It was so incredibly comfortable waking up in Mary´s embrace. The warmth on my back and by her arm, wrapped around me, spread nicely around my body. I felt truly secure as I nested my head onto her shoulders and yawned loudly while stretching my arms to the side.

My sleep was so peaceful, so undisturbed that I was still a bit drunk on it. I even dreamt about great food and was kind of tempted to make it for everyone.

“I dreamt about lasagne, do you want some Mary, I´m kind of hungry right now …” Only then did I wriggle a bit to lay on my side and noticed Tom who laid face down on the bed. “oh, the offer goes for you as well Tom. Sorry, didn’t see you at first.”

I rubbed my cheek on Mary´s chest and hugged her tightly. It was great to feel how she returned my affection by holding me closer as well, albeit more as a reaction than anything else. I just wanted to close my eyes again as Tom ruined the atmosphere completely.

“Make lasagne for four. We have two guests you will be interested in.”

Each and every day, there had to be something to do. I honestly wasn’t that interested in them, knowing full well how my emotions would drive me to make objectively bad choices again. And so, I rolled off her, grabbed the blanket to my side and threw it over us once I was back to hugging Mary.

“Don’t want to.” I mumbled under the blanket. I´d rather lay on my newest pillow than to deal with even more emotional stress I just wasn’t made to be for. Mary stirred underneath me as if she was unhappy with my decision. She could have used me as a teddy bear the whole day, so it should be acceptable that I could listen to her heartbeat for a little while.

“It´s time to stand up, Lucinda. We cannot let our guests wait forever.” This was the first mum-like thing she ever said to me. Even as she gently pushed me off her, I was strangely happy to have her. She acted more and more like the mother I always wanted and not because I pushed her in the direction, but rather because she wanted so on her own. She would be the person who would pick up the shambles my father left and I was sure that with her around, I would always have a warm home that welcomed me. Some emotions were crap, but this one … I didn´t know for sure.

“Lucinda?” Tom already left the room quite some time ago and Mary was probably already dressed judging by the sounds she made. Reluctantly, I stood up on the bed, the blanket still wrapped around my shoulders.

“Mum?” I asked unsurely. At first, Mary looked away, but after some time, she returned the smile I was giving her, although she had a hard time doing it.

“Yes?” She said. Still on the bed, I wrapped my arms around her shoulders and leaned my head at hers. Surprised, she didn’t know how to respond at first until she patted my head. I didn’t push my head against her hand this time, fearing she would stop too soon again. “I give you a chance.”

“Thank you … I´ll prepare the lasagne now … shouldn’t take too long.” I said with a smile on my lips.

“Can I help you?” She asked. Could she help me? She would undoubtedly ruin my food in every possible way …

“Sure.” I let her go and smiled brightly. Even when my food was on the line, I didn’t hesitate to use every chance I had to spend time with her. I lost my chances with Luna and regretted it deeply after all.

With the blanket still around my shoulders, I stormed out of the door and went right. After a short break in which I wondered if I successfully remembered the way to the kitchen, I waited for Mary to come out. After closing the door behind her, she looked at me in amusement as I couldn’t decide where to go now.

“You are really bad at remembering the way, aren’t you?” She asked.

“I´m horrible at it. I had to go through the whole floor until I found your room. Do we need to go straight or to the right?” I asked Mary. My memory wasn’t bad at all, or rather it was quite good. But whenever I wandered around, bored because I had nothing to do, I started to fiddle with my dress for example and completely ignored where I went. I never had the same problem when I was doing something else like cooking, but walking around was just a chore most of the time.

“Come with me.” Mary said and went ahead. Happily, I walked after her and held her hand. I looked upwards towards her and she looked down towards me. “Fine, Lucy, fine.”

A few minutes later, we were inside the kitchen and began our work. I told her exactly what to do and naturally, she messed up at some point, but this day, no baking trays flew through the kitchen. Instead, we made a somewhat satisfying lasagne in record time. We couldn’t let Tom ‘entertain’ our guests forever.

As such, Mary put on baking gloves and carried the hot lasagne into the eating room where Tom and a brown-haired woman awaited us. The dishes were already made, and as such, Mary placed the food in the middle of the table in a hurry as her hands probably began to warm up at this point. Our adult guest, didn´t even realize we came into the room.

Laura, clad in red elegant clothing was still deep in thought as Mary sat down beside her and I beside Tom. I eyed the food hungrily, although stuffing it into me would be completely useless. At least I could sate my thirst in the kitchen already as we had quite a few blood bottles hidden on a shelf.

Only as Mary cleared her throat did Laura, carrying her baby in her arms, wake up and opened her eyes wide as she looked towards her right.

“I am terribly sorry Milady.” Laura said and lowered her head. Mary was visibly displeased, although I had a hard time figuring out why. Either it was because our guest held Arthur´s offspring in her hands, or because Laura acted quite rudely in front of her. Either way, their relationship already hit rock bottom.

“I see ...” Even I knew that Laura was supposed to introduce herself now and as such, she earned a few questioning gazes from Tom and Mary.

“Mum, can we eat now? I´m hungry.” It was awkward. Incredibly awkward. Even as Tom couldn’t help himself anymore and put lasagne on his plate, the sparks flying between the two women never ceased. Annoyed, I put some food on my plate as well and waited for the two women to finish their invisible duel.

“I am terribly sorry to barge into your mealtime, but I still hope you have mercy with my daughter. She did nothing wrong and she deserves a good life.” Laura apparently lost the duel and slowly looked away from Mary, but still chose to resume the conversation with such a bold statement.

“I only realized you even existed after Arthur died, and yet you are already here. Are you worried you will run out of money?” And we had a strong return. No opponent wanted to give the other any breathing room as they hammered onto each other in a passive-aggressive voice.

“I am terribly sorry for what he did to you. Until he died, I also had no idea that he was already a father. He lied to both of us, promised us the world and then left only a mess behind.” Laura was completely wrong, not that any one of us wanted to fix her misunderstanding. Finally, Mary put some food on her plate and that was the point where I stopped to care about table manners and started wolfing down my dear lasagne.

“Mum …” Mary sighed as I said that between suffing my mouth full of lasange and her expression cleared up a lot.

“Alright, Laura, how can we help you?” She asked and finally started eating. Laura relaxed considerably as well and stated her demand.

“Let me work for you. I can cook, do the laundry, clean and so on. Just please, give my daughter a chance.” She revealed her baby for everyone to see. Sofie had blue, piercing eyes that seemed to stare deep into my soul. In return, I stuck my tongue out and she began to laugh cutely.

It was at this point where Tom cleared his throat and I shook my head furiously. The effect of this damn seed of life was crazy around her in particular and as such, I rather chose to eat my lasagne to counter it. Truth to be told, the lasagne failed at its job.

“We are not hiring currently.” Mary lied quite blatantly. It was painfully obvious she wanted nothing to do with Laura or my supposed half-sister.

“Hey, can I hold her?” I asked bluntly, much to the displeasure of Tom. I knew he disliked my interaction with children, but I was still tempted to hold her for some reason. Maybe it was true that opposites attracted each other and as she was brimming with life, this was especially the case for her and me. Laura blinked a few times and probably realized that she could try to convince Mary through me.

As such, she stood up and walked around the table towards me. I happily swung my legs around and awaited her. Reluctantly, she gave me the baby, wrapped in white cloth. The moment I held it close to my chest, I already felt something strange about her. I couldn’t put it into words and thus frowned constantly as Laura went back towards her seat. At some point, I shrugged and started humming quietly.

“Please, Milady, I only need a stable income to feed me and my child.” Begged Laura once more.

“Why don’t you sell your possessions first?” Mary asked, considerably displeased by the development.

“Arthur only provided the minimum to support us. I already sold the gifts, but I fear it won´t be enough to support Sofie and me for the years to come.” Mary looked towards me shortly and I nodded as hiddenly as possible. Laura wasn´t lying at all, which made the whole thing a lot more complicated. Who knew Arthur liked to bind all his women to him with a short leash?

“What a cutie you are … wiggle wiggle wiggle.” I mumbled under my breath and smiled happily as Sofie giggled in my arms. “Who is my sister? You are my sister!”

Was it worrisome that I had fun with a baby? Yes. Did I care? No. I had the fun of my life as the two mothers in the room still bickered to no end. Mary already changed her opinion about the duo from downright hostile to a more moderate stance, but still wasn’t willing to hire Laura which was understandable. I left the decision to Mary as this impacted her the most.

At least until I held Sofie with one arm and tapped her small nose once.

Then, everything changed.

The world brightened up massively and even Tom cussed beside me. I wasn’t the only one affected, but rather everyone around the table was blinded by a bright green, godly light.