Roses ➳ Shawn Mendes [2] ✓

Chapter 12

| Jolene |

"I think I have some olds clothes for you to use." The woman murmured to her daughter as she scoured her closet trying to find the old clothes she had in mind to borrow. She heard Signe sigh behind her, such a simple and innocent thing, yet capable of breaking her heart. Jolene was aware of the pain she was putting her daughter through, unfortunately, there was no way to make something so hard and unfair like cancer easy on someone who cared. Telling Daniel had been hard enough, but telling her own daughter, that had destroyed completely. Daniel had an outburst, he shouted to the skies how unfair it was that he was losing another someone he loved and cared for, he had cried a lot, burying his face in Jolene's neck as he let out everything he was feeling inside. For her surprise, he proposed to her and told her he'd like to be her husband for as long as cancer allowed her to live. Jolene couldn't refuse and the two married. Signe didn't understand the hurry, yet she was very happy to see them moving to another path of their lives. Little did she know the reason behind it. When her husband and she went to the honeymoon it was when the redhead realized she wanted to see the world before it was too late. She didn't know how long she could hold on, so it was better to go on travels as soon as possible. That was when her daughter got angry at her for quitting her job, Aksel was helping her out with paying the travels and everything else. Aksel didn't even know how to react to the news, he was shocked, speechless and through Skype, she could see his expression going from shock to sadness. The redhead wished she could have told him face to face, yet there was no time for it besides she couldn't leave Signe by herself not while she was still figuring out what she wanted to do with her life, which until that day she was still trying to understand. 

Telling Signe about her condition was one of the biggest obstacles she had ever faced in her life. Jolene had told herself she was going to tell the truth to the girl once she was back from her last trip to South America, yet when she facetime her daughter only to find out Shawn had left her ruined her plans. It had pained her seeing Signe heartbroken just like she once were due to Aksel and she knew she had to take some action and force her to do something other than lying down on her bed crying for a boy who wouldn't come back. She had always hoped Shawn would be the one for her little princess, but upon knowing the venomous words he used against Signe, her hopes crushed. Perhaps there was still a chance for him, perhaps there wasn't, either way, that wasn't of her business, not anymore. Her daughter wasn't a little girl needing her attention and affection all the time anymore, she was an adult now and she could make her own decisions. After that, Jolene had to wait until Signe would get better to tell her. In a way, she felt what she was doing was selfish. As soon as the girl felt better she was going to take that away? However, she needed to tell her, it was a must and regardless of the time she was going to tell her it was going to be hard. She wasn't wrong. When Jolene saw her daughter's expression her being broken, the pain the green eye's Signe had was visible and clear, the hurt painted across her face stabbing the woman's heart and how she broke down on her lap had completely broken her soul. 

"Here it is." Jolene exclaimed as she took the old clothes from the closet and threw them to the bed where they landed next to her daughter. The girl grabbed them and got up about to go to the bathroom to change. The woman changed herself as well to one of her favorite pajamas with slow moves, her hands hurt and so did other members of her body. Unfortunately, there wasn't much she could do other than taking painkillers. She lied down on her bed at the same time as the door to her room opened revealing Signe with some old shorts Jolene didn't use and a white tank top with a few holes at the bottom of the shirt. The ginger lied down next to her, her head on her chest as the woman rubbed her back.

"I love you mom, I hope you know that." Signe whispered softly, her voice overflowing with sadness. The woman swallowed her, she did not want to let go of her daughter, yet she didn't have a choice. Life hadn't asked her whether she wanted death to come over and get her or wait until later.