"There's only so many times I can put my heart back together"
"Why are you so sure I'll break it again?"
🖤🤍🖤
Andrew had a perfect life. Or so others would think.
Living under his father's control was a nightmare. Having his dreams ignored and bei...
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The sun was high in the sky when Nicole came back. Laura had texted her, saying she had arrived, so she figured it was time to return to her childhood home. She didn't care if her father was ready to fix what he broke; she wasn't ready to forgive. Yet that wouldn't stop her from spending Christmas with her sisters.
They were all in the kitchen when she joined. Rita and Laura sitting by one side of the table, and the others opposite. Her father was trying to break the silence with the typical school questions, but he kept getting dry answers from Laura.
She knocked twice on the door to announce her arrival and leaned against its frame. Her father got up, looking at her in shock, just as Mia was.
"Nicole! Where were you all night?"
"So you know my name now, hun?"
He looked at the floor for a second before facing her again, cheeks red. She knew it wasn't embarrassment. In fact, she knew exactly what would follow. It wasn't her first time being out all night without permission. The difference was that this time she was a nineteen-year-old with her own roof and her own paycheck, not a silly teen.
"You can't leave the home like that!" he hissed through gritted teeth. "Do you know how worried Mia and I were? You just left without saying where you were going and now you come back like nothing happened? You're grounded."
Nicole bit her cheek to keep the smile from appearing. She nodded, as if she cared. "Okay."
"Okay?" he repeated, watching her take a seat by Laura and filling a cup with orange juice.
"Yeah. All good."
Considering the conversation over, Nicole gave Laura a side hug, ready to dive into whatever new story she had to tell. However, her father wasn't done. He couldn't comprehend her sudden change of behaviour. The day before, she looked like she saw a ghost. Now, she was fine, but still not her normal self. There should've been some yelling and grounded arguments he would deny with his parent status.
"You're forbidden from going out at night."
She cocked a brow, looking at him as if he owed her everything and she owed him nothing. "If you say so."
"I say so."
"Okay."
He blinked, but sat down in his chair. They resumed their meal, even if he didn't look quite convinced. The silence fell again, only the sound of Mia's son Nintendo in the background.
The triplets went to Rita's room, where they had placed two camping mattresses by her bed. Nicole sat on the bed, hugging a pillow against her chest, and Rita sat opposite her, leaning against the wall. It was crazy how it looked the same as when they left.
"Dad's being such a jerk. What happened to mending the relationship?" said Laura, sitting on a chair and throwing her legs on top of the desk.
"If he really wanted to, he would've kicked that skank out already."
