Where Were You

Tears of Self Deprecation

Lauren's PoV

"Mommy?" I heard Dylan speak softly as she walked into Camila's childhood bedroom quietly. I put down the small load of laundry I did on the bed, and took in her sad face.

"Baby, what's wrong?" I knelt down in front of her and she shrugged, letting herself fall onto my lap and her small arms wrapped around my neck. "Hey," I cooed softly and got her to look at me, "is everything okay?"

"I've missed you." Dylan finally whispered and I noticed tears were starting to gather up in her eyes. "When you were gone, I wasn't very happy."

I closed my eyes and held her tighter, my own eyes watering slightly. "I know baby and I am so sorry."

"It's okay," she looked around the bedroom before her eyes darted down towards her lap, "I need to tell you something and you aren't going to like it."

I tucked a few stray curls behind her ears, "you can tell me anything, you know that."

Dylan nodded and bit her bottom lip before taking a deep breath. "The past couple of nights I've been having really bad nightmares. I think it's because I was treated really bad at my last home."

"What?" I whispered, broken. I knew Sofi had mentioned that Dylan had it hard but as a mother, I really didn't want to believe that someone would hurt my little girl.

"They hurt me and never let me go to school or talk at the dinner table while the others kids got too. They said that you were something really bad and you probably deserved to be messed up." Dylan was shaking and my heart shattered as her body wracked full of sobs.

"Oh God Dylan." I cried and clutched her close to me. We were on the bedroom floor for who knows how long and I allowed myself to feel guilty and responsible for allowing Dylan experience any of that.

I needed to make it better and I didn't know how.

"So when I met Camila, I knew things would be better," she pulled back, wiping her eyes. "She took me for ice cream that day, I met Lucas and I got to sleep in my own bed with actual blankets and not just sheets."

Even though she was smiling, I couldn't stop the millions of thoughts storming through my brain. The family who took care of her better be thankful for their lives because if I ever crossed paths... we wouldn't go there.

"I'm so sorry baby." I whispered into her hair.

"Dylan?" Lucas came into the room and immediately frowned when she noticed us on the floor with tears in our eyes. "What's wrong?" She rushed towards us with a worried look.

"I told Momma about the bad nightmares." Dylan whispered.

"Oh." Lucas sank down on the floor and grabbed Dylan's hand. "I was going to ask if you wanted to go with Normani and Sam to the movies? Is that okay Momma?" She blinked her grey eyes at me. "Mom already said it was fine but I wanted to ask my sister to tag with me."

I smiled softly and kissed Lucas on the forehead. "You two go and have fun."

Dylan scrambled out of my lap and threw her arms around my neck. "Thank you for listening."

"Dyl," I whispered, "I'm your mother. I will listen to whatever you have to say and not judge. I love you."

"I love you too." She grinned slightly and then was out of the bedroom in a flash with Lucas trailing behind her.

I sighed and closed my eyes. I couldn't help but feel all the past emotions take control. I couldn't help but relive those awful memories when I had the accident that changed my life for good.