Forever ➳ O'Brien [3]

➳ Bonus Chapter #8

Daphne Brooks made it a point to get two copies of all of her children's school photos; one to put in the album, and the other to display proudly on mantelpieces and walls.

The day the photo was taken, Cara came home grinning madly, chattering away about a new friend she'd made at school; some boy that had just started because his family had moved cities. Daphne remembered not thinking much about this boy, since Cara would sometimes end up disliking the 'new friends' she made, simply because they said something mean about Paisley, Luna, Ollie, Spencer, or Thea.

One thing that stood out to Daphne about Cara's ramblings about this new boy was that he'd called her pretty just before she had her picture taken, and that he'd liked the pigtails that thirteen-year-old Ollie had put into her hair.

[Spencer had said the same, but he always said she was pretty].

[Daphne wished she'd paid more attention to this boy; how he'd pull Cara's hair and call her pretty when she started to cry. Maybe she'd have stopped her from dating him. Maybe she'd have protected her baby from the heartbreak that followed].

[That boy was Logan Jameson].

[Daphne wished she'd paid more attention to Thea, too. Wished she'd noticed the way she looked jealously on at Cara as she linked her hand with Logan's].

[Cara insists that these were mistakes that she had to make on her own].

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what have i become