Villainess Reform Project

Mother's Day Special

[ Happy Mother's Day! To send love and appreciation to all the moms out there, here's a chapter dedicated to the best mother in the book, Martha! It'll be a nice jump to the past chapter.

Also, I apologize for the lack of updates on all my stories. School has been beating me with a metal baseball bat and drowning me with papers. It ends on Friday so I'll have all summer to do updates! I hope you guys are staying safe and remember to give your moms a great big hug! ]

"Happy Mother's Day!"

The exclamation had caused Martha to jump. She thought she would've been used to the tiny voice of her daughter at this point, having been raising Ava for years. Yet she always forgot how loud her voice could get.

Small hands held out a card to her, pink little eyes sparkling with excitement. Martha couldn't help but smile as she took the card from her daughter's hands and read over the messy handwriting on the front.

It was a white card, creased in multiple places due to repeated attempts to do a perfect fold in half. 'Happy Mother's Day' was written in somewhat messy but full of heart letter, drawings of carnations all over the front.

Martha felt her heart swell as she opened the card up to reveal its insides.

I love you, Mom.

"Thank you, Ava. It's a beautiful card." Her voice was full of smiles as she leaned down to scoop her daughter into her arms, kissing her head of purple hair.

While that hadn't been her first Mother's Day Present, it was still carefully framed and put away into the special box she had long since made ever since the first Mother's Day gift Ava had given her.

Dried and pressed flowers, cards, embroidered handkerchiefs, any and all of those precious things were carefully protected and put into the box to be preserved. Each and everyone of them were items that Martha would protect with her heart and soul.

It was a bit regretful that Ava was away from home this Mother's Day, but that was the life of a servant. There were unavoidable circumstances that would come with serving under someone. That was why she was so surprised when a letter and a box arrived for her on Mother's Day, late into the night.

The handwriting on the envelope was Ava's, the one she had seen evolve over the years from childishly messy to elegant and refined. She cautiously opened up the letter, as if she was touching a priceless treasure that could fall apart at any time.

Reading the letter had brought tears to her eyes.

Dear Mother,

I'm so sorry that I couldn't be back home this Mother's Day. I wanted to make this one special, but there's only so much I can do from miles and miles away.

I have to thank you for these years of love and care you have provided for me. Although there were many times you were harsh with me and we may have fought from time to time, I know that at the end of the day we are still mother and daughter. I love you with all my heart and hope that my present will be enough to show it.

Happy Mother's Day,
Ava

Martha caressed the letter with one hand and raised the other to rub the tears from her eyes. Her daughter had become so eloquent, it made her tear up when she thought of when she first learned to talk and read. Back to those times of incoherent baby babble. How time flies.

Setting down the letter, she finally turned her attention to the box that had accompanied the letter. Presumably her present. Martha couldn't help but wonder what it could be. Perhaps it was another card. Maybe a handkerchief? As long as it was from Ava, it didn't particularly matter what it was.

However, the item inside the box had left the woman speechless. Hands calloused from years of swordhandling and manual labor became as gentle as slowly falling snow, scooping up the item within the box to inspect it closer.

It was a silver locket, glittering softly in the light emitted from the lamp nearby. Martha inspected the locket to discover two more peculiar details. On one side of the locket was a blue gem while on the other side there was a pink gem.

Like my eyes and Ava's.

Martha let a gentle smile that wasn't often shown grace her features as she opened up the locket to inspect its innards. That was where she found the second peculiarity. It possessed no picture, but there were words etched into the two sides.

Thank you.

I love you.

Martha could practically hear the sweet voice of her daughter as she put the locket around her neck.

"Do you like it? Do you?"

She held the locket part of the necklace in her palm and felt hot tears fall down her cheeks. Silly girl, spending her wages on a locket. She could've bought snacks or books with it but she went out and bought her mother a locket.

Martha had no idea what she'd like to put in the locket, but she knew that this locket was never going into her little box of treasures. This one was staying on her person.

"I wonder if it would be a good idea for us to get a portrait done of us."

It was a bit funny to her, as she had never valued material things that much. Yet everything Ava touched became a item to be treasured and stored away like a precious family heirloom.

People always did say that motherhood would change a person.

But her most precious treasure would never be put into a box. That treasure had to be shared with the world, to display it's brilliance and majesty. To experience everything that it deserved to see and learn, to grow even more brilliant.

Of course, that treasure was none other than...

Her precious daughter. Her beautiful Ava.