The Reclaimed Rose (Annalise and Steven)

Zachary thought his grandmother cooked as well as his mother did. The food was delicious.

He smiled to himself.

Even though Zachary had made a mistake by going down the wrong path, he was lucky that he still had his family by his side-even if that meant his biological parents had left him.

When Steven got up, he looked at the time and felt the space beside him on the bed. Steven realized that the other side of the bed was cold.

He wondered if Annalise had already gotten out of bed. Steven got up and went to the kitchen. He asked impatiently, "Annalise, are you done cooking?"

But there was nobody in the kitchen. At that moment, Steven finally remembered that they had divorced.

Steven stumbled back to the dining table and plopped into his seat. Overwhelmed with frustration, he buried his head into his hands. Steven wondered why he kept forgetting that they had divorced.

Recently, Steven had been dreaming a lot. He often dreamed of the time when he was still with Annalise. Because of that, he couldn't distinguish between dreams and reality.

When Steven snapped back to his senses, he looked at the empty kitchen again. He regretfully wondered if he had spoken to Annalise with a bad attitude like he had just moments ago. Had he been treating Annalise that way the entire time he was with her?

Steven felt like there was a void in him. He couldn't understand why he just couldn't treat Annalise better.

...

After breakfast, Zane and I sent Willow to school.

In the car, Willow leaned on me and whispered, "Mommy. Lately, I've been happy every day."

Putting my arms around her, I asked, "Why is that?"

Willow said, "When the other kids saw that I could speak, they all came to talk to me because they were curious, One of the kids was worried that if was surrounded by other kids now, I would be sad when they stopped talking to me next time...

"So, she came to me and said the other kids only liked me temporarily. She said they will stop hanging out with me after the hype dies down."

Willow lay down and gazed at me.

Then, she continued and said, "And so, I asked her what that meant. She told me not to cry when that happens. I told her I didn't know you were worried that I would be sad, and you must care a lot about me. But after I thanked her, she blushed and ran away." noveldrama

When I heard Willow's words, I shot Zane a confused look. As an adult, I interpreted Willow's words in that the other child was being hostile toward Willow. However, Willow misunderstood the child and took it for kindness. Zane met my eyes.

I felt a little conflicted. Willow had always been very carefree. She never noticed the negative emotions behind other people's intentional provocations. If I pointed this out, Willow may be sad to learn about their hostility. After a flurry of thoughts, I decided not to address the misunderstanding.

Willow looked at me and then at Zane. She said, "Mommy, Daddy, you both look very serious. What's on your mind?"

I pinched Willow's cheeks with a

smile and said, "I just thought you

handled the situation very well. When I was younger, I would only seek help from my parents when I ran into problems. But Willow already knows how to handle problems by herself!"

Feeling proud, Willow beamed brightly.

I continued and said, "But Willow, remember this..."