

Her feet race into the house. Alex was wrong for her since he barely ever loved her but her mother could hardly be different from him. She too treated her like a substitute.

Serena retreated to a dark room inside the mansion. The darkness of the room provided comfort to her aching heart. Being away from prying eyes gave her a moment to break down from the pain.

Her mind kept going back to everything that had come to pass since she woke up. She showed her mother the different side of her adopted sister and made her open her eyes. But still, her mother ignored everything and chose Sofia over her.

She didn't let her mother finish her words for fear of what they meant to her. She couldn't believe that she forgot everything, the suicide attempt might have been fake, but her mother didn't know that. Which meant that he was okay with that outcome as long as she didn't lose Sofia.

Serena placed her hand on her belly, in the past life she had wished for a child so badly. Alex refused to let her bear a child, she deduced that it was his fear of having children that were the cause of his choice. In truth, he could never let her have his child because he felt someone else worthy of that right.

Serena cried out in pain. To everyone who surrounded her, she seemed like a substitute for someone they preferred more than her. She felt her hands shake. A new reality sinking in.

She dropped to the ground. So many emotions ran through her body at that time, that she couldn't decide what to feel and what not to feel. Anger, sadness, pain, incomplete, and broken were among the feelings that towered over her.

Serena remained still, afraid to scream her lungs out and attract attention to her. It was already too much everything that has happened in the garden.

Found out that she wasn't good enough to be someone's first choice. The thought burnt through her heart, losing friends, her lover, and her boyfriend was bearable. Realizing that her mother was among the people she lost broke the pieces of her heart into a million pieces.

She had the illusion that adding her mother to her team was her victory forgetting that Sofia already had her hands wrapped around that fort.

Drained of energy, she remained in that position not knowing what else to do. Starting at the ceiling, all the anxious thoughts that stole her mind were weighing on her soul.

The hopes she had weaved of drawing strength from her mother to win her battles against her enemies had been broken. The feeling of having her shield her from all that life had to throw her way was shaken.

Serena cried silently. Her tears promise pain for Sofia on the coming day. She had fallen but not for long, Serena's hate for her sister grew more with the moments passing by.

Her eyes are full of pain. For once she wished that her mother found her worthy enough. For her to leave the toxic girl and hold her hand instead. It was funny how life worked.

Since morning she had feigned her pain to how mother treated Sofia to her and in the end, she ended up having those feeling for real.

"Why can't it ever be me?" she raised the question to no one in particular as she was alone in the room.