Mina

Amends

I hadn't seen Grace in weeks. Ever since our last day of spring classes together. She'd responded to the handful of texts I'd sent, always fine, everything good. I wasn't convinced.

So when I saw her walking across campus, with a guy, I found myself heading her direction.

"Hey Grace!" I called, shifting my book bag on my shoulders to alleviate some of the strain.

"Mina, um hey, how are you?" She asked, her eyes darting from me to the guy who I quickly assumed was her boyfriend. "Patrick, this is Mina, remember Mina? I had class with her last semester?"

A charming smile spread across his face as he stuck his hand out. I accepted the handshake, taking note of the way he squeezed just a little to tight, his brown eyes dark and calculating. So different then the brown eyes I had grown so familiar with.

"Mina, what a pleasure." He said. "Grace has told me so much about you."

It wasn't a pleasure.

"Hopefully good things." I said matching his smile, I squeezed his hand back just as tight. "She's told me a lot about you too."

He released my hand, pulling Grace closer to him but I saw her stiffen. I saw the way she was watching his reaction, trying to gauge how he was feeling, what he was thinking.

Maybe it was because I had limited trust in people. Or maybe I was just good at reading people from years of trying to figure out how pleasant Penny was going to be based on just a look in her direction. But I knew what kind of guy Patrick was and I would have known even without Grace's confession. It was oozing out of him, as he stood there in his designer clothes and impeccably styled hair, with his stupidly expensive sunglasses hanging from the v of his collar, his arm too tight around Grace, trying to hide the fact that he was disgusting by being over friendly and turning on whatever charm he thought he possessed.

He thought he was untouchable.

And maybe he was.

But I knew what sort of monster lay beneath the polished front.

"We should get going." Grace chimed in. "Don't want to be late for class."

She wouldn't look at me, instead staring off at something in the distance.

"Of course." I agreed. "We should hang out soon, especially now that we don't have class together."

Grace glanced at me, I couldn't quite make out her expression as she mumbled some uncommitted answer.

"Nice meeting you Mina." Patrick told me, before they both headed off.

I watched their retreating backs and I continued to watch once they had disappeared around a building, my mind trying to come up with possible ways to turn him in.

I wasn't exactly sure if Grace's confession, that I had no proof of, was enough to get Patrick. But I had to do something. I couldn't just turn a blind eye and carry on with my life.

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I had spent the evening after my class at the hospital. Doing homework in between mindless chat with Penny and Aunt Carla.

But as I went to leave, Aunt Carla said goodbye too and walked out of the hospital with me. I didn't pay much attention to anything she said, my mind focused on Grace and the plan that was slowly unraveling in my mind. But as we reached the parking lot, Carla spoke up.

"Mina?"

"Hmm?" I answered, not completely invested in whatever she had to say yet.

"I saw your dad the other day."

My head whipped up so fast I almost gave myself whiplash. "What?"

She rifled through her purse, pulling out an envelope. It looked just like all the others.

"He was going to mail this one too but as I'm sure you can understand he doesn't trust that it'll get to you." She offered the envelope out to me, it had a stamp on it and everything.

I wondered briefly, as I took it from her, if he knew she had aided in keeping the letters from me. That without her intervention, Penny wouldn't have been able to get them all. She would have slipped up somewhere. Not made it to the mailbox in time to look through and slip the envelope out leaving the rest of the pile so that I'd never know.

"I think you should at least talk to him." She told me. "He's not a bad man."

I ran my fingers along the edges of the stiff paper, tracing the rectangle as I walked. I just wanted to be in the solidarity of my car so I could tear it open and read what he wrote.

"And he does love you."

"Why'd you do it?" I blurted.

I had no intention of actually ever asking Carla. Yet here I was, my mouth not listening to my head.

She let out a heavy sigh, both of us slowing as we reached her car.

"It was always just Penny and me, growing up. She was more of a mom to me than our mom was. Mom always too drunk to do much of anything." Carla said. "I did what Penny told me to because that's what I'd always done. It's a sad excuse but it's all I've got."

I stared at the letter in my hand. I wasn't entirely sure if I should have been mad at her. But apart of me also understood. I had grown up thinking it was just Penny and I also. And I had put up with so much because I thought I had too, I thought she was all I had.

"I'm sorry honey, I am." Carla apologized. "If I could take it back I would."

I couldn't remember the last time I properly hugged my aunt. But I threw my arms around her, in the moment just thankful she'd changed her mind at all.

"Thank you." I mumbled as she embraced me back.

"No, thank you."

We parted ways shortly after, my letter still in my grasp as I climbed into my car. I tore it open the second my door was shut, pulling out the perfectly folded paper with his neat penmanship scrawled across it. My eyes scanned his words fast, soaking in his message as quickly as possible.

My heart stopped in my chest.

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@inaciomartins0010 don't hate me but you've got 11 more chapters. I know it seems like a long time but just know I had to have certain things happen at certain points so bare with me. But it's coming. I promise.