Mistakes by Kaitlyn Chase
Chapter one: Be strong
The front door slammed shut and silence fell. Clara Oswald stood in the kitchen replaying all that had just happened. 'When did it get this bad?' she asked herself. The missing tears formed in her eyes, clouding her sight, but she made no effort to stop them.
"Mummy?" came a faint voice from behind. Clara spun around to see her youngest daughter, Olivia, standing in the door way with her thumb in her mouth. She looked frightened.
"Olivia" she whispered as she walked towards her now crying daughter. She proceeded to take her daughter up in her arms in a hug.
"Why were you fighting?" Her words were a bit muffled but Clara could hear the sadness, confusion, and fear in every word. She chose her words carefully.
"Adult do that sometimes, dear, we are perfectly fine"
"Then why did daddy go?" Olivia asked. Clara looked her daughter in the eyes. They were a beautiful hazel color, just like her dad. 'Oh god' Clara thought 'she looks so much like him'.
"He needed to get away for a while" Oswald replied. It took extra effort on her part to not break down; she needed to be strong for Olivia. She never thought the fight would get that far. The two of them had been married for 15 years now but he still didn't trust her completely. He apparently had seen her on a coffee 'date' with another man (he wasn't that bad looking, but that's beside the point) and gone off on her once she got home. She had tried to explain that it was her best friend from high school, but he just wouldn't listen. He had some silly notion that every man she talked to she was hooking up with. After 20 minutes of fighting he had told her he couldn't stay and left. She isn't even completely sure he will come back. It never occurred to either party that the six year old had been watching.
After many hugs and comforting words, Clara finally got Olivia back to bed. Once the pink bedroom door was shut and she had retired behind the closed doors of her bedroom she could finally let her emotions go. Tears burst from her eyes in a flood and she slid down the door. She had hit rock bottom, the love of her life had walked out on her. How will she tell the kids? How can she go on raising two kids on her own? The questions just made her cry even more. She fell asleep against the door, head on her arm, in a ball. She woke to her back getting a door beating as Shayla tried to open her parent's door.
"OW!" Clara groaned.
"Mum? Why are you lying next to the door" her oldest asked peeking in through the crack. Clara wasn't ready to tell Shayla yet so she simply replied "no reason"
Shayla didn't seem to be convinced but left the matter. There was an awkward silence between the two for quite some time before Clara broke it.
"How was Nina's house?" Clara asked. She desperately wanted to change the subject.
"Good" was all she got as a response as Shayla walked to her bedroom down the hall. Clara rolled her eyes at the vagueness of her 13 year old daughter. She rose up off the floor just as the doorbell rang.
"Coming!" she called to the door. She made her way there quick and threw open the door. A man stood before her. His brown hair was a bit messy and his hazel eyes were a puffy and red.
"Hello Clara" he said softly. Clara was surprised but didn't let it show on her face. Instead she stood up straighter, looked him right in the face and said "hello chin boy, why did you come back? Think up some more evidence to prove I cheated? Because I don't want to hear it! I wasn't lyin-" she was cut off by lips.