Mother's True Love.

A Fracture Mind

Linda sat on the edge of her bed, her heart heavy and her thoughts swirling like a storm. The sun dipped low on the horizon, casting long shadows across the room, but the fading light did little to brighten her darkening mind. She gazed blankly at the wall, where family photos hung like ghosts, each image a painful reminder of a life that had shattered into pieces.

Since Jules's death, the air felt thick with silence, an unbearable void that echoed with her daughter's laughter. Linda's heart ached with an emptiness that gnawed at her insides. What had gone wrong? The question haunted her every waking moment, intertwining with the sharp pangs of guilt that seemed to stab her relentlessly.

Jules had been hurting—she had seen it. The bruises on her arms, the hollow look in her eyes, the way she had flinched at the slightest touch. But Linda had been lost in her own turmoil, struggling with shadows of her own. How could she have missed it?

She closed her eyes, trying to grasp the memories that eluded her. Was it the bullying? The weight of those hurtful words from her peers? Linda remembered trying to comfort her, offering platitudes that now felt hollow and inadequate. "Just be strong," she had told her. "It'll get better." But nothing had changed; Jules had only grown more distant, retreating into herself until she was just a flicker of the vibrant girl Linda once knew.

As the memories flooded back, Linda felt a suffocating guilt wrap around her heart. Was it her fault? Had she failed her daughter in ways she couldn't even comprehend? The thought twisted in her gut like a knife. She had always tried to be a good mother, but the pressure of her own life had overshadowed everything else.

Suddenly, her phone buzzed on the bedside table, breaking her reverie. It was a message from an unknown number, the words simple yet jarring: "I know what happened to Jules."

Linda's breath caught in her throat. Who could that be? The message felt like a lifeline, a thread pulling her towards some elusive truth. What did they know? Desperation clawed at her as she typed a reply, her fingers trembling.

"Who are you? What do you know?"

As she waited for a response, her mind raced with questions. Could someone have been there? Could someone have seen Jules's pain? The thought sent shivers down her spine. She felt like a detective in a story, searching for clues to unravel a mystery that was both frightening and urgent.

But the truth was, Linda was drowning in confusion. She didn't understand the extent of Jules's suffering. She remembered the day the news had broken—the silence that had followed, the gasps of disbelief that echoed in her mind. But what had happened in those moments leading up to it?

"Mother knows best," she whispered to herself, the words sounding more like a curse than a comfort. Did she really believe that? In her heart, she felt the flicker of doubt. What if she had been wrong? What if all her decisions, all her attempts to guide her daughters, had led to this?

Linda paced the room, each step heavy with regret. She caught her reflection in the mirror, her face a mask of sorrow and confusion. Was she losing her mind? The lines on her forehead deepened with worry, the dark circles under her eyes telling the tale of sleepless nights filled with restless thoughts.

"I didn't know," she said aloud, her voice cracking. "I didn't know." The words hung in the air, a painful admission that echoed through the emptiness of the room. She felt like a ghost of herself, wandering through a life that felt increasingly foreign.

Time slipped away, and soon the darkness of night surrounded her. As she sat back on the edge of the bed, the message remained unanswered, a ticking clock in her mind. A longing for clarity gripped her heart. She needed answers, but the only certainty was the gnawing fear that she would never truly understand what had happened.

In that moment of despair, she wished for Emily, her other daughter, the one she had pushed away. A twinge of sorrow stabbed her heart as she thought of their estrangement. Would Emily ever forgive her? Would they ever be able to bridge the chasm that had formed between them?

As the night deepened, Linda wrapped her arms around her knees, feeling lost in a world filled with shadows. She closed her eyes, hoping that in the darkness, she might find some semblance of peace or perhaps even a glimpse of the truth that eluded her grasp. What had she done? What was happening to her family?

In the silence, the answers remained hidden, shrouded in the mist of her fractured mind. But deep down, she knew that she couldn't escape the truth forever. The weight of it loomed over her, a storm gathering strength as she sat alone in the darkness, lost in her thoughts, desperate for a glimmer of light.