Hate Only Last So Long.

Do Better

"Not," Laura denied her daughter's topic of the publication. "I'm in the middle of running for the D.A. position and the slightest scandal could ruin my chances."

"I knew you'd say no." Olivia gritted through her teeth, throwing her head against the couch.

After spending the entire drive down to Beverly anxious, Olivia's mentally prepared herself for her mother's rejection.

"Say this friend of yours wins this writing competition of sorts. Her article will be circled city-wide," Laura rationalized, pacing her red pumps across the white marble floor of her living room. "Everyone we know will we that you were knocked up at only 14, then suffered a traumatic miscarriage while out of the country. It will call my parenting skills into public scrutiny. Your father will be accused of purposely getting rid of the fetus. Our family name will be put under the microscope, Olivia."

The clicking of her heels synced with the thumping of Olivia's heartbeat as it rose in speed.

"I want my story to help other girls my age, mom. Girls who go through insane stages of teen pregnancy or experience a deep loss they can't let go of," Olivia argued.

"What deep loss have you experienced, Olivia?" Laura deviled the recollection of her daughter losing a baby at 14. "You weren't going to keep it and probably wouldn't be gone through an abortion around the same time of the crash. That wreck was no great loss, I thank God you didn't experience the real tragedy of teen pregnancy. In all honestly, losing that baby when you did was a blessing in disguise."

Snapping her body straight and narrowing her eyes, Olivia glared at her mother as if she grew an extra head. "No great loss? Blessing in disguise?" She mimicked, believing her ears playing tricks on her. "I lost a baby, not a viral disease. Another life was growing inside of me and then was snuffed out before my eyes. And you call that a blessing."

"Please, don't be dramatic Olivia. Sure, you closed yourself from the land living for a little while because of the trauma from the crash. But you've been one to talk out your feelings, and you were fine after a few weeks." Laura snorted playing down the emotional stress she didn't know her daughter went through. "Now over a year later you're suddenly reliving the tragedy of miscarriage. Don't make me laugh. You never even tried to talk out any problems you were having after it all went down. No nightmares, depression, or anything."

"That's because I could never get you on the phone long enough about anything serious. I had to go through your assistant just to get you on the line." Olivia laughed at her mother's poor attempt to gaslight her way out of the discussion. "We never talked for longer than ten minutes and never once after I was finally in a proper mental state to talk it out did you ask me if I was really alright. You just took me for my forced smile and moved on like the baby and the miscarriage never happened."

"If that's the case why didn't you ever talk to your father, hmmm? If you were as depressed as you make it seem, why not tell him?"

"Dad did what he could to make me happy or try to help me understand my circumstances. Never pressed me about why I spotted going out, and held me when he found me sporadically crying out of the blue. He even got me into journaling and painting therapy because they were the only way I could express my complicated feelings after the miscarriage." Olivia revealed, stunning her mother. "I couldn't talk to him about most things going on in my head and the one person I needed to talk to didn't have time to talk. So yeah, I internalized the pain until I became numb. I can't do it anymore, mom."

Laura sighed, forcing herself to sit down. "Why didn't you tell me it was that bad? I could've had you on the next flight home. You could have been getting the help you need."

"I don't know, mom. There are a lot of things I could have handled better, but I was too young to understand any of it." Olivia notioned. "This is why I need to do this. I'm not the only girl who experiences these things. I can get all of the words out and maybe encourage another scared girl to get hers out too."

Nodding in agreement, Laura put her thoughts on her campaign aside. "If you feel like this will help, I will stand by you.