Dying Wish

Chapter 2

Aubrey smiled, proud of her little Laura. Today marked sixteen years of life to her daughter. Many parents expected to reach such a milestone with their children, as had Aubrey, but when Laura developed a cancerous brain tumor at the young age of six, Aubrey had a different outlook on life.

Life is short, thought Aubrey, short and sweet. Sadness washed over her for a moment. Especially for my Laura.

After finding out Laura had something killing her in her body, Aubrey sought out a lot of counseling. She bounced her thoughts off of her friends. For the first couple of years she spoke about her feelings to her now ex-husband, Andrew, but a few years after the diagnosis they divorced.

Whenever Aubrey had counseling, she was always referred over to some pastor. For some reason, people seemed to think that some preacher could fix her situation, but all Aubrey was really asking for was a shoulder to cry on, a friend to express her feelings with.

"Pray about it," Mallory, her good friend since college told her.

"I'm not into that voodoo stuff," Aubrey would say, refraining from any sort of religion.

Aubrey supposed it was because she often felt judged. She lost her virginity young, only fifteen years old. Since then, she never again practiced abstinence because her purity was gone anyways. When she was seventeen she became pregnant with Laura. At eighteen she became a mother. Her own mom helped her out a lot with babysitting though, so Aubrey could still go to college. The father was Steven Nova, who left them both on Aubrey's fifth month of pregnancy, deciding he wasn't ready to be a father. He ran off, and neither Aubrey nor Laura ever heard from him again. A few years after Laura was born, Aubrey did find out that he became an actor in the hit tv show, Bikes and Buds. It bothered Aubrey that he never even sent money, knowing for sure that he had loads of it. Before she would assume he didn't have money, but being on a hit tv show, she knew that wasn't the case.

When Laura was eighteen months old, Aubrey met Andrew Sumters, who she believed was the love of her life. They dated for six months before he proposed to her, promising he would be the father Laura would never otherwise have, which was a bait that drew Aubrey in completely. Obviously, she said yes and they married three months later. Their marriage was strong until about five years later, when Laura was seven years old. They were both frustrated with each other all the time, stressing each other out on top of the stress of Laura's murdering cancer. They eventually decided to get divorced, but Andrew never left Laura. Like he promised, he'd be the dad Laura would never have.

Laura believed Andrew was her dad. Aubrey never told her the truth about her biological father, afraid of her feeling rejected. She wondered if she might tell her the truth soon, knowing she deserved to know, but then she shook the idea off. Maybe someday I'll tell her...