Soulmates: Secret Scar

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 Chapter 3

Mia's whisper was enough to alert the older woman with the same but slightly dull strawberry blonde hair to turn around, as her shopping bags slipped from her hands in shock. The loud impact of the bags, followed by the slight rustle from within them, was the only noise to be heard between the two, as neither spoke or moved from where they stood.

An awkward silence filled the room as the mother, daughter pair stared aimlessly at each other, no one making a move to speak or leave. Thoughts were raising through both their minds at different rates, before they cowardly lowered their eyes, too afraid to speak out their thoughts. However, one thought did cross both minds and that was: this had longest the two had held eye contact in years.

"Have you eaten?" The older woman questioned after another few minutes flew by and Mia had yet to speak. Her eyes remained trained on the floor, however, still refusing to look at the younger girl who looked exactly like her and nothing like her former self.  

"Yeah. I ate with Amy earlier." Mia murmured, now feeling less confident in the the presence of such a foreboding being. She had always wanted to talk to her mother, to have the mother & daughter time that everyone else except her seemed to have, yet now she knew that even if she worked up the courage to ask her mum for permission to do so, they would be subjected into a day of awkwardness.

"I see." Mia's mother replied with a curt and ungraceful response. One that would be impossible to continue the conversation from. However, Mia's determination to talk to her mother a little while longer before her duty called, pushed past the conversation ending response and called out once more. 

"Mum-" 

Having said that, Mia was quickly interrupted by a phone's ringtone, one that she was very familiar with, followed by an erratic rhythm of heels clicking on the titled floor. Just as quick as Mia's attempt to talk to her mother was foiled, the ringtone's music was silenced as a flurry of words were exchanged. 

With a silent sight to herself, Mia waited in the kitchen until her mother was finished with her phone call, her news regarding her flight to Korea being something urgently needed to be said with the chance of her parents returning to an empty house.

Fighting off her exhaustion from waking up early in the morning, Mia luckily heard the professional end greetings leave her mothers lips as she shook herself from the lulling of the silence around her. Her mother always spoke in a consistent rhythm when talking to someone important, something Mia had picked up in her time listening to the numerous phone calls her parents answered when she waited for their attention as a child, it had became a weird lullaby for her.

Pushing herself off the door frame, Mia walked towards the older lady, pushing away her shopping bags with her feet as she got ready to tell her mother where she was heading. Just as the first letter left her mouth, Mia was instantly silenced as her mother raised her hand to stop her from speaking and instead spoke. 

"I have an important client to persuade to work with us, so I need to leave on a business trip again. I'll be back in few weeks so you'll be all alone as your father had some business on his end to deal with. You're an adult now, finally becoming 20, so I'm sure you'll be fine on your own, but I'll leave some money for you to get some food as you can't cook. Or you can always go to your friends house, what was her name, Ally? Anyway, make sure to lock up after I leave." And with that the woman left without another word, shutting the door behind her.

Mia sighs as she locks the door, her head laying on the wooden frame for a while as she read the notification that popped up on her phone regarding the money her mother transferred her. "I'm 25 years old, not 20, you're 5 years behind. I can cook and have been able to since I was 13, so I don't need the money. And my friend's name is Amy, not Ally." Another sigh left her lips as she holds back the tears that were threatening to fall, before heading to the kitchen to scoop up the bags she left there.