One Cold Moment

Chapter 3

Marina Navice was everything anyone could wish for. At 23, she looked like your average girl fair-skinned, with full, succulent lips and sloe eyes, framed by long, wavy black hair she always wore down.

Growing up with the only family she had ever known, Marina had learned over the years to care deeply for her grandmother and cousin, Reina.

Growing up in Alaska had been tough. By the age of 12, Marina already felt responsible for the pain her grandmother constantly endured. Determined to ease her suffering, she began working odd jobs at an early age. As time went on, Marina balanced work, school, and her family like a seasoned juggler, making them her top priorities.

At 15, they moved to Mexico. Life didn’t get easier. Marina continued to take on multiple jobs just to make ends meet rent, electricity bills, the emergency fund, and school fees never stopped coming.

As the months passed, she noticed Joana growing older, more fragile. It became clear that her grandmother couldn’t carry the burden any longer. Marina took on everything herself.

She was no stranger to hard work. Even during university, she worked as a salesgirl, a waitress, a dishwasher, a cook, and a bartender whatever paid.

By the time she turned 20, she had done nearly every part-time job available in Mexico. Eventually, she landed a job at a cocoa plantation that paid well and allowed her time to study and care for her family.

With a stable income, she no longer needed to juggle multiple jobs. She was content working at the plantation.

The night before her graduation, she asked her manager Angelo, for the day off. He not only agreed but told her to take the whole day after the ceremony to celebrate.

After the graduation, Marina took her family out to eat something they rarely did. It was a beautiful moment, sitting together with no worries, just basking in the joy of their shared happiness.

They returned home late in the evening. Reina collapsed on the couch in their narrow living room, while Joana busied herself in the kitchen.

The joy from earlier faded as Marina lay on the bed she shared with Reina. She knew it was time to find a real job a less demanding one that paid more. She was now a graduate in Accounting, and she was confident opportunities would open up across Mexico.

She had once thought of leaving Mexico after graduation to find a job, provide Reina the surgery she needed, and improve her grandmother’s health. But now, she knew she had to take things slow. Leaving immediately wouldn’t solve everything.

Mexico was a big country. Finding a job wouldn’t be too difficult. She smiled to herself, still in disbelief. She was finally going to work in an actual company and earn real money. She would finally be able to pay for Reina’s surgery.

Smiling, she lay back on the bed and stared at the ceiling, her mind drifting through memories the struggles, the fear, the paranoia, the pain, the sadness and the source of it all. her mother.

“Huh,” she thought. “She never did come for me, did she?”

Closing her eyes, her mind traveled back to that awful day the last time she ever saw her mother.

For most of her childhood, she had forgotten her mother’s face. And yet, every time she thought she had erased it from memory, it would surge back like wildfire.

She couldn’t forget her no matter how hard she tried.

Deep down, Marina wished she knew her father. Yet another part of her wished she could stop wondering about him.

From the moment she could recognize faces, she had never once seen her father's. Not even in a photo. Only one image lingered in her mind her mother standing beside a man she guessed might be him.

When she was 11, she once asked her grandmother about her father. As always, the answer broke her heart.

“You have no business with your father, girl,” Joana had said sharply. “And you are never to go looking for him. He doesn’t want you, don’t you see, Marina?”

She received the same response every time until she gave up asking altogether.

Still, she couldn’t help but wonder. What had really happened to her mother that night in the mall? Where had she gone?

She had been just a child, but she knew something wasn’t right.

She remembered the night Anita brought her to Joana.

“Where is Beatrix?” Joana had asked, fear creeping into her voice.

Anita whispered something into her ear, and Joana’s face changed sadness etched into every wrinkle. Marina had sensed something terrible had happened.

She had met Reina that night, sitting quietly in Joana’s home. Reina was six then, and she could talk. She had welcomed Marina and held her each night she cried for her mother.

Joana would look at them with a sadness they never understood until later.

Four days after Marina arrived, Joana learned Anita was dead. The very next morning, she packed their things and fled with her two granddaughters.

Much later, Joana would tell Marina about her two daughters both lost to fate while she watched helplessly.

Beatrix, her firstborn, had run off with a wealthy man she claimed to love. Soon after, Joana’s second daughter, Steph, became pregnant out of wedlock. She lived with Joana until she died giving birth to Reina. From that moment on, Joana raised Reina as her own.

Marina often felt a deep pity for her grandmother. Losing both daughters must have been unbearable.

She always tried to fill the void she and Reina became Joana’s second chance at motherhood.

Blinking back the heaviness in her heart, Marina sighed, rose from the bed, and stepped outside to help Grandma Joana with dinner.

_________

A/N: hey loves, if you enjoyed reading this chapter, please like and comment ❤️ and don't forget to invite your friends to check it out! 😍.