𝕋𝕙𝕖 𝕊𝕥𝕠𝕣𝕪 𝕠𝕗 𝔸𝕞𝕖𝕝𝕚𝕒 ℝ𝕠𝕤𝕒𝕝𝕚𝕖 𝕊𝕞𝕚𝕥𝕙 |ℝ𝕚𝕧𝕖𝕣𝕕𝕒𝕝𝕖|

💫 𝙲𝚑𝚊𝚙𝚝𝚎𝚛 4⃣ 💫

Amelia jerked awake with a loud gasp, a cold sweat covering her face.

As she wiped some of it away with her hand, she noticed that the shirt she was wearing was also completely drenched in the same cold sweat that had covered her face.

It was then that she finally noticed that she was completely alone in a bedroom that she recognized immediately as that belonging to her mother.

It wasn't a dream then, she thought. I really am home again.

Just then, Alice entered the bedroom from the hallway outside.

She noticed right away that Amelia was awake and made her way over to the bed and sat down on it before reaching over and gently taking Amelia's hand in hers, leading the teen to scoot closer to her until she could rest her head on the older woman's shoulder.

"You okay, honey?"

Amelia didn't speak but simply nodded her head yes in response to her mother's question.

"Why don't you go take a quick shower and then come downstairs? Your sisters are both already awake and they're very excited to see you again."

Amelia lifted her head from her mother's shoulder enough to be able to look at her.

"Really? Betty and Polly really are excited to see me again? I was kinda worried that maybe they wouldn't want to see me."

Alice could feel her heart break a little at the words that her youngest had just spoken.

It genuinely pained her that Amelia thought that her sisters might not have wanted to see her again.

She wrapped her arms around Amelia and pressed a few soft kisses against her hair before she was finally able to respond.

"Of course they want to see you, baby. They've both missed you just as much as I have. And just like me, they both refused to ever give up hoping that you'd come home to us."

Amelia smiled before getting up from the bed to do what her mother had suggested a few moments prior: taking a quick shower.

As she allowed her body to be warmed by the heavenly hot water that was coming out of the shower head above her head, Amelia couldn't help but think about how her mother and sisters might possibly react if they were to learn just where she had been for the last nine and a half years but especially if they were to find out just how she'd ended up there.

Once she had finished in the shower, Amelia wrapped a fluffy towel around her body and used another to dry her wet hair a bit.

It was then that she took notice of the clothes that were neatly stacked on the counter next to the sink.

Her mother must have found her some more old clothes of Betty's to wear for the time being.

(Let's pretend for the sake of this story that Betty and Polly both stopped wearing mostly pastels following Alice and Hal's divorce and the same with Alice and her wardrobe too)

She quickly got dressed and after borrowing one of her mother's elastics to pull her still damp hair up and away from her face in a messy bun, she slowly made her way out of her mother's room and down the stairs.

Once she'd reached the bottom of the stairs, she was immediately greeted by the sight of her second oldest sister Elizabeth or Betty as she preferred to be called.

The older blonde girl was struggling hard to not burst into tears as she pulled her baby sister into her arms and held her close for the first time in years.

Amelia, on the other hand, began to cry uncontrollably the second she felt Betty wrap her arms around her but the latter didn't speak.

She simply held her little sister a bit tighter, even placing her hand on the back of Amelia's head ever so gently as the teen continued to sob in her arms.

The two were joined a moment later by Polly who wrapped her arms around both of her younger sisters as best she could.

The siblings stood there together for a few more moments, all three of them crying happily as they took in the fact that they were all together in the same place once again after so long.

Alice was fighting her own tears as she watched her girls and she sent a silent thank you to whoever was listening for bringing her youngest daughter back to her and her two elder daughters again.

What none of them realized at that particular moment though is that their happiness would be somewhat short-lived and it wasn't going to be pretty either.

A/N: Please feel free to leave a vote and/or comment below and let me know what you think of this chapter and this story as a whole so far.

Hope that you all have an amazing day/afternoon/night wherever you may be and please stay safe!!
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