Ijaya | ✔️

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00. P R O L O U G E
(7 year old Ijaya)

"Daddy!" I scream breathlessly, from laughter. I run, hiding behind his legs to hide from my older sister, Ilaria, she's been chasing me for a while now, around thirty minutes or so. I don't know how I haven't died yet

It's tiring for little old me, I'm only seven. Cant she give me a break, like ever? I can only take so much before I lose all energy and become exhausted, unlike her, she's a cheetah when it comes to stuff like that.

"What's up, Cherub?" My daddy picks me up, placing a kiss on my temple when I'm sat on his hip with my thumb in my mouth and my head rested on his shoulder. "Ria's trying to tickle me" sticking out my bottom lip out, he laughs softly making my brows knit together, confused as to why he finds a serious situation like this funny.

Is he crazy?!

"Again?" I nod, probably messing up my hair "yes again"

He sits me in my mummy's lap which doesn't really help me because she only joins in on the stupidity, tickling my sides making me squirm trying to get away from her reach. Ivaylo comes in, waddling which makes us all stop what we're doing and look at him "mamma" his little hands land on my mummy's leg after he slowly made his way over like a baby penguin

Mummy picks him up, placing him next to me on her lap which I hate sometimes because toddlers tend to be aggressive but you can't be mean to them back otherwise you scare them which I find so unfair. Once he even pulled my hair that mummy had just done making her have to come over and redo which wasn't really hard since it was only a bun but still, seriously?

Ilaria comes over which makes me look at her suspiciously, daddy stands with his arms crossed looking at us "Ilaria say it." He raises his brows, making her stomp her feet on the floor. "I'm sorry sissy" a smile creeps up on my face and I carefully clamber down on the floor and wrap my arms around her "it's okay"

We both run up to daddy and he picks us up, kissing the sides of our heads with the biggest smile on his face that I've ever seen in the seven years of my life- well the ones I remember. "Your my little girls" i never want to lose him, ever, all he's done is ever love me, my siblings and mummy.

༺1 year later༻

"I'm very sorry but he didn't make it"

That sentence is very confusing for an eight year old but mummy soon broke it down in a much more childish way for me to understand better. Why can't everyone speak to me like that? What idiots

All my dreams soon crashed, making me rethink everything. He was the one who was supposed to walk me down the aisle, he wasn't supposed to die. Daddy was my hero, my everything. He still is but in some way it's different, he's not here for me anymore.

Mummy tries settling me down, rubbing my back as I sniffle and tears fall down my cheeks like a waterfall. Ilaria is holding Ivaylo although he's half her size.

I didn't even get to say one last 'I love you'