Opportunity | Lana Parilla fanfic

Chapter 4

A couple of weeks have passed since Lux's arrival at Lana's house. The two had gradually created their own routine that was now familiar to them and that had helped them to get to know each other.

The little girl saw in Lana the maternal figure that she had never had but that she imagined in her head, the woman showed the little girl the best part of her without even realizing it. She was becoming a mutual support, the woman was recovering from a divorce, the child had to learn to live a real life. They were both learning to love in their own way somehow but they were learning.

Lana was on a break from her main job and was taking some small advertising shoot or small interview in the vicinity of the area where she lived so that she didn't have to leave Lux because she didn't want to admit it and she still didn't have the courage to say it out loud but she fall in love with the little kid.

They spent their time in a carefree way, they sang, danced, walked with Lola, swam in the pool, painted, read, cooked... slowly Lana had begun to expose the child to the presence of others and their routine included walks on the beach and in the park where the girl generally met people of her age. Lana loved seeing that being blossom, initially she closed in her cocoon, shy as ever, opening up to the world, slowly, starting to talk to the children and then even playing with them, she was proud of the progress that Lux was making. There was a lot of work to be done with the child, time to make up for but it was definitely a good start.

Lana had always been a morning person so she liked to get up early to see the sun peeking out with coffee in hand reading the newspaper. She had learned to sneak out of her bedroom without waking Lux who had got into the habit of sleeping with Lana because she was still suffering from nightmares and being close to her helped her to relax and feel safer. .

That morning on the front page, the headline news almost made the woman choke. The photo of an exploded building and a small photo of the woman so familiar, Maria, her cousin, Lux's mother. She knew that Maria was involved in something that was not recommended, it was now clear especially for what Lux says sometimes about her life. What Lux considered home was an illegal drug laboratory which had blown up and caused the death of the victim in the photo killed her. The tears began to pour in, a mixture of anger and disappointment.

At that moment the little girl appears in the kitchen and the woman quickly wipes her tears and throws the newspaper in the trash. 

She prepares a bowl of cereal for the little girl.

"Eat up" she says to the little girl with a hint of a smile before apologising for a business call in her office.

Lana tries to organise her ideas and picks up the phone calling her lawyer after explaining the situation and instructing the man to take care of claiming the body to take care of the funeral ceremony and also take care of Lux her uncertain situation, greets him to go back to the girl.

"Hey sweetie we have to talk" the woman says reaching the little girl sitting on the sofa intent on seeing a cartoon.

"About?"

"This morning I learned something.."

"Are you sad?"

"A little.."

"Why?"

"Because your mom is now an angel"

"Is she dead?" the woman nods and the little girl undoes the woman's grip and runs to her room and returns after a few seconds with that worn backpack with which she had arrived and which she never left.

"This is for you" the little girl takes a file out of her backpack and hands it to the woman as a single tear falls to the floor "Mama told me to give it to you when this would happen"

"What do you mean when it would have happened?"

"Mom told me it would happen because bad men made her do those experiments that were dangerous and that I shouldn't be sad when it happened because you would have solved everything.."

"She already knew what she was in... fantastic..." anger was the prevailing feeling in Lana's heart. She didn't understand why she hadn't asked for help earlier so as not to get to that tragic point.

"Lana?"

"Yes Sweetie"

"I promised not to be sad but I can't keep the promise.." she began to cry.

"Oh baby come here" the woman takes the little girl in her arms and holds her tightly, whispering words of comfort in her ear.