•It was so beautiful, my life was so beautiful at this moment. I could hear the music playing below me in the distance and these ugly yellow tunnel lights around me really were so blindingly beautiful against the city scape in the distance and here...
"Chloe dear you need to come out now. We're leaving in 10 minutes." Lara McLaren said to me from the other side of the door.
"I'm coming." I said and wiped my tears.
Mom's death happened 10 days ago now. I had been staying at the McLaren's house since my house had burned to the ground with nothing left other than a few walls, door frames and bricks.
There was one thing that hurt me more than the fact that my mom died, it was that she did it herself. I remember the day I was taken to the private investigators office and he had told me about it.
"Chloe, we've collected various proof and have studied all the possibilities but every piece of evidence led to one conclusion. Katie Langford's death has been announced as a suicidal ideation." The private investigator told me from across the desk.
"What?... how? This doesn't make sense. She wouldn't... she wouldn't" would she?
"The story as I see it occurred like this. Your mother arrived home at 6:47 pm as observed my a neighbour, Mrs. Ziegler. Katie turned on the gas on the stove and waited for 1 hour. Lit a match and what happened after is obvious. Gasoline vapors are denser than air, meaning these vapors will sink and collect at the lowest point. ... An open flame is not necessary to ignite gas vapors; one spark can cause gasoline vapors to ignite and that's how the house caught fire." He had explained to me.
I snapped out of my thoughts and stood up to leave. I observed myself in the mirror. I was gifted a black dress by Mrs. McLaren who had already started to buy me new clothes since all my old ones had burned in the fire and stuff despite me saying not to. I put on a pair of black platform Doc Martins which were Naya's and also grabbed a black YSL purse I borrowed from Lara.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
I headed out the guest bedroom and went out to the driveway. I looked over at my house a few feet away. My childhood home, all gone in flames. This was the exact house mom and I were so happy to call our own after mom payed it off only 2 weeks ago. Everything I owned was gone.
"Chloe, come on." Michael said from the car. I wiped my tears and sat inside Mr. McLaren's Bentley beside Noah in the back seat.
Noah rubbed my shoulder and gave me a small smile. I could tell he had also been crying. My mother was a second mother to him just like how his mother was a second mother to me. He really did love her so loosing her must have been hard for him too.
I put my head on his shoulder and he stroked my arm while waiting to get to the funeral place.
We got out of the car at the funeral home. It was a really big church and the whole town, all 612 people were here.
We went inside and headed to the front. We sat down in our seats at the front alongside my best-friends and father.
The priest arrived at the podium and he started the prayer. I zoned out since I didn't believe in God anymore, not after he took away the only human who loved me unconditionally.
