Samantha’s room....
"Mom, you look absolutely stunning."
Samantha brought her face close to Shelby’s, tracing her brows and looking at her in awe.
"It makes feel as if I am too plain!"
Shelby poked Samantha’s head and glared at her.
"Why is a fourteen-year-old thinking of beauty? Don’t you know that the concept of beauty is relative? Beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder!"
"Nope! I am fairly sure that your kind of beauty does not conform to that saying!" Samantha pursed her lips mischievously and shook her head, earning another poke from Shelby. However, this interaction made the little girl feel warm.
"Do not waste your ti thinking about such things. When you find the man who loves you later in life, he will love you for who you are in here..." Shelby pointed at her chest,
".... And not for your facial features! So, never compare yourself to anyone!"
Shelby did not say anything else because she could understand where Samantha was coming from. Samantha was too young to be riddled with such thoughts, but with the kind of life and the crowd she had surrounded herself with, it was inevitable that this would happen.
"Samantha,"
Shelby pulled the girl down to sit by her and ran her hands through her black hair.
"You are beautiful in your own way. I see that you dyed your hair back to its natural colour. I love that, too, but I don’t want you to be pressured into presenting yourself the way that you are not. Embrace your difference. Colour the hair if you want. I think moderation is everything. For instance, these dark brown eyes that are staring back at are one of your beautiful traits...."
Samantha blushed.
"Be confident and embrace your difference. You are beautiful, even without the makeup that you usually put on. I want you to be yourself, and that is the only way you will shine in your own part of the world!"
Samantha’s eyes glistened with tears, and she buried her head in Shelby’s bosom. The two stayed like that for a while and then Shelby decided to get to know more about her.
"Anyway, tell about...."
Shelby asked questions about Samantha’s life, her wishes, fears, sentints and everything that she could think of. She wanted to understand Samantha as a person and Samantha did not hold back anything. After about an hour, the two seed to have grown even closer to each other.
Samantha let go of her doubts and concerns about her schooling and friends, and Shelby did not hold back. Even though she felt that she did not have much experience, Shelby shared what she could with Samantha in the hope that it might give her more motivation.
"What about that boy? Do you want to talk about that? Don’t be pressured though. Only share if you want to."
However, to her surprise, Samantha seed to have co to terms with herself regarding the twerp.
"Dad is really swift. Did you know that Raye’s family went bankrupt overnight? I just checked on the news."
Samantha said with glee, adding, "Now, I want to see how he will be so smug and play around with girls. He wants to climb up in society; I think he can climb up a tree and look at the clouds!"
Pftttt!!!
Shelby could not contain the laughter that rocked her body.
"You are hilarious!"
"Thanks, Mum!"
Shelby felt touched at the ease with which Samantha had ward up to her. At tis, she thought that it was a mask that the little girl had worn and was waiting for her to take it off, but nothing of that sort happened. Shelby was especially glad that Ian had taken this up and acted swiftly given his previous sentints about the girl. Samantha had nearly burnt all her bridges and Shelby hoped that this new lovely girl stayed long enough, and the old one was forever tucked away.
"Your only task now, Samantha, is to improve your grades and beco a better student. I think your father and I will be most proud of you when you graduate."
"I will! I promise!"
"You don’t have to promise anything. Your words alone are enough." Shelby lay down and stretched,
"Have you thought of what you’d like to do in the future?"
"I don’t know. I don’t think that I ever thought of that." Samantha answered in near panic, for she had really not thought of her life past each day.
"Don’t worry. We can take it one day at a ti. Most adults don’t even know what they want to do!"
When Ian returned to Samantha’s room about a couple of hours later, he found them still engaged in friendly conversation or more like gossip.
He knocked to attract their attention, and that made Samantha feel worse. He was respecting her privacy, and she had been acting like a jerk. How happy she was that she had woken up early.
"Your grounding will be lifted this weekend, and you can go to the festival with your mother."
It took a few seconds for the implications to sink in, and Samantha squealed,
"Ahhhh!!!! Thank you so much!"
Students of all ages clamoured to go to the festival, and she had been sad that she would be left out. Samantha did not know why her father had changed his mind, but she was not about to let go of the opportunity.
"It’s ti for us to get a bit of personal shopping done though...."
"Yes! Yes! Yes! You surprisingly know best, Mum! Thank you! When can we go?"
The two turned to look at Ian, as Samantha’s punishnt was not over for a couple of more days.
"It should be fine if you go with your mother..."
"Asa! Yes!" Then, as if rembering sothing, Samantha stopped and wiped the smile off her face. With a solemn voice, she said, "Thank you, Dad! For everything! I promise that I will not let you down." Then, a bright smile was pasted on her face for Shelby’s sake.
Ian smiled and then held out his hand for his wife.
The two returned to the all-so-familiar room, and Shelby could not wait to get under the sheets.
"Aren’t you going to ask what that was about?"
"You’ll tell when you want."
Ian shook his head and sat on the bed by her.
"I don’t think there is much to tell anyway. Mum decided to co clean about who my father was."
Shelby sat up and stared at Ian in shock,
"Does she know?"
Ian shook his head, understanding what Shelby was referring to.
"She only t a man but never told her who or what he was. Mum is witty enough to know that there may be so peculiarities. But she was hurt badly, so she might probably not be thinking beyond the obvious yet."
"Because he left?"
"Mmm!"
Ian went ahead and narrated the story to Shelby, and as he thought, she picked up on the important parts, too.
"You think sothing happened to him?"
"I am sure that sothing did happen to him. We just have to find out what that was to piece everything together."
"Do you want to go to that land? Do you know how to get there?"
"Hmmm.... That will be an issue for another day."
Ian said this and then leaned towards Shelby. He wrapped his arms around her and clipped the necklace on her neck.
"What is thi-"
Shelby’s eyes constricted as if she had been shocked,
"Is this the necklace you ntioned? That is yours to keep, Ian. You can’t just giv-"
"I can do whatever I want with it. You are mine only and I have a feeling that this necklace is exactly where it belongs!"
Ian added and landed a kiss on Shelby’s forehead.
She touched the pendant thoughtfully and gave Ian the brightest smile she could muster.
"I’ll take care of this for you and pray that your father is alive sowhere and all of this was just a misunderstanding."
Ian nodded, knowing perfectly well that, that likelihood was close to none. However, the ti to dwell on that was not up yet so, looking at Shelby, he asked her the question that had been on his mind for days,
"Do you have sothing to tell ?"
Shelby looked at him blankly for a while before it clicked,
"I really cannot keep anything from you, huh?"
"Nope!"
He gathered her close, adding, "Take your ti and tell at your own pace and when you want to. I don’t ever want you to feel coerced in any way."
Shelby thought back to the ’dreams’ that had plunged her unconscious state and then, in a small voice, narrated everything to Ian.
"Do you think that this is why my mum did not like ? Maybe I am an unknown creature, and she experienced sothing really bad relating to ?"
"Nothing can excuse Clara’s behaviour. I want you to understand that none of that is your fault... Clara is a bad nut can never be excused from her actions. However, if you are a creature of an unknown species, which I doubt that you are.... You will only be my beautiful creature. If a species as beautiful as you exist, the world would forever be a happy place!"
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