I hear the back door opening causes me to wipe my tears away and move so my back was against the door. I didn’t want Anthony to come in and see me crying over Adam. Not long after the back door opened the playroom door behind me slowly opens, I continue to play with Amelia to try to make it seem like I didn’t notice he had walked in. I hear him mumble “I need to make a call” to himself before he walks away leaving the playroom door open. I put all of Amelia’s toys out for her to play with, I quietly get up and walk out the playroom walking down the hall. I walk up the end of the hall, where I don’t see Anthony but I hear him shouting, probably down a phone, I wanted to stay to listen but Amelia crying prevents me from doing so.
I quietly and quickly run back to the playroom where she immediately giggles, she probably didn’t want me to leave her alone. I smile a little but faintly in the background I could hear Anthony shouting, unfortunately I was too far away to make out what he was saying.
A little while later, Anthony walks back into the room kneeling down behind me. He places his hands on my shoulders just watching Amelia play, I don’t dare turn, scared he’d see that I was crying.
“People need to stop trying to split us apart” he whispers placing his head on my shoulder, he places a kiss on my neck neck immediately making me cringe and slightly move away “I just have something I need to sort out, get you and Amelia ready I wanna take you somewhere” he says looking at my cheek as I didn’t turn my head, I just nod still looking towards Amelia.
He gets up walking out the room where I lay down on the floor facing the ceiling, why does my life have to be so hard?!
An hour later we were all in the car driving to who knows where, I stare out the window at the trees we were passing by. I hadn’t been out the house in what feels like forever, it was great to finally see the outside world. We soon pull up in what looks like a cemetery, confusion makes it’s way through my body as we park up. Anthony sighs looking out the window before going to the back to get Amelias pram, I also get out feeling the cold air of November on my skin. I make my way to Amelia’s side making sure her coat was on and getting her thick blanket ready, I didn’t want her to catch a cold, I wasn’t sure how long we were gonna be here for.
Once we were ready he walks us into the main part, Anthony pushed the pram while also holding my hand as we went. He walks us around until we reach the top of the place, we stop in front of a black headstone where he walks over removing the leaves which had fallen. I look closer to read the stone, it read “in loving memory of Kevin Richards ” I was just guessing, but I think this was his father.
He kneels down just staring at it with a sigh.
“I haven’t come here in a while, I get so busy that I forget to come I guess” he sighs looking down, he slowly places his hand on the stone as he continued “when I’m here I like to talk to him, talking with him always helped me when I was stuck in a situation, and I feel like I’m talking to him when I come here” he explains to him, I smile knowing the feeling, I do the same at my parents graves.
“Than do it, I’ll walk over there to give you some privacy” I smile, waking to the end of the path where I could still see him, I look over to see he was indeed talking with to the gravestone.
I look away and down the path where I always came to see two people, throughout this whole situation I’ve thought about them a lot. I push the pram over to their headstones looking down at them, I come here every birthday of theirs and mine, Christmas I’m here for a little while and news years day.
“Hi guys, sorry I haven’t come for a while I’ve been in a really hard and weird situation, I just hope you’re there looking down at me and keeping me safe through it” I say talking to them, I didn’t want to, cry especially in front if Anthony.
I look down to Amelia who was smiling up at me, I smile back as I see Anthony slowly walking over coming to a stop in front of me. He looks down at them than back at me.
“My parents” is all I say not looking up, he wraps his arm around my shoulders looking down at them for a little.
“You have a different last name” he says, looking over at me weirdly, this was when I remembered I told him a different last name, it was time to think on my feet.
“Yeah well when my uncle became my legal guardian, everyone kept getting confused at the different surname, so with my permission he decided to change my last name to his, to stop all the confusion and make it easier” I say, totally making it up as I went along, he seems to believe it saying what a smart idea before looking back down.
“They’d be so proud of you for becoming the person you are today, being an amazing niece, friend and mother” he tells me with a smile, I thank him looking down at the ground “ready to go?” He asks rubbing my arm, I look at him nodding saying a final goodbye before pushing Amelia following Anthony.
We make it to the end of the row where he just stops looking at a stone, I turn back to look too where there were two names which read “Layla and Gabbie Richards” as I read more, it seemed like Gabbie was only a few months old at the time.
“Are they family?” I ask him, which makes him jump, he looks over questioning me “you have the same surname, I was just wondering if they were family” I ask again with a smile, he turns away looking back the stone.