Mistakes

Chapter 17

Lilly-Ella walked slowly into the room; her eyes fixated on her mother, never straying to the questioning gaze of Maria Montez. "Are you okay Mom?" Lilly-Ella questioned quietly, and Gabriella managed a weak smile which the young girl could instantly tell was fake.

"Gabriella, why are you letting some little thing in your house?" Maria Montez enquired, her nose turned up in disgust as she studied the teenager, "And even more so, why are you letting her call you Mom? You have no children!" Gabriella winced slightly as Lilly-Ella's blazing ocean coloured eyes swivelled swiftly away from her, glaring directly at her grandmother. A loud gasp emanated around the room, Maria's hand springing up over her mouth as she gazed into the icy blue eyes, Gabriella watching her mother and daughter closely. "Those eyes," Maria whispered, holding a hand up to Lilly-Ella's face, "You have eyes just like your father."

Lilly-Ella flinched away from the older woman, continuing to glare at her as she moved towards her mother, grasping hold of Gabriella's hand tightly. "Yeah, I do have my father's eyes, I also have his will, his determination, and his severe hatred for you!" Lilly-Ella spat out, still frowning at her grandmother.

Turning to Gabriella, Maria's eyes started to water. "Darling, why didn't you tell me? Me, your own mother." Both younger women looked at Maria as if she had finally lost it as she continued on her speech, moving steadily towards them. "Why did you never tell me that you were pregnant, sweetheart?" Gabriella's mouth dropped open in shock, and Lilly-Ella's glare on Maria only increased.

"She did tell you and you know she did!" Lilly-Ella roared, staring at the older woman who did not even cringe slightly. "You were the one who helped her to become convinced that she didn't need me or my father, that we were ruining her life! You took advantage of your child when she was incredibly ill, a time when you should have been there to help her, not to abandon her."

"Little girl, I assure you that whatever she has told you are lies," Maria murmured, moving a strand of hair away from Lilly-Ella's face, the girl's hand instantly slapping the older woman's one away from her. "Gabriella may be my little girl, but as you said yourself, she is a very sick woman, she has battled mental problems for years, ever since her father died. She never told me anything about you, or about herself and Troy ever breaking up, all I ever figured was that it was due to college problems, as in they were going to completely different states."

Gabriella's mouth dropped even further, and if it were possible, Lilly-Ella's face turned a deeper shade of scarlet as her fury threatened to bubble over. Feeling a tender squeeze on her hand, Lilly-Ella looked to her right, only to find herself gazing into the depths of Gabriella's chocolate orbs. "If your Dad has ever taught you one thing about my side of the family Lilly-Ella, it is not to trust anything that my Mother says."

Nodding, Lily-Ella held Gabriella's stare, "Yeah, he's always said that he wasn't ever sure if she were human or a creature from the depths of hell."

Snorting slightly, Gabriella nodded, noticing from the corner of her eye Maria's fist clench in anger. "Well then, I don't want you to listen to a word that comes out of her mouth, and instead, I want you to go and gather the things which you have already packed, and then we'll head back to you house, to see your Dad once more."

Lilly-Ella nodded slowly, cautiously glancing towards Maria, her eyes almost doubling in size when she saw the slight smirk forming on her lips. "But Mom…"

"Lilly-Ella go now," Gabriella muttered sharply, her focus firmly on her daughter. Nodding once more, Lilly-Ella slowly headed for the door and back up the stairs. Turning to her mother, Gabriella's glare mirrored her daughters from a little while earlier, "Didn't know about her, huh? That's definitely a new one."

Storming over to Gabriella, Maria grabbed her two forearms and shook her strongly, "How the hell could you be so stupid? After everything that I ever did for you?"

Wrenching out of her Mother's grasp, Gabriella's glare only intensified further, "Here we go again! Everything you ever did for me, you?" Gabriella laughed bitterly, her gaze unwavering, "You never did anything for me, Daddy did it all, you were always at work, or with Todd." Smirking as she watched Maria's face turn paler, Gabriella felt a small sense of satisfaction start to build. "Oh yeah, I knew about your little love affair, and so did Daddy. After his death you spent all your time with him and I was left to fend for myself. I was thirteen years old! So never ever tell me that you did anything for me," Gabriella hissed furiously.

"Yes, well," Maria glared once more at Gabriella, pursing her lips, "You were always the stupid one, it's no wonder to anyone that you've been a screw up. You always did fall for anything anybody ever told you, and you always, always mae sure that you lapped up all the attention." Gabriella winced, praying that what Maria was saying wasn't true, her head shooting up as her Mother's rant continued, "I mean by G-d, Gabriella, did you honestly believe that that boy ever loved you? To Troy I bet all you were was a girl who would give him whatever he wanted, when he wanted, and all because he said 'I love you," Maria mimicked, and Gabriella felt a stinging sensation rip through her, worse than anything else that her Mother had ever done to her. "You call me out for leaving you all those years ago, well he did the same thing, did he not? Only he was worse than me, he took your helpless baby girl with him, when she needed her mother! And now, now, he's plainly bored of her and looking to dump her back on you, so that he can go live his own life."

Gabriella was shaking furiously, her hands balled into fists, the tears streaming down her face as a million thoughts and insecurities swarmed her head. "No, he's not, Troy's not like that, he loved me, he still loves me, and he loves that little girl up there more than anything in this world."

One raise of an eyebrow from Maria and it was all over, Gabriella crumpled to the floor with heart wrenching sobs, her breathing becoming erratic and her hands covering her face. Smirking slightly, Maria rushed across the small room, grimaced and sunk to her knees, pulling Gabriella into her embrace and slowly stroking her hair, pulling off concerned Mother immaculately, apart from the self-righteous smirk still covering her features.

"Oh you stupid, stupid girl, you believed him again didn't you," feeling Gabriella nod her head, Maria's smirk grew, "Well it's ok darling, Mommy's here now, and I won't let anything happen to you ever, especially not at the hands of that boy."

Sat just outside the room on the stairs, Lilly-Ella could feel her own tears streaming down her face, dripping onto the picture of Troy and Gabriella on the pier from their teenage years as her heart shattered intop a million different pieces. Hearing how sickly sweet Maria was being to Gabriella, she started to silently retch, knowing that any hopes that she had for a family reconciliation would never happen. With the interference of this woman, she, Troy and Gabriella would never get their happily ever after…