Strange as IT Seems

Chapter 12: Storied Life of Mia Rogers

"But Mom..."

"Sweetie, it's just for a little while, until I can find us a place to live."

"You've said that a thousand times before and he still finds us no matter where we go..."

Mia Rogers sighs heavily in annoyance, tucking the phone under her chin as she sits in her grandparent's bedroom. She brushes some brown hair behind her ear... yet another reminder of how she looks more like her father than her mother. Even when she looks into her grandmother's vanity mirror across the room, all she can see is her father. Her mousy brown hair, her blue eyes, her imperfect figure... everything was a reminder that she was her father's child, not her mother's.

Her mother always reassured her daughter that she went through "the ugly duckling" phase too. When Caroline White-Rogers was in high school, she hated how she looked, saw every imperfection on her body, but she'd grown out of it and become a beautiful woman... a woman who attracted a monster. A monster who continuously pursued them, fuelled by his addiction to alcohol and a desire to harm those who "wronged" him.

"Why did you marry him in the first place?" the teenager asks.

"You know why," Caroline White-Rogers says.

"Mom, the only way we're ever actually going to be rid of him is if we leave the country, change our names, or outright kill him."

"Amelia Alexius Rogers...!"

"Come on Mom, you have to have daydreamed about it a few times."

"I will not listen to this."

"Mom, I can speak however the hell I want about that bastard! He's done nothing to earn the title of my father. All he did for you was to provide the genetic material. He's been a deadbeat since the day you brought me home from the hospital; he wasn't even there when you gave birth. He's never held down a job, he's slept with more women than any of us can keep track of (Lord knows how many other children he has out there), he drinks like the world is going to end, and the only thing he's ever given you or I are physical scars and lasting post-traumatic stress problems."

"Regardless of what he's done, I won't have you talking about taking another person's life."

"Why? He's talked to me about doing that to you since before I even knew the meaning of death."

There's an equally heavy sigh on the other end of the phone. Caroline lays back on the bed in her hotel room, desperately trying to reason with her daughter. She knew full well that both of them were victims of abuse and she was stuck in the abuse cycle; defending the monster who had given her the greatest gift in the world. She tries day in and day out to stop supporting this man who never earned the right to be a husband or a father. Her stomach turns violently in guilt, for putting her daughter into this complicated situation. Her life-long problems of abuse with her mother, made her think that yelling and hitting were considered "normal." Even after her mother's death and her being taken in by the Walter's, giving her a family and a sister in Sharon (Walter) Denbrough, the trauma was still there. She just seemed to be drawn to abusive people. It's a pattern she desperately wishes she could break for the sake of her daughter, but Joel's relentless pursuit to gain possession of the "only good thing he ever did," made it so hard. Even after restraining orders and the revoking of parental rights, Joel Rogers insisted on taking Mia away to hurt Caroline. It also didn't help that not even the threat of her adoptive father's rifle could keep the man away and off the family property. Joel might be an alcoholic, but he was smart and practically fearless.

Caroline had worked day and night to find a safe place for her and her "little girl" to live, to give Mia the stability she so desperately needed, but her lack of funds, her past with the police, her hatred of big cities, and the predator that was her ex-husband soured this. It was why Mia was now living in the countryside with her adoptive grandparents, in the hopes that they could provide safety until Caroline found a job and a house that could support both of them. However, Joel had found them and hung around the small town close to the family farm; preying like a shark and trying to grab his daughter when she was alone. Even if he wasn't allowed within fifty feet of his offspring, he still pushed the limits to find out what was illegal and what wasn't. The police couldn't arrest him if he kept that exact distance.