Letters to Isabella

twenty.

Rydel's POV

The Halloween party, in my own personal opinion, had been nothing short of a success. To my knowledge everyone had enjoyed themselves and managed to have a way better time than they originally bargained for.

Halloween had always been my favourite time of year due to me being such an eccentric person when it came down to fashion and makeup anyway. It was hardly a challenge for me to put together some strange concoction for both mine and Ratliff's Halloween costumes. It felt like a walk in the park for me and man did I enjoy it.

But now, after all the fun we endured and the music that we danced to until the early hours of the morning I had somehow found myself sitting in my old living room with a mug of warm coffee between the palms of both my hands staring into space as my mom cried and poured her heart out to me about our father.

"He'd rather be with that Diana than me!" Mom spat, shaking her head back and forth from fury and disgust. "I'm only the one who gave him five children — five, Rydel! Can you believe it?"

I continued to stare into space. I wanted to be anywhere else but here right now. Truth is, I couldn't handle it. I'd never been able to. I was always the little girl in the family, that's how it had always been and weirdly I assumed it would always stay that way.

My brothers — and hell, even my father, were nothing more than white knights to me, always defending both my corner and my mom's within the first sign of trouble. But now? Well, now I was actually having to defend myself and fight my own corner which sadly was something I'd never been able to do.

"He's stupid, mom." I gently explained. I was trying my best to keep a cool head. I'd tried to approach their marital situation in the most mature and unbiased way that I possibly could but I can't deny that it's extremely difficult to do that, especially when your mom is practically begging you to side with her instead of your adulterer of a father. "If he doesn't want you..." I continued, trying to unscramble the words in my brain to form an actual real life sentence. "then he's pathetic and unworthy of your time."

My mom's light brown eyes slowly began to soften and she exhaled in what I could only assume to be defeat. She held her hands up to her face in embarrassment. Her nails, much like mine, were painted an insane colour of lime green and purple. I could only assume that my style had come from my mother which honestly wasn't a bad thing at all. "I just wanted us to grow old together." She murmured. I could hear the sadness breaking through her voice as she drew a sharp breath. "I loved him for so many years of my life. I stayed even in the bad times and this is the thanks I get for it."

I understood why she was pissed. I mean hey, I would be too if Ratliff pulled that card on me or Maddison but life is life and sadly you can't change the feelings or opinions of other human beings. You can try too — in fact, you can try as much as you like but it'll never make them any wiser. It's just a waste of your time and quite frankly your breath.

"Men suck sometimes." I explained. I could feel a sexual joke creeping through my veins and quickly I blocked it out. After all, this was a serious discussion. I had to be serious. "But so do women." I added, shrugging my shoulders and taking a sip from my now cooled down coffee. "One man has hurt you and broken you down but so what? Are you really going to lay there and take it when you can fight back and show him what you're made of?"

My mom's lips began to quiver. "I -"

I cut her off. "No Stormie Lynch, you aren't going to take it. Not today, not tomorrow, not even next week." I turned towards a picture of my father and held it up. "Mark Lynch is cancelled. He's over." I stated, throwing the picture of my father to the side. I pointed to my mom. "You however, you aren't — you're beautiful, single and ready to mingle! Do you hear me?"