A New Beginning

Chapter 87: In My Own Hands

Chapter 87: In My Own Hands

Hey readers, I'm back for another chapter, this time we're back with Emma and Peter as we've spent the last few chapters with Jack, Rose, Riptide, and Cal. Thank you so much to Magic Maryse for the wonderful review, it means so much to me that you like the story so much.

"I swear darlin'," Molly says, holding up one of the draperies, staring out the window at the crowd of reporters standing at the street level. "I haven't seen anything like this since Queen Victoria toured the streets of New York..."

"It certainly seems to be getting out of hand," Ruth agrees as she shuts the drapes in the front room and checks to make sure the back door is locked properly. While Mrs. De Witt Bukater would have once loved having her name in papers, making her recognizable and the talk of the elite men and women of the local country clubs, she had long since given up that life and now, she wanted the privacy most commoners get. She was sick of reporters asking her questions about her daughter and their former relationship with Caledon Hockley. While it was good to spread the news, Ruth claimed often that she was going blind from all the flashbulbs and having unknown faces peer inside the Carson/Whitman household.

While she'd always yearn for the money and position she'd once had, she did enjoy the nice quiet life because she was much happier. She no longer had the stress of keeping up an image for high society, she had the courtship of a respected and well-meaning man, who one day hoped to marry her, she had a real true friend in Molly Brown, she lived much more simply with more adventurous endeavours, but most of all, she had her daughter back. Ruth had long since realized that Rose was her greatest achievement in life and nothing else mattered if she could be near her beloved child. While they had lost much time in Rose's youth, she had the respect and love a mother feels towards her daughter. What was even more exciting was that she would soon have a new grandson or granddaughter, which she would spoil to bits, while being much more attentive and affectionate to this child than she was with her own daughter.

However, this might never happen if the police did not do their job and rescue her daughter from the madman Mr. Hockley. The former heiress now felt enormous guilt for ever matching her daughter with this man... then again, money and power had blinded her judgement; something Ruth wished she could now take back.

"They say publicity is good, but I think there exists the concept of too much of a good thing," Molly agrees. The million heiress goes to help Holly in the kitchen while young Thomas and Sybil play on the floor together. A beautiful ringing sound filled the room as the one-year-old shook a small silver rattle... a birthday gift from her deceased father. Emma and Peter had taken the time the day after the interrogations to open presents with the birthday girl. The gift presented by the girls' father was a silver rattle, engraved with small delicate flowers around the edges and vaguely resembled a tiny silver bell on the end. It made a beautiful, harmonious, noise as it came with a note dated not long before the man had passed to join his wife in the afterlife.

My dearest daughter,

It saddens me to think that I will not be there to give you this special gift in person, but unfortunately, the Lord has called me back sooner to join your mother. I feel deep regret that I will not be able to watch you grow into the beautiful, young, confident, woman I know you will become. You resemble your mother in every way and even though we lost her first, every time I would gaze upon your sleeping face, I think of her. Please know that I will love you, forever and always... a vow that your mother and I made on our wedding day and the vow I now bestow upon you on your first birthday. As a symbol of that love, I now give you this rattle that once belonged to your grandmother, the great women whose name you were christened with. I want each year that you grow to be filled with happiness, never sorrow and I know you will always have your sister there and your mother and I will always be watching over you. You are my precious Sybbie Carson, and I will always love you.