Ulterior Motives II

Accept Me

Cheryl stood in front of the full sized mirror they had brought that was stood against the small kitchenette in the RV. She adjusted her flowing, black dress so that the elastic middle sat on her waist. Then, she put a rose gold necklace on and earrings in to match with the rose gold ring that her and Toni both had, but Toni's was in gold. They never took them off.

When she was dressed, she went over to the bed at the back of the van to help Toni dress Ivana. The child's head was somewhere in the mass of black fabric that Toni tried to pull over her head.

'Where'd Ivana go?' Cheryl said in a babying voice as she pulled the fabric down to reveal the two year old. 'Oh, there's Ivana!' She exclaimed, making the other girls both laugh.

They adjusted the dress and then they were ready to leave. Toni was wearing a black suit and tie with a blazer whilst Ivana and Cheryl had matching long, black dresses.

They walked the short distance to the church, passing gorgeous orange trees, fall leaves cascading down from where they sat tall on the branches.

'Mommy!' Ivana shouted, pointing towards a small pile of leaves on the side of the road they were walking down.

'Come on then,' Cheryl said, running to the pile with her toddler and stomping in them, the crisp leaves crunching under their feet.

Toni watched from a few feet away, she had been pale and shaky for most of the day, but more so since the Church came into view.

Once Ivana had finished in the leaves, Cheryl walked back to her girlfriend and hugged her tightly.

'You'll be okay,' she told her, 'no one can hurt you.'

Toni nodded and released a shaky breath that she'd been holding, then they kept walking.

They arrived at the Church and no one was inside yet. As soon as everyone saw Toni, whispers broke out amongst the small crowd that was there, most likely wondering why she was back - and why she had left in the first place.

'Toni?!' A man shouted from behind where the family were stood.

'Dad,' Toni said, turning around to see the older man, who was now grey.

He stood a little way away from them, his jaw dropped and his face pale, almost as pale as his daughter's.

'Dad,' Toni began, finding her words, 'I came for mom's funeral then I'll be gone.'

After hearing that, something in the man's expression snapped. He was no longer happy to see his daughter, he now had a look of resentment in his eyes.

A small crowd began to gather.

'You have no right to be here!' He screamed, 'you killed her, if you hadn't have left, she never would've gone to the lake that day. Whether it was an accident or not, that lake would never have meant anything to her, so she'd still be alive!'

At this point, tears were rolling down Toni's cheeks and Cheryl had picked up Ivana, who was pulling to go back down and stand up herself.

'You killed your mother, Antoinette, have fun explaining that one to that hideous kid of your's,' he shouted, a gasp erupting from the bystanders.

Cheryl turned and grabbed Toni's hand, pulling the heartbroken girl away. Before she could get far, Toni shook her hand away from her and turned back to her father.

'Maybe if you'd accepted me and who I love,' she told him, not matching his loud, scary voice but making an impact nonetheless, 'I wouldn't have had to run away, I'd have felt accepted in my family, so I wouldn't have had to run away to make one of my own.'

With that, she turned back around, reached for Cheryl's hand, and they ran.

They just ran. They didn't know where they were running to, they didn't care. They just ran.

~~~

Author's Notes:

I feel like I can't really write long chapters with this story, I want to but they always just end up kind of short.
Do you think that Toni's dad was in the wrong with what he said or did he have every right to say that after his daughter had left him for years?
Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed!! 💛💛