matter.
It’s not that she didn’t trust Chastity, because she was close enough to her to call her sister, but the scars left inside from her past didn’t allow anyone in that deep. And to start delving down too far into her past, was like opening a deep chasm…one that held too much pain, which could resurface in seconds.
If she let it, she felt its grasp reaching up and drowning her. Anne took a deep breath, turned up the radio, and started to sing at the top of her lungs. She lost herself in the music to keep her heartache from taking her over.
Chapter 10
She was born Annabel Christiana LaSal, the daughter of Francis and Elizabeth LaSal. When she was 12, she shortened it to Anne. It suited her better, as she never felt like an Annabel .
Anne considered herself one of the lucky ones growing up. Her parents were madly in love with each other and their children. Anne even liked her kid sister, Grace. Grace was five years her junior and Anne got to be her second mom in many ways. She didn’t mind her kid sister always hanging around, like all her friends did. They were constantly complaining about their younger siblings.
Maybe it was because Anne’s family moved every couple years, or maybe it was because they were so close, but having her sister with her all the time became her comfort zone.
Growing up in a military family, her father’s job showed them the world. There were as many hellos as there were goodbyes , and she could count her friends in every region of the world. She enjoyed the constant change in cultures and people, and the fluidity of life. Anne reveled in change and the reinvention of self. The only constant in her life was her family and the love they held for one another.
The oldest daughter of a military officer and his elegant wife - the older sister of a shy, but quirky younger sister; these were her roots, her core, and what gave her peace each night.
All that changed when she was sixteen. The calm peace in life was quickly replaced with chaos. The family she clung to for security shattered in one heartbeat. In one instant, she was talking with her mom on the phone, and in the next all she heard were screams.
Anne’s parents, Elizabeth and Francis, faithfully went on dinner dates every Friday. Each Friday, they relied on Anne to baby-sit little Grace, which she happily obliged as that’s what family did … they took care of one another.
That night, their evening ran a little longer than planned. Elizabeth rarely used her bag mobile phone, but she since she wouldn’t be home in time to put her youngest to bed she needed to reach out.
“Is Grace in bed already?”
“Yes mom. She tried to wait up, but it got too late.” Anne replied with a yawn.
Elizabeth sighed in regret. “I missed singing her lullaby to her.”
“She’ll get over it mom. She’s seven now … not a little baby.”
Elizabeth chuckled. “I still think of you as my little baby Annabel.”
“Mom,” Anne groaned.
Elizabeth laughed at her oldest daughter’s response.
As long as Anne lived she’d never get tired of hearing her mother’s melodic laughter. It was mesmerizing, but not just to her. Her mother hypnotized most around her with her beauty and serene spirit. Anne felt like her mother was descended from some sort of royalty, and secretly wished to find their family tree to prove her
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