Beyond Spoken Words

Chapter 1

The night was longer than usual or maybe it just seemed that way to Whitney as she lay on her bed at 3 in the morning. This wasn’t Whitney’s first dance with insomnia but by now she had done this dance so many times that she saw no use in fighting it. The night was especially cold today that Whitney couldn’t get up from bed so she just laid there and stared at the ceiling but as seconds turned to minutes and minutes to hours, the time became 6:30 am and Whitney had no choice but to get up. She quickly prepared for school and quietly made her way to the door when she heard a voice from behind saying “You just want to up and leave without saying bye; birthday girl”. She turned around and saw was her mum and replied, “Wouldn’t dream of it” as she went in for a hug. “Happy Birthday Whitney”, Alexis said as she hugged her daughter and dragged her to the dinning.
“Thanks mum”
“Alright, I know we agreed nothing big but I couldn’t help myself”, Alexis said as she brought out a chocolate cake from the kitchen.
“Mum you didn’t have to”
“Hush child this is your 16 birthday, I had to do this, plus when you see what your dad got for you you’ll see this is nothing”. This statement didn’t sit well with Whitney as she stopped eating when she heard her father’s name, “I don’t anything from that man”. The atmosphere in the dining room became intense and they could both feel it, so Whitney decided to break the tension by grabbing her bag and heading for the door for school but was brought to a halt by her mother’s words “I know you haven’t forgiven him for what happen over a decade ago but holding unto this anger won’t help you and it will continue to tear this family apart”. Whitney was quickly taken back to what happened 10 years ago, to the night which changed her life.
“I’m not tearing this family apart, your husband did that all those years ago”, Whitney said as she came out of her trance and left for school