Cry, Redemption!

Chapter One

Chapter One

End of her world

June 26th-July 6th

She doesn't realize that the sudden, shrill ring of her cell phone is to be the catalyst to the end of her world. Laikynn pushes herself away from her desk and rolls the chair to the other side of the room to reach said phone.

"Hello," she says as she clicks the green answer button. The number says unknown so she's no clue who she's meant to be talking to.

"Is this Laikynn?" a sharp feminine voice asks.

"Yes, who is this?" she asks. Her hands are sweaty as she waits for their reply. The only people who have her number are her mother and her doctors.

"Hello Darling, It's your aunt Elsie," the woman on the other end says. Her voice breaks on the word darling.

By this point, Laikynn is more than a little confused. "I'm afraid I don't recall ever having heard from or about an Aunt Elsie," she says as she pulls the phone away from her face to stare at it for a moment in confusion.

A sigh is heard from her supposed Aunt Elsie in reply. "I was afraid of that," she says after a moment. Laikynn doesn't say anything in response. She waits for the woman to get on with whatever it is she has to say to her.

"I'm calling about your mother because I didn't want you to have to hear it from the doctors," she says. Laikynn felt as if her heart had stopped for a brief moment.

"What about my mom?" she asks as her knuckles turn white from her death grip on her cell phone. "What is going on?" she asks when her supposed aunt didn't reply quick enough.

"I..I hate to have to tell you any of this over the phone," her aunt finally says. Laikynn closes her eyes against the onslaught of tears that are impossible for her to stop from falling.

"Tell me," she says. The words she expects in regards to her mother's well-being are exactly what she hears.

"Your mother passed away this morning. The hospital wanted to alert you but I told them not to because I wanted you to hear it from family," she says.

Laikynn is hit with unimaginable grief but she's also struggling with anger like she's never felt before in her entire life. "I didn't even know you existed before this phone call! Why on earth would you think I would take this news better from you? I actually know and like her doctors!" she all but screams into the cell phone. She has a strong urge to throw it but stops just short of doing so.

A shaky breath comes from the other end and Laikynn almost feels bad. But she quickly squashes the feeling down. She has every right to be angry and annoyed with this woman. Her mother did just die after all.

"You're right. I tried for years to get your mother's permission to meet you. But she didn't want anything to do with us because of how your father abandoned you both," her aunt says. Her voice sounds sincere and Laikynn considers her words carefully.

"Why did the hospital give you the power to decide who told me?" she finally settles on asking. She can't figure it out. This woman is a stranger, yet the hospital and her mother's very much trusted doctors saw fit for her to be the bearer of this horrible, if not surprising news.

"Your mother doesn't have any family left except for you... and you aren't eighteen yet so..." she just kind of trails off and Laikynn is angry all over again.

"So, they are going to send me to live with you? Is that it?" she asks as she once more clenches her phone in a grip that is surely damaging to the poor innocent device. Her aunt lets her know that she's correct and explains that all of the details have already been taken care of courtesy of her husband and her lawyer.