Broken

Unaccounted For

Violet

My voice caught in my throat as my boyfriend's mother came to mind. The mayor, the Evil Queen, the mother of my boyfriend.

"Are you sure?" I asked whispering, trying not to wake my gracious hosts, she confirmed the information and remained quiet on the other line.

"Vi?" She whispered, her voice cracking with the pain that she felt. Her mother had been under her nose her whole time and never confronted her at all.

"Alena, how do you feel about this?" I whispered, I heard her grumble on the other line and swallow her tears that built up in her throat.

"I feel confused." She admitted, and she sounded conflicted, and rightfully so.

"I want to meet her. This woman." She said with a tone like venom, leaving me in shock.

"Okay, I will take you tomorrow, but now you should try and sleep, it's going to be an interesting day tomorrow." I advised, saying my goodbyes before hanging up.

Alena

The sun had risen telling me that it was an appropriate time to finally wake up. The group home was filled to the brim when I had been transferred there after they found Violet.

I slid off of my twin bed and felt my hands tremble in the darkness of my "room". There had been no space so the warden had cleared a walk in closet for me and told me that it would be my own space, clearly only interested in the money that I was earning for her by housing me.

I slid towards my nightstand and picked up a handheld mirror, something that I had carried with me for days, something probably from my mother.

Mother

The word tasted foreign on my tongue, the woman had abandoned me when I was too young to remember, and only left me with this pathetic mirror to remember her by.

Violet had promised that I would meet her today, that I would finally have the family that I deserved.

But meeting her didn't feel as excellent as I imagined. Resentment filled my heart as I thought of my friend's boyfriend, how he had two sets of mothers, one set whom didn't even belong to him fully, and I couldn't even keep one. He had lived his whole life with this woman, she was clearly okay with keeping him, only making this matter more personal.

"Alena!" The warden called from the bottom of the stairs, making me dress quickly and rush to her side to receive my orders.

"Your friend is here." She grumbled, storming off into the other room to yell at more of my foster siblings, leaving Violet and I alone in the foyer.

"I don't know if I can confront her." I whimpered, terrified that she would turn me away, the shame of her actions too much for her to expose in front of her family.

"Alena, if you want to wait we can." Violet said evenly, but I knew I couldn't turn back now.

"No. I'm going to meet my mom."

~~~

We silently climbed the former monarch's porch and waited as Violet rang the buzzer, the shuffling of feet on the other side making my stomach twist.