The Art of Falling Apart (It Girls Series #3)

Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Mirae

I looked at the picture of my mother on the phone that she gave me when I was just about to enter college.

I didn't have a phone until I stepped into college because my mother wanted to save as much money as she can so that I could finish a college degree, that's why she strictly buys things that we need over the things that we just want, and having my own phone is not one of those things that she considers as needs.

I'm not gonna lie, it's hard... to go in highschool without having technology to rely on to make some of the school works easier for you.

We have a computer, though. But having your own cellphone that you can bring to your school is more convenient than having nothing.

When we have lectures, my classmates would take out their phones and capture pictures on the PowerPoint presentation, but I have to take note on my notebook as quickly as I can so I wouldn't miss it.

Sounds pretty handful.

But I can't blame my mother for it. I can't blame her for the privileges that we are lacking. It's not her fault that she's not born with it.

In fact, I'm actually grateful for her. If not for her, I wouldn't be able to survive this world.

She raised me, loved me, and took care of me like I'm her own flesh... even when I'm not.

My biological mother is actually a drug dependent- drug addict, if you'd drop the filter.

She lives in the same town where my adoptive mother lives, I usually see her sometimes on random times such as when I'm buying some canned sardines on the store, two blocks away from our home.

Sometimes, Mika (my biological mother) would look at me, lackadaisically.

Like she can't even recognize me, like I'm just another person living in the same town as hers.

I don't know if she doesn't really know me because of the drugs or maybe she's just ashamed to acknowledge me because she gave me away the moment she gave birth to me.

There's a part of me that resented her for giving me away like a puppy, but there's also a part of me that's grateful for what she did.

If she didn't give me away, my life will be a lot miserable as I struggle to live under her roof.

Maybe I wouldn't even know what love would feel like if she didn't give me away to my adoptive mother- Claudine.

And maybe I wouldn't have much faith in God if Mika didn't give me away to Claudine.

Out of all the thousands of things that I adore about my mother, Claudine, one of them is her massive faith. I remember her telling me one time that a person who relies on God will never be disappointed, and I believed in that.

Until last year, when she was diagnosed with cancer. Pancreatic cancer.

She refused to take therapy. She firmly said that she's not going to spend the royalty that she earn from the books that she wrote for her therapy.

Those money were solely for my college.

I cried so hard when she said that, I told her that I'd rather stop my studies than to watch her die.

I convinced her to try even just one therapy and she did, finally, but the cancer keeps on coming back. We fought by science and faith, but we didn't win.

"I told you so," were the words that came out weakly from her pale lips as she smiles at me softly.

She didn't take her doctor's announcement roughly as I did. It's as if she already accepted her fate and I'm not gonna lie, I was a bit upset because it felt like I'm fighting the battle of cancer alone.