Fractured Family

The family and most of the villagers watched silently as the group of foreign strangers led Mirabel away towards the dense thicket, towards wherever they claimed they had their camp set up. Julieta in particular was watching them with such a burning... She didn't know. She didn't know what she wanted to feel or how to feel it. She was just told by her youngest daughter that she wasn't happy, and needed to discover herself.

By leaving the Encanto, by leaving their sanctuary.

But... She couldn't entirely fault her for it. Julieta, now that all the raw truths were exposed after Mira and Alma's argument, felt if maybe this was something her youngest would have done regardless of what would've happened. Like Bruno all over again.

As the villagers followed Felix into the main bulk of the wreckage to get things cleaned up, Julieta had her thoughts spiral as all the worst possible outcomes screamed and crashed against each other inside her head. Usually the most composed of the triplets, she was suddenly close to crumbling like Casita all because she was so sucked into turmoil.

The eldest triplet was shaken out of her thoughts, thankfully, when her husband put a reassuring hand on her shoulder. The cook blinked and looked at him, looking like a deer in headlights.

"Mi amor?" Agustin said quietly. "Are you okay?"

"No..." Julieta said honestly. "I'm not. I just..." She glanced back at the jungle, the departing group long gone. "I feel like I failed. I failed being a mother..."

"Juli, you didn't fail at anything", Gus gently turned her around so they were fully facing each other. "You did your best when it came to loving Miraboo. I did too. But clearly people outside the family could see our problems immediately, and just had her realise... that things were broken. They were a new perspective to things..."

Julieta blinked, then slowly nodded. "I just can't stop thinking that... That Mira was so close to following in Bruno's footsteps, all because we didn't see how wrong things were. We were all sucking into things that we just..."

"Thought nothing was wrong..." Agustin slumped a bit, seemingly bitter at his own obliviousness at the whole situation. The couple both took deep breaths and headed in to help clear the wreckage, sour and saddened looks on their faces. Most of the villagers came up to them, worry etched on their faces as they made sure the couple was okay.

While they reassured everything was, at this point it was hard to lie about that. About anything now. The whole Encanto could see how bad things really were now, and it did dig deep into the regret and guilt for pushing the gifted family so far. They were human too, at the end of the day, and they treated them no better than tools.

But Mirabel's words still ran in everyone's heads. It wasn't an accusation or a spark of anger. But a kid that was shoved down so much after not getting a fancy gift that she just... needed time away.

"I just... I just want to have some time to myself. I've been here my whole life, and... And I want to discover who I am deep down. I am Mirabel, nothing will change that. Same with me being a Madrigal. But... I want to feel that love..."

Julieta, as she cleared some of the wreckage with Pepa, kept having the whole conversation play in her head on repeat. It just wouldn't stop, and the more it looped the more guilt and regret she felt. She was supposed to be a sturdy pillar, but here she was cracking after because she turned a blind eye to everything wrong.

"I can tell you're still upset about this, Juli..." Pepa mumbled, glancing at her sister in worry. "We can talk about it with the others later. Just... Just wait, okay?"

The cook looked over at her sister, intending to nod numbly. But something caught her eye in the distance. A horse was racing up the main road of the Encanto towards the ruins of their home, two people on its back. One was unmistakingly her mother, the mahogany dress unmistakable. But the other was in an all too familiar green ruana, and Julieta felt her heart freeze for a moment.