Be My Princess ✔️

Chapter 9

I was sixteen and a half when your father passed away.

It happened suddenly. You never wrote me on the matter, but Sister Tiana did. He died of a heart attack while you were helping Phoebe buy new shoes. You heard the last thing he said before he passed was that you were always such a good girl and that you always made him proud. It took a great deal of convincing, but Father allowed me to attend the funeral.

It was a bright and cloudy the day of his funeral. No rain, no fog, no overcast – not weather funeral like I had been expecting. You said, weakly and at all not convinced by your words, that your father was doing this from heaven. That he didn't want people to be sad, that he wanted to show that everything was going to be okay.

But you still broke down, unable to even finish your sentence. I had never seen you cry so hard in your life. Nothing dramatic, nothing over the top where you screamed and whined like a child. It was the only time I had ever seen you wear black, minus the light pink flowers on your hat. Sister Tiana could only rub your back, tears sliding down her cheeks too, as you screamed and cried for your father to come back.

And when they lowered him into the ground, you threw yourself at me, hugging me tightly as she sobbed and sobbed into my chest. You asked me why. Why did he have to go? Why did he have to leave? What were you going to do now with Big Daddy gone?

I couldn't answer you. Sister Tiana had to pull you away, hugging you tightly as she ran her hand through her hair. She comforted you, told you how to move on, told you what she did when her father passed away in the war. She held you close, whispering soft words to you over and over again even as she screamed like a child.

And all I could do was rub your back, unable to say any a word. I had never suffered like this and I wasn't mature enough to fully grasp your pain. I could not hold you tightly, I could not say everything would be all right, I couldn't take away your pain, I couldn't do anything for you. So you suffered and I just rubbed your back. Because what else could I do?