Daughter of Elizabeth Olsen

Chapter 16

Lizzie's POV

"You're up early?" Chris points out as he notices me sat in the kitchen with a cup of tea in my hands. It's somewhere around 5am, Chris has to go and film this morning which explains why he's awake. "That would insinuate I've been to bed, up late is probably the right term."

There's zero emotion in my monotone voice, Chris sighs and rubs my back as he stands next to me. "Lizzie, you need to sleep." He tells me as I take another sip of my tea. I get up and walk over to the sink and pour the rest of it out, looking out the window as the dark night starts to lift.

I can't sleep, I can't close my eyes without seeing the distraught face of my daughter every time I try. After she left I sat reading through the Twitter thread and started putting the pieces together. I couldn't believe how oblivious I had been. I felt sick to my stomach when I realised,this was the reason she'd been so off and decided not to go to school. The worst part is it probably wasn't close to all of the reasons.

I drove around for almost an hour trying to find her, to say I messed up doesn't even come close to what happened yesterday. I eventually turned back home and called Chris, he was round immediately. After I explained what happened, I could see the disappointment on his face. I think that's why I called him, I knew he would be honest with how royally I fucked up.

He did comfort me after trying to call Alexa himself, he was just as worried about her. When my dad called I nearly didn't pick up, it's not often he'll call me out of the blue, usually I just talk to him while he chats to Alexa on FaceTime. They had a really close bond and it didn't surprise me when he said she'd called him to collect her.

Once he told me I wasn't allowed to pick her up I sobbed into Chris' chest. I needed to fix this, I had to. Scarlett called me and told me off too. I deserved it, I broke Alexa's trust. Everything I had ever told her seemed like a lie. It wasn't, I didn't mean any of those horrible things I said.

"Lizzie!" Chris says loudly, making me jump back to reality and drop my mug into the sink. I watch it shatter into tiny little pieces beneath me and hit my palm against the counter. "Fuck!"

I turn around and face Chris just as he pulls me into his chest. "You are going to go to bed and get some sleep, you aren't doing yourself any favours here Lizzie. Your daughter is coming home tomorrow and you need to be ready to hear her out and try to work through this. I'm going to work and me and Scarlett will be back tonight." It was clear in his voice this wasn't up for debate.

I sigh knowing he's right, he gives me one last squeeze before I head upstairs. I walk straight past my bedroom door to Alexa's room and curl up on her bed, it's been one night and I miss her so much. I have a lot to do to get her to trust me again, I'll do whatever it takes to get my daughter back.

~~

Alexa's POV

I wake up gasping for breath. It takes me a couple of minutes to work out where I am, at Grandpa's house. I hang my head down when I realise that my 'nightmare' wasn't actually a nightmare, but a flashback.

The argument all over again.

I get out of bed and groan when I see the time. 5am, exactly 23 minutes since I last looked at the clock. I know I'm not going to be able to sleep so I walk downstairs and out the back door, sitting on the patio as the light of morning starts to appear.

It's usually peaceful this early in the morning, but my head is too loud. Everything my inner voices and insecurities, everything the girls at school, everything my previous foster parents had told me, all of it was true. I just never expected to hear those words coming from the one person I trusted the most.