GLIMMER AND DECAY [COMPLETED]

CHAPTER 21

"I'M GLAD THAT WE made up, flower," mother muttered as she placed a slice of her favorite pumpkin pie on my plate. "It's a good thing that you finally understood how wrong it was to make such a request."

"Yes, mother," I answered before eating my slice of pumpkin pie.

I did my best to hide the nervousness I was feeling and tried to show how happy I am just by being here. But as the night fell, my decision of escaping for the floating lights became firm.

I waited until mother had fallen asleep before getting out of bed. I took the sling bag under my bed, and carefully placed Pascal inside it as well.

With careful footsteps, I went out of my room. The big window in the living room was the only way out of the tower, so I had to climb down using my hair.

I was carefully threading my hair on the lever when I heard mother's voice. "Where are you going, flower?"

I froze from what I was doing as a chill ran down my spine. I slowly let go of my hair and the lever, letting my golden locks fall on the floor. It was a soft thud, but it felt like a loud bang from the nervousness that's slowly erupting in my chest.

"I thought I made it clear enough, my dear."

I couldn't swallow the lump on my throat as I looked at mother. I know how angry she was right now because of how calm she spoke.

"I'm sorry, mother," I mumbled, my breath hitching.

"I'm disappointed, child." She only shook her head as she slowly made her way closer to me. As if the world was mocking me, thunder roared behind me and a flash of lightning illuminated the room.

"How can you do this to me when I was the one who took care of you? I bathed you. I gave you a home. If anything, I gave you everything I could give. And yet, this is how you'll repay me? By betraying me?"

I gasped loudly when her hand landed on my cheek. The slap was hard enough to push me down the floor. It was painful, but I couldn't move or beg for forgiveness. I was the one being selfish, truthfully, I deserved this.

"I loved you like my own, Rapunzel. Even if your parents had abandoned you, I still treated you like my own child, my daughter."

My eyes widened with her words. I looked up to her, disbelief carved on my face.

"Look at your surprised little face, my dear." Mother chuckled as she knelt in front of me, leveling her face with mine. "That's right. Your parents abandoned you because of your threatening magical hair. And I was the one who sacrificed my life to look after you." Her voice was low, but it was full of bitterness.

I could taste the sorrow in my heart as she revealed the truth to me. Or was it? How can I be someone else's child? How can that be possible? I was here with her all along.

That couldn't be. . .

But then, our difference in physical appearance hit me. She had dark features, and mine wasn't like that at all.