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"You weren't here! You haven't been in a long time so stop trying to act like you were."
Willow grew up in a house with six brothers, one of them being her twin. She's grown up in a two bedroom apartment with an alcoholic mother who never...
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There was a time, so long ago, that it felt like an entirely different life. A life where not only was the DeLaCruz family happy and whole, but when Victoria DeLaCruz was a mother. Not only a mother, but a mom.
Victoria was a mom, a woman who loved her children and cherished them with all that she was. Everything she did was for them. They were her world, her life, and she went above and beyond to make sure they knew that. She put them above everything.
And then Victoria lost sight. She put on a mask, a fake smile to match the act of her new life, and she wore it for so long that she forgot who was underneath. And with the loss of who she was, her beliefs, her values, and all of that love went down the drain with the rest of her identity.
She lost herself, and with that, her kids lost their mom. Victoria became just that of a gene donor. She was just a woman that had a hand in raising them, and when nurture turned to neglect, she was simply an authority figure in their lives. Nothing more, nothing less. She was a mother, but not a mom.
There were times after that, after that piece of herself died, when she was a mom. They were moments, single pieces of time when she wasn't so awfully lost and she could remember that she should love her kids, her life, herself. When she could remember what she should be doing, instead of what everyone else wanted her to be doing. And every once in a while, a small piece of her jaded heart would flicker back to life, and she was herself. She would spend time with her kids and hold them. They would laugh and smile and it would feel just like it did before, back when the days were good. Everything was alright.
And then the moment would pass.
The spark in her heart would fade away and she would lose herself all over again, and the DeLaCruz kids were left with half a parent, and two overcompensating, parentified siblings.
Robbie tried his best, and as much as he loved his kids, he loved his wife just as much, if not more. And so, when the woman he called his soulmate had fallen over the edge, he had jumped after her and left their kids on the cliff, alone. And when their parents fell away, the two eldest of their kids were the ones to step up and take their place.
Jamie and Ian were young. They were kids, forced to become parents to the rest of their siblings when the ones who originally signed up for the job failed. And they refused to do the same. And so they stepped up. Jamie played mommy, nurturing her brothers and sister the best she could. She gave them the advice they needed and the love they lost, packing their lunches and kissing them goodbye and hugging them when they got home. Everything Victoria was supposed to be doing, Jamie did instead. And Ian, he picked up whatever she missed. He would back her up and do what was asked of him, do whatever it was that Jamie would need help with. Because despite what the older sister thought, she could not handle everything on her own.
