7

Chapter 7

"How could you!? You promised that you wouldn't let me stay there with him any more! So now you turn up, breaking your promise, acting like everything is fine and you don't even regret leaving us, after you had given us all hopes and dreams that were shattered so easily by your selfish decision to marry the man behind us!" Mia screamed furiously, tears streaming down her face as she glared at him furiously.

She continued to scream and shout until she ran out of breath and began gasping for air. When her father remained silent she continued to glare at him with hatred filled eyes.

Suddenly he reached into the pocket of his jacket and pulled out a small envelope, "I'm giving this to you, Victoria, but before you read it, listen very carefully. I wrote this letter because I wanted to give you an explanation and I hope that this will help you to understand what I did." As he handed it to her he continued, "I am so sorry for everything that I did to you and your sisters and I am so sorry for the pain that I caused you but I did what I believed was best for my family," Victor said sincerely.

"You broke the heart of the most important person in my life and I loved you unconditionally. I still love you, even when you act like this, even when you are ignoring and hurting the other three women in our family. All I ever wanted was for you to look past your mistakes and see how much love you have left in your heart. If not for me, your sisters and mother would be sitting in an institution somewhere. You have done a lot of bad things throughout your life, Victoria and the one thing that really bothers me about it is that you don't seem to acknowledge that you have hurt anyone else in your life. You always claim that you're protecting the ones you love, but deep down in your heart, I know that isn't true."

He stopped talking and looked down, unable to meet her eyes. After a couple moments his head shot back up and he added, "Now get the hell out of my house and never come back. Goodbye Victoria."

Her face paled and her hands became shaky. Her breathing started getting faster and faster until it eventually stopped altogether. Without saying another word she jumped up and quickly ran outside, slamming the back door so hard that the front doors rattled.

Victor slumped forward onto the coffee table and started crying. He sobbed quietly and quietly as he tried to control himself. Tears slipped out of his eyes as images of their mother and father flashed in his mind. He couldn't believe what he was hearing. They were both dead. The thought brought a fresh wave of guilt and sadness over him. Suddenly everything he had been working towards the past five years seemed pointless. The world seemed crueler to him than before; especially to Lila. He had failed to protect both his girls and his wife. He hated himself for that but he didn't blame the girls. He blamed himself more. But what he did feel worst of all was that he hadn't seen his children in eight months, he couldn't even begin to imagine how they were feeling. Especially Lila. He had missed so much from his youngest daughter's life because he was stuck in Canada working. Now here she was in Massachusetts. Not only that but she was forced to move in with a man whom she couldn't stand. That man had done so much harm to her family that she refused to accept him into her home. She couldn't forget the last conversation she shared with her husband. She remembered how angry and hurt he was. He had stormed out of their bedroom that night and they never spoke again.

He wiped the corners of his eyes, attempting to clear his vision and calm down a bit. He couldn't lose his composure now. He needed to stop being weak and try to think straight.

When he stood up he glanced back at the door where Victoria just left. He sighed deeply before walking over to the two twin siblings. He leaned down to them and extended his arm toward them. They eyed him cautiously.

He whispered calmly while staring into each of their eyes, "I want to apologize... I'm sorry. I shouldn't have left the way I did. And I shouldn't have acted cold and distant like you two told me too." Both of their faces instantly soften seeing the sincerity in his eyes.

Lydia grabbed his wrist and shook her head gently, "No, dad... We should be the ones apologizing. You've lost so many people because of us. Please don't worry about us anymore. Just... Go find Mom and make it right. We need you, Dad." With that she pulled him into a tight embrace, surprising both Victor and Mia.

Victor smiled warmly at them, "Thank you, Lizzie… Thank you, Mia. I miss your mother a lot too." Mia wrapped her arms around her father and squeezed as hard as she possibly could. She then pulled away, smiling softly at him.

He placed a gentle kiss on her forehead, "I love you guys so much."

"We love you too, dad."

He glanced at Lila and she smiled softly at him as she stood in between the twins, wrapping her arms around herself.

Mia sniffled softly, "We need you, dad. Please come home soon."

Victor sighed, "I'm coming home, sweetheart. Don't worry."

The next morning, as Mia walked downstairs from the second floor of her apartment building and headed down the stairs, she suddenly heard someone calling her name and she turned around to see a short blonde girl running after her.

"Mia! Wait!" she exclaimed frantically as she finally caught up with Mia.

Mia frowned as she stared at the young blonde, who she recognized immediately, "Sophie? What are you doing here? Where's your father?"

"My father is already in town," Sophie replied simply, "I was wondering if... well... Do you maybe want to hang out sometime today?"

Mia paused briefly before glancing over at the staircase. A smile formed on her lips, "Yeah.