Chapter one: Apparently There Is Life After Death

Carol bit back another slew of curses that threatened to burst past her lips.

Her first exclamation had set off Sophia into another crying fit. She bounced on her heels and gently shushed the baby in her arms. Was this all real?

Carol kept stealing glances at the mirror trying to reconcile what she could remember with what she was seeing right now. She was much taller than she was previously, and willowier than she had ever been before.

A full heart shaped face stared back at her, it's face looked shocked and a little horrified. Doubts crept on the edges of her mind.

Was I dreaming or did I somehow die and end up here? Did that mean there wasn't a heaven? Were my family's souls here? I wish I knew what the fuck was going on...

She had sort of believed in reincarnation in her past life, but she didn't think it would happen this fast. Didn't reincarnation take a hundred years or something? She closed her eyes and hummed a familiar tune to calm the baby in her arms, as she tried to figure out what to do. I even sound different... I must be reincarnated then. I mean, I was a witch once. Anything is possible...Isn't it?

As far as she could tell, this woman…Carol…or was she Carol now? She shook off the confusion that threatened to overwhelm her as she tried her best to focus.

I guess I'm whoever this person is now...Is that how this works?

She looked around, as if looking for a sign that this all wasn't a strange dying delusion. Nothing popped out to her and Carol decided to put a pin in that thought.

When she felt the baby's steady deep breathes, she stilled her ministrations and took in a deep breath. The air felt so crisp, so full, and so clean. That thought resonated with her. Her almond shaped eyes widened as she took carefully hurried steps towards the nearby window and peeked outside.

There were trees! Living trees! The sky didn't look like a gray smoldering sheet of ash and instead looked to be a clear brilliant blue. Were those actual fluffy white clouds? Holy shit! I think I just saw an actual crow. A real living animal that wasn't mutated and frothing at the mouth.

She shook her head again and let air escape between her teeth.

Carol, or was she still Eleanor?

Carol clucked her tongue quietly and decided that since she didn't look like herself and this obviously wasn't a dying Earth Terranova in the year 3097, she must've been reincarnated. This had to be the answer, otherwise none of this made any sense. She was certain of this since she knew that she must've died before, but the hows and the whys of how in the world she got here still remained.

Deciding to figure it all out later, she searched through this body's unfamiliar memories. The onslaught of feelings, images, and thoughts that came at her made her almost stumble and drop the baby. Luckily, this body had fairly good reflexes when it came to its daughter. Carol blinked open her eyes as a deep frown furrowed her face into a grimace. She did notlike what she found…at all.

As she noted that the baby had finally fallen into a calm deep slumber, Sophia was her name, she gently set her down onto her back into her crib and backed away quietly. She made her way back towards the mirror and stared at the woman reflected back at her.

The abused beaten fiancée.

Carol grimaced and ground her teeth. She'd never felt that sort of helplessness, fear, and self-loathing before and she hated it. Absolutely hated it. Carol, new Carol she decided, wasn't going to put up with this bullshit. Never again.

She spotted the dried blood that was still smeared on her head. Her body felt moderately healed, and she concluded that her magic was healing this body nicely. Her vision was becoming startlingly clear as the minutes ticked on by. Carol felt a faint smile curl against her lips, causing dimples to indent her cheeks.

When was the last time this body had smiled? It felt stiff and odd to her. With that thought in mind, she resolved to be happier than the previous soul that had been housed in this vessel.

She slinked out of her daughter's bare nursery, she missed having a baby, and started snooping around this unfamiliar house. The house was bereft of any feminine touches, color, warmth, and any indication that either Carol or Sophia lived here photo wise.

A disturbed frown marred her face, as she pawed through the personal affects that she found.

She found passports, id cards, a driver's license, and the like tucked away in one of the bedroom's dressers. They all triggered flashes of memories that hadn't belonged to her. 'Old Carol' appeared to be around twenty-one if what she could tell from the calendar and driver's license weren't lying. It still blew her mind that she was more than a thousand years back in the past.

While she was snooping around, Carol heard someone stumble loudly through the hallway. Panic gripped her heart and froze her limbs. The stumbling and angry grumbling became louder as the source of the noise drew closer and closer to where she was.

She frowned at the papers that peeked out of the brown envelope in her blood speckled hands, and sighed before she reluctantly placed them onto the neat cold bed beside her. I suppose I should figure out what that strange noise is. With a determined furrow of her brow she straightened up and slunk towards the stomping that seemed to grow angrier the closer she got.

Carol crept into the hallway and saw a red faced man stomping around through an open bathroom door nearby. A sudden flash of fear and anguish washed over her as an onslaught of past memories of abuse flashed behind her eyes. A startled gasp unwillingly escaped past her lips, as Ed turned his beady angry eyes onto her.

Ed's scowl deepened as he slurrily growled, "Don't look at me like that, you worthless bitch!"

Carol recoiled at the words, but the fear that initially shook her boiled into anger when she caught sight of Ed's mean smug smile. She did the first thing she used to do when she got to the boiling part of anger in her past life. She got even.

Carol shook herself and hissed, "Shut the fuck up, you fat sad excuse of human excrement."

Ed's eyes widened and he froze for a moment. The sheer shock of Carol actually possessing a back bone, threw him for a loop.

Before he could give her his customary wallop for anything he disliked, Carol snapped her fingers. In an instant, his body twisted, crunched, and shrunk into a disgusting yellow green toad. If toads could be confused, then Ed was certainly pulling it off.

Her heart pounded against her chest. A surge of active magic rushed through her body, and made her stumble back against the door frame. Carol exhaled a breath she hadn't known she'd been holding, "I can actively use magic again?"

The thought of the Witches council raining down their wrath on her for using her magic against a mortal pinged at the back of her mind. Images of being captured and punished flashed across her mind. Anger and surprise fogged up that wary side of her mind.

The toad let out an angry croak, and Carol instinctively put her hand out in front of her, unknowingly freezing him in his spot. She blinked rapidly and sighed deeply, "I guess I can."

She listened for Sophia's cries, just in case this commotion had woken her up. Silence echoed throughout the house, save for their quiet breaths. Carol combed her hand through her short hair, and then placed the heel of her hand on her forehead. She closed her eyes and lifted her heels expectantly. Just feeling the beginnings of flight had always calmed her down as a child, but nothing happened.

A frown marred her face as she tilted her head to the side, "Huh. Why am I not floating?" Her heels made a quiet thump against the worn hard wood under her feet. Maybe I need a broom now?

She rolled her eyes and tried to start the feel and pull of teleporting that usually helped center her, before the binding anyways. Again, nothing happened. She let out a frustrated huff of annoyance, "Really? Nothing? The hell..."

Carol puffed out her cheeks and let air hiss through her teeth before crossing her arms, "I guess I can only do a fraction of what I could do before. I mean it makes sense I guess... Reincarnation must come at some sort of cost, probably. And if the Witches Council hasn't popped in here to punish me, they must not be a thing here. So I guess...all this is must be some other dimension or something... Yeah. That must be it."

Any other explanation was lost to her at the moment. Figuring that she probably couldn't do half of what she could before, she concentrated on what she thought she could do at the very least.

She turned back to the frozen toad on the ground, "You are no longer Ed Peletier. You are a toad. Forget it all and become blank." Hypnotism type brainwashing wasn't her cup of tea, but it usually worked in a pinch when she fucked up this way.

Ed the toad continued to glare at her.

Seeing that her intended magic did nothing once again, Carol rolled her eyes, "Huh. I guess this is out too. Well... Whatever. Look here you stupid abusive fuck wad, I am no longer going to be your personal punching bag. I won't have it. And you will NEVER lay a hand on me or my daughter ever again. Have fun in the void, asshole."

With that, she snapped her fingers and vanished him with a pop. Carol let out a hysterical little laugh, "Thank God, that still worked."

She stared at her hands in quiet contemplation before shaking it off. She figured that she could deal with her swirling thoughts and questions later.

First things first. I wasn't an expert on ancient history so I have no clue what the currency here is or what anything is really like. I mean yeah, back when I was dying it was all shit and no technology really worked either, but I certainly don't expect it to be all flying cars, and nanobot hospitals now…right?

Carol sighed and bit her bottom lip before switching on the other bathroom light and staring at Ed's swath of clothing on the ground. An old leather wallet, one that looked better taken care of than she did, peeked out from an overly large pair of dark brown pants along with a ring of keys that lay beside it.

She squatted down and narrowed her eyes at it before warily picking up both the wallet and keys. She fingered the leather in wonder. In the future, this material was more likely to be made out of fungi than actual animal skin.

Carol carefully flipped it open. It revealed an unsightly picture of Ed on his driver's license, a rather lewd picture of a very young woman who obviously wasn't her, a wad of twenty dollar bills, fifty dollar bills, a single hundred dollar bill and a lot of five dollar bills crammed beside two visa debit cards. She hummed as she stared at the contents of the wallet in wonder. It all really seemed odd to her, back in her past life, the use of hard currency had died out a long, long, long time ago.

She stood up and straightened herself out. Carol slipped out the money and cards before carelessly tossing the wallet, and the other contents within it, over her shoulder. She gingerly placed the currency onto the bathroom counter and snapped her fingers, a slight bit of hesitation in her movements. Please. Please, work.

The ten twenty dollar bills quadrupled, the six fifty dollar bills doubled, and the fifteen five dollar bills tripled leaving her with far more cash than she had anticipated. She frowned and pulled on the magic she felt swirling in her and held out the palm of her hand before wrinkling her nose. With a quiet pop, a full stack of hundred dollar bills appeared on the palm of her hand. She placed it by the other stacks of cash, a mischievous grin tugged at her lips.

A quiet happiness filled her as she felt for the first time in a long time that she finally had money of her own. Money that Ed wouldn't be able to do anything about because he was finally gone. At that thought, her new conscience picked at her.

I shouldn't feel bad for vanishing that waste of human excrement...He did all those horrible horrible things to me and smacked Sophia every time she cried too loudly...why do I still feel bad then? It's not like I directly killed him in cold blood. The void of space is a more merciful punishment than he deserves.

Carol grimaced at the new feeling of guilt that gnawed at her, and did her best to shake it off. It's not like she could use a rewind spell to fix it in any case. If she couldn't teleport or float, then she definitely couldn't use more complicated magic. It probably meant things like incantations, complete regeneration, or other complex pieces of magic were out too.

With that thought she stared at her new, at least to her, face and squeezed her eyes shut before shaking her head rapidly.

Fearing that nothing had happened again, she peeled open one eye and peeked at her reflection before opening both eyes in awe. Her hair, short and jaggedly cut, as though someone with a sharp knife had cut it off in a fit of anger, had grown down past her shoulder blades.

She was still bruised looking, far too thin, and her clothes looked as threadbare as her clothes did back in 3097, but now at least she didn't look like a training hairstylist's failed project. She pulled on a long loose auburn curl and watched it bounce back as she let it go.

A soft smile pulled at her lips making her blue eyes sparkle for once, "I guess I can't change my face, but at least my hair looks okay now."

She tiptoed back into the almost empty nursery and peeked into Sophia's crib. Despite all the trouble outside her room, she remained fast asleep. Carol's face blossomed into an adoring smile as she pressed a gentle kiss onto her baby's forehead before retreating back into the hallway. No one will ever hurt you again, sweetheart.

She meandered back into the bright bathroom and kicked Ed's cloths into the corner by the toilet. Her reflection caused her to pause once more. It really was jarring. Carol did her best to shake it off. Much like in her past life, she either had to adapt or die.

Slipping out of her tattered clothes, she turned the shower on and hopped in. Carol was determined to sort out the memories and images that kept hammering into her brain before dealing with anything else. Once in the shower, with the hot water cascading all around her dampening her worries, Carol finally felt like she could take a breath. The heavy weight on her chest that kept baring down on her slowly dissipated.

She stared up at the ceiling and hummed quietly after looking down and noting all the various scars, bruises, and burns this body had to bare because of Ed. She finally noticed the dinky ugly engagement ring on her left hand and scowled.

I know it's her memories, but I can't help but feel the anger that she felt when Ed said that her parents, my parents now too, rings were too old, too unposh, too much like me for it to be okay to wear. This replacement sucked and I know exactly what to do with it.

With an irritated huff she tore off Ed's stupid engagement ring and let it plop down the bathtub drain, "I hope a gross rat finds it and makes it into a fucking crap crown." She cleaned herself and shut off the shower, before getting out and drying herself with a clean towel off of a nearby bathroom shelf.

The cards on the bathroom counter, beside the piles of money, caught her attention while she was drying her hair and brushing her teeth. With a toothbrush stuck in her mouth, she took a closer look at them. A sudden memory pulled at the forefront of her mind.

It was a memory of Carol and her father at the butcher shop that they had owned back when she was a little girl.

A man had paid with a black visa and her father had let out a long low whistle. Little Carol looked up at her father in wonder, "What's so special about that black card, daddy?"

Her father's warm eyes smiled at her as a grin tugged at his lips, "It means that customer that walked out has so much money that it doesn't matter what we charge on this card because it has that big of a limit. Rich rich people stuff, princess."

"Does this mean that we can charge whatever we want?" She pulled the card closer and inspected it with all the curiosity of a six-year-old.

A loud guffaw left her father's lips as he shook his head, "You say the darnest things, Carol sweetheart. You can't do that because it's stealing. Now you must never forget, don't ever steal. Okay?"

"Okay, daddy," she nodded solemnly and gave her father back the shiny unlimited visa.

"Pinky swear?" A mischievous look appeared onto her father's face as he held out his pinky. He knew that his darling daughter would never go back on a pinky swear.

Her little pinky wound with his large one and as they shook on it she nodded and declared, "Pinky swear."

As the memory faded, Carol finally noticed that tears had been leaking down her cheeks. Her breaths came out in short gasps.

They were dead and gone. This body's parents were dead too. The acute pain of recalling how she couldn't be at their funerals because Ed said that there wasn't enough money. Not enough to get to Tennessee, anyways. She had never gotten to say goodbye, that had torn her apart even more than the beatings.

She felt a deep anger burn in side her gut. Anger, at both herself and Ed. Carol stomped on the ground, and ground her teeth so hard that she thought they would crack, before barely managing to pull herself together.

The two distinctly black cards stared back at her from the counter. Carol took in more steadying breaths of air, before coming to a startling conclusion. Neither of them belonged to Ed. Her sudden anger fizzled into a deep confusion, "Did you steal too, you fucking shit head? You couldn't just stick to adultery, child abuse, and domestic violence could you?"

She shook her head. Ed was truly the scum of the Earth. She pulled on another towel tightly around her as she spat out the toothpaste and rinsed out her mouth.

Gathering up the cash, cards, and her moth eaten clothes, she made her way to what she assumed was the master bedroom. The files that she had carefully put on the bed still lay there. She noted that she would have to look through them at some point. Information would be an immense help transitioning into this new life.

The cards both said other people's names. Both were probably from mega rich people that Ed had stolen from, probably from one of the many bars around Douglas, Georgia. That thought alarmed her. What if they were gang people? Like raiders... She and Sophia would definitely have to get out of here either way.

The early morning light streamed through the crack of the master bedroom window. It was almost as though it were reminding her that the day was still starting and there was still time.

"Well, I better figure out if I can transfigure this shit," she muttered to herself. Carefully, Carol placed the money down beside the large brown envelope, before taking a seat onto the foot of the bed.

She held one card in her hand and snapped her fingers. The name on the card twisted and morphed from Jeffery Lorberbaum into Carol Suzanne Mason, whilst the numbers disappeared before reappearing in a different sequence.

A lopsided grin spread across her face. She pulled out the card and hummed under her breath. Two of these cards seemed unnecessary, in her opinion. With that thought in mind, she tossed the card into the air. Snapping her fingers as it fell, it vanished into thin air.

She placed her new card on top of the rest of her money hoard, and let herself fall back onto the bed with a soft thunk. A long relieved sigh escaped her as she stared up at the white popcorn ceiling, "At least now I don't have to worry about money. It'll make leaving here much easier."

The chime of a nearby clock caught her attention. She lolled her head to the side and stared at it, "Huh. It's only 8 am. I wonder when Sophia'll need to eat. It doesn't feel like I'm breast feeding since my boobs don't seem to feel sore at all. Hmmm…"

She turned and tilted her head back to look at the ceiling, "I guess I should get going." A little grunt escaped her lips as she pulled herself up into a sitting position. This body wasn't as strong as her previous body had been when it had been twenty-one.

Making sure to put the big brown envelope under her new collection of wealth, she slid open the closet doors and stared at the wardrobe that was supposed to be hers. Ed's luxurious threads shone beside the worn tattered rags that pretended to be clothes. A scowl scrunched up her face as she gathered everything that 'Old Carol' had owned. With a grunt and a grimace, she dumped it onto the edge of the bed with a thump.

"I can't believe how shitty he treated me…well not me, but sort of…ugh. Still, I hate, hate, him. I'm glad I vanished that twaddle cock," she huffed and pulled out the other clothes from the dresser. She bit down on her lip, a furrowed frown scrunched up her face as she gazed down at the pile in front of her.

"I refuse to the wear rags that Ed 'generously' gave me because I couldn't be trusted around males…Ha! He was the one that was cheating with that slutty girl child in his wallet," Carol rolled her eyes at that memory. Suddenly, she felt a new sense of purpose. She'd make what she had into the clothes and accessories that she had wanted to wear, but never could. Clothes that she had wanted before this life.

"I'm done getting stomped on. I will never live like that again," she murmured to herself. Her promise reverberated inside of her. The words seemed to reassure herself that this was truly what she was going to do. Her resolve bloomed.

With a twist of her wrist and a snap, all the clothes and undergarments were perfectly folded and changed from their wore torn appearance. Accessories popped into existence. Instead of looking like a wallflower, she'd look like how she wished she could've back when her parents were still alive. All earth tones with an English country side vibe.

Carol pulled on a dark grey chunky sweater to stave off the winter chill, and to cover the still healing bruises on her body, after slipping on the non-granny like underwear. It felt nice to actually have things that fit and pushed up, rather than letting the girls sag in an ill-fitting bra.

She spotted a grey skirt and grinned before happily slipping it on as well. Ed had hated it when she wore skirts and dresses. He had said it had made him feel as though she were tempting others into taking her away from him. Like clothes were really a neon sign that stated she would just hop off and become an adulterer like he was.

If she could roll her eyes any harder, they'd probably get stuck that way. After pulling on a set of woolly socks, she spotted the one pair of shoes that 'Old Carol' had owned. A worn set of shoes that, at first, she had thought belonged to a doddering old lady.

"Seriously? Even the shoes, jezze," shaking her head at the silly situation she snapped her fingers and the grandma shoes morphed into a set of sturdy warm waterproof leather boots. With another snap of her fingers, she got the other shoes that she had always daydreamed of having one day.

A mischievous smile tugged at her lips before she shrugged and murmured to herself, "I know it's not that practical to have this many shoes, but it's not like Ed's here to stop me from getting what I want now."

With that resonating thought in mind, and unheeding as to how much magic she really had in this body, Carol started to conjure things willy nilly. She conjured up jewelry Ed had forbidden her from wearing with a threat of a harsh beating. Beautiful baby clothes appeared out of thin air, baby clothes that he had said that would be a waste since babies didn't need more than two onesies. Baby essentials like a stroller, a new car seat, and other baby things appeared. Things that Ed had said that they didn't need because Sophia would just stay home. And suitcases, something that she was never ever allowed to have, popped into existence beside it all.

Sweat gathered up on her brow causing her to frown. It was almost 9 am. Almost time for Sophia to wake up and have breakfast. She felt oddly tired and hungry after all that work, and a small pit of dread gathered in her belly. Could she not cast forever without a worry? She couldn't do more than half the things she could've before, so it was probably likely that she couldn't go on endlessly with magic either.

She let out a deep sigh and sat down amongst the many things she had conjured, "I guess that's all I can do for now, but I do kind of want to try one of those ancient fast food things... 'Old Carol' had loved eating fast food…"

Carol licked her dry lips and frowned before deciding that it was worth a shot, "At the very worst…nothing will happen. It won't hurt to try."

She snapped her fingers again and a tray of McDonald's breakfast food along with a tall metal thermos full of water appeared on her lap. The smell of food wafted into her nose and made tears gather in the corners of her eyes, "Oh…I missed this too…"

The ice cold water that she guzzled down, made her want to cry once more. It brought forth the memory of her dying of dehydration in her last life. She wiped her mouth with her sleeve and dug into the food before her with the fervor of a starving man.

After satiating herself, she heard her new daughter's whimpers from the room beside hers, "I guess it's 9 am now." She pulled on a nearby watch and smiled at the thought of actually having a working one for once.

Sophia beamed at her mother when Carol came into her nursery. A big gummy smile greeted her, before Sophia happily began burbling and babbling.

Carol's chest constricted and her heart melted, "Oh, my sweet sweet girl. Did you have a good sleep? Would you like some food, a bath, and a new diaper? Ohhh, my dear sweetheart, you're going to love all the new stuff mommy got for you."

Sophia grinned as she clung onto Carol while she gently lifted her out of her crib and began their daily routine. A routine that had been engraved into Carol's mind even with Eleanor slowly melded into her.

Carol got Sophia ready for the day, and into her adorable new outfit. An outfit that Ed would've thrown a fit over. Carol chuckled inwardly at that thought. She strapped her daughter snuggly onto her chest. The baby carrier that she had conjured was a lifesaver in this instance since she really didn't want Sophia fussing while she packed.

She sat on a free space on the bed and waved a hand. Suddenly, all their new things packed themselves up into their new huge suitcases, diaper bag, and her purse. While this went on, Carol felt a wave of fatigue wash over her.

Smiling tiredly at her babbling baby, she watched as their luggage, the new diaper bag, and stroller righted themselves up for transport. Carol did a quick sweep of the room with Sophia strapped onto her chest. She wanted to double check that she had everything she wanted and needed, before ditching this place. She definitely wanted to get away from anything to do with Ed and the abuse that he had rained down on her, even more so after the birth of their daughter. He'd been so angry that Sophia hadn't been born a Samuel.

While searching through the closet, she found the jewelry box that she had tried to hide from Ed when they first moved in together. She didn't hide it well enough. Ed found it and managed to pawn off everything. Well, almost everything.

He didn't find the hidden compartment that housed her parents wedding ring set. They'd worn those rings till their deaths. She'd only managed to get a hold of it from the solicitor weeks after their funeral. Her mother's diamond studs were spared as well. She'd worn them ever since she was born. Her paranoia at that time managed to pay off. She hoped that the resurgence of it would help her out once more.

She searched through the rest of house slowly. Her bones felt weary, and her magical core ached. It was probably because of all the magic she used up. Yawning, Carol snorted. She felt tired even though it was only 10 in the morning. I suppose I deserve this. Gotta keep a better tab on how much magic I use around here.

Carol managed to round everything else that she thought she didn't want to leave behind as Sophia snoozed through it all. She chanced using her magic again to get it all packed away and into the jeep Cherokee in their driveway.

Carol dragged her feet back into the house to feed and change an alert baby girl bouncing against her in the baby carrier. She shot Sophia a tired smile and proceeded to care for her daughter.

After they were both fed, changed, and had gone to the bathroom respectively, Carol and Sophia got into the car. In the driver's seat, Carol tensed and prayed that her muscle memory could be relied upon. She snapped her fingers and a for sale sign popped up while the house's left over contents vanished. She felt it would be easier to move than to burn the place down like she initially wanted.

She felt so tired, but knew that she couldn't afford to take a nap. She and Sophia needed to leave while she still had the nerves to do so. This wasn't going to be like the time she tried to run away to the Atlanta woman's shelter, unsuccessfully unfortunately. Carol recalled loving her stay at Dawsonville when she was younger when her parents had taken her on a cross country tour of the states for her 16th birthday.

Making up her mind, she pulled out a map, figured out their route, and checked on a bright wide eyed Sophia snug as a bug in her new car seat. Somehow, she successfully backed out of the driveway and down the street.

She let out a relieved laugh and smiled to herself. I know it might just have been dumb luck or muscle memory, but I'm glad I know how to drive this thing...

As they drove further and further away from their prior prison, Carol felt a dam of emotions swell up in her chest. The foremost emotion crashing against her was unabashed relief, and she couldn't help but feel guilty since she knew that this was partially her fault too. She couldn't help but be frustrated with herself for not seeing the signs that kept popping up through her relationship with Ed. For not having enough strength to stand up and say no. She was mad at herself that it took all this for her to act and stop the abuse.

As she drove past unfamiliar buildings, cars, and people she solemnly declared to Sophia, "Never again, baby. Mommy swears, pinky swears, that she'll never let another person hurt either of us like that again. I swear."

The wonder of the past dampened the guilt that still ate at her as she saw blue skies, trees, and people that weren't ravagers. Buildings still stood tall and clean, streets weren't littered with detritus and skeletal bodies of people that had died from dehydration, starvation, or raiders. The past was a fresh breeze and a balm on her soul.

Sophia burbled happily in return while her mom let out a teary laugh as they drove down the highway towards their new future. Sophia being happy eased the rest of her guilt...for now at least.

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