"Here, I brought tea for you."
"What do you want?"
"What do you mean I don't want anything," I turn to leave. but then I turned back, "actually I was wondering if you could please help me with some money for my parents." I say fiddling with my finge...
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"Cora! Darling! How are you?"
"I'm fine, mother, what brings you here this early in the morning?" I say, trying my best to sound like Cora.
"Oh, sweetheart, it's your sister. I'm worried about her."
Are you now? "Why?"
"What do you mean by ‘why’?"
"I'm her mother. Don't I have the right to be worried?"
"She's fine."
"And that is wonderful, but what about us? You know Mark was going to invest in the family business if he got married to Mia ,and now she's off playing princess in God knows where, so what happens to us? Besides, sweetheart, the 1 million Xavier gave to us is finished."
"So?"
"So I need you to get Xavier to give us more money. Margaret is coming over next week for lunch and if it isn't perfect our family is going to be the topic for gossip in the estate for a few weeks! You know we can't have that either!"
"Mom! How did the conversation move from you being worried about Mia to you asking for money?"
"Yes I'm worried about her, but she decided to run away and bring disgrace to the family. I don't know what's gotten into that child. She was never like this."
I felt anger rising from the deepest part of my stomach. "Mom, Mark cheated on me- her! He cheated on her! With the best man! How is this Mia's fault?"
"Sweetheart, Mark is just a human and humans make mistakes. Your sister has to learn to be patient. I'd have never had you girls if I left your father the day I caught him with another woman on our bed, or there wouldn't have been a reputation to protect if I left him each time I found him with a new mistress."
I wanted to scream, yell at her to stop, but then Cora wouldn't have done that. She'd always been the tougher one. She handles pain better than I can ever dream of. "Mom, I want to be alone, please leave. I'll send the money to you."
"That sounds delightful!" She claps both hands together and stands up. "Well, I'll take my leave then. Do tell your sister to give me a call, I think she blocked me. That ungrateful child. This is what I get for raising her with love and affection."
Well, that's one way to describe how we were raised.
