Dalliance | Paul Lahote

━ THREE: PAST MISTAKES

❝𝐴 𝑚𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑘𝑒 𝑖𝑠𝑛'𝑡 𝑎 𝑚𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑘𝑒 𝑢𝑛𝑙𝑒𝑠𝑠 𝑖𝑡 𝑐𝑎𝑛'𝑡 𝑏𝑒 𝑝𝑢𝑡 𝑟𝑖𝑔𝘩𝑡.❞
― ˢᵒᵖʰᶤᵉ ᴷᶤᶰˢᵉˡˡᵃ˒ ᵀʰᵉ ᵁᶰᵈᵒᵐᵉˢᵗᶤᶜ ᴳᵒᵈᵈᵉˢˢ

━━━━━━ ✧ ━━━━━━

EVANGELINE HATED Law. Not the actual legal laws, but the course, because lawyer terms gave her a headache. She had never even thought of pursuing that type of career for that alone, having to face the embellished words and very long documents on a daily basis was not for her.

She was sitting in her aunt's kitchen counter, a big cup of coffee by her side while she tried to make sense of all the documents she would have to sign in order to receive the belongings her father left to her. Even with the lawyers' post-it marked pages of where she should sign, Evangeline was having trouble actually doing it, as she refused to sign something without at least reading it first.

The woman was still surprised at the fact her father had gone back on disowning her, not making sense of what was in his mind. The fact he was dead hadn't exactly registered yet, but that was greatly due to Evangeline having mourned him four years ago, after she told him about the pregnancy. They had never been particularly close, at least not since her mother died, but his actions had hurt her just like if she'd lost him like she did her mother, perhaps even worse, since it was his choice.

She hadn't seen him in so long Evangeline was used to not having him around, so for her, nothing had really changed, making it hard to associate that before he was still around for her to maybe one day see again, and now isn't.

But Evangeline didn't want to dwell on that thought, it would just bring unpleasant feelings. She can't afford to have an emotional breakdown after all, she has Oliver to look after, and he needs his mother to be strong.

"You're looking at that piece of paper like it killed your cat, Evie dear." Stella's voice sounded from the kitchen's doorway, making Evangeline look up from the text she was trying to make sense of.

"I can't understand half of what's written here." She grumbled as Stella sat down next to her after pouring herself a cup of warm coffee.

"How about I give it a read for you? A few years of having to read through divorce papers made it easy for me to understand those fancy lawyer words." Evangeline smiled gratefully at her aunt, reaching out to hold the hand that wasn't holding her mug.

"Thank you, auntie." Stella returned the gesture with a warm smile.

The papers now set aside for Stella to look over later, Evangeline let out a long sigh, relief flowing through her. Her reading material over the last week had been those papers exclusively, and her aunt's offer gave her a sense of freedom.

The two of them sat side by side while drinking the warm drinks and munching on some cookies leftover from the previous day, neither of them feeling the need to fill the silence with words. It was something they had done almost daily during the years Evangeline had lived there, a routine before their respective duties for the day had to be accomplished, school for one, and work for the other. They hadn't been able to do it in the comfort of Stella's home for years now, for once Evangeline left Forks she never returned, their meetings occurring only in Seattle.