Chances

Chapter 17

"You can't follow in my footsteps." Was the first thing the red head heard as she stepped into the kitchen the next morning.

"Mmm nothing before coffee." The red head mumbled as if she didn't hear exactly what her mother said.

The older woman looked at her daughter in amusement "You never used to drink coffee."

"I drank it a little but Beca got me hooked on it. She needs it before she does anything, so needless to say she drags me to coffee shops before we can do anything." The older woman raised her eyebrow in wonder but said nothing.

The red head moved into the kitchen and proceeded to pour herself a cup and sit across from her mother in the little breakfast nook. She stared out the window as she slowly drank the warm liquid. Abigail waited until her daughter finished half her cup and began swirling it contents before attempting conversation.

"You can't follow in my footsteps." Repeating her words from earlier. She'd been thinking all morning of what her daughter said the night before and knew she had to say something, she couldn't let her make the same mistakes.

"What?" Chloe looked up from watching the dark swirling liquid in her cup. No cream or sugar this morning like she usually does. Beca always takes hers black, saying how the bitterness reminds her of reality. Chloe thinks a cup of reality is fitting today.

"You can't do the same things I did. I know stayed with your father for far too long but I thought it was better for you and that's the only reason. Had I known anything I would have left him sooner. It killed me every day knowing that he was out with other women and we were keeping a façade for a marriage that didn't exist anymore. And... and I wish every day I could go back and do things differently but I can't..." She paused and took in a shuddering breath.

The red head gasped at her mother. She didn't have any words and simply stared at the older woman. Abigail's pause didn't last long, "You have the chance to change everything, the chance to be stronger that I was. To... to be with someone who truly loves you, so why don't you?"

Chloe took a minute before answering. The idea of someone actually loving her, like truly loving her has always been a foreign concept. A thing that was deemed to be unattainable, reserved for those that had unlocked the secret code like life was a video game or something.

"This is what I deserve." She whispered with such fragility it sounded more like a breath.

The older woman reached across the table and took the red heads hand in her own, looking her daughter in the eye carefully before speaking. "No dear, you're only accepting what you think you can deserve. But you deserve and can do far better."

"No, I don't think I can." She slumped further into her seat, retracting her hands back to her warm cup and staring back into the abyss the liquid offered.

Abigail pursed her lips. She didn't realize how much her ex-husband had deflated her daughter's confidence. "I know this is highly hypocritical of me to say, but you shouldn't stay with someone who isn't treating you right. I don't care if it's a man, woman, a lover or friend. You have to learn from my mistakes. If someone is cheating on you, then do they really love you?"

Chloe snapped her head up. "But... But I love him mom!"

"You can say you love someone until pigs sprout wings and fly but that doesn't change if they love you or not. Actions speak way louder than words, I know you know that."

Chloe sighed and looked out the window. "I just don't want you to make the same decisions I did because you're following my terrible example. If he's not good to you then get rid of him. You will find someone who is good to you, forget everything your father said because he obviously doesn't know jack shit." This got the red heads attention. It wasn't often that her mother swore, in fact the last time she remembered hearing her was the last time her father left the house with his suitcases.