Four

Kamille

Four Years Later.

The electric bell went off within the school building, just as I parked the car in the school driveway.

Finishing up the last of my iced Americano, I pushed the door open and stepped out. Other parents were stepping out of their cars as well. Some housekeepers. Some nannies. Some chaffeurs. Assistants. It was a large variety of people in the school at this time.

And that was normal, after all, this was a very excellent kindergarten where many of the parents who worked cooperate jobs were too busy to come pick up their children.

I counted myself lucky, that I was able to give my kids all the time and attention they needed, and pay our bills as well. All thanks to working from home.

Aross the driveway, kids were already milling out through the doors, all noisy and excited to be done with the day's work.

My job as a weather content creator and article writer took off so suddenly, and so well that my bank account was overflowing in no time. I was heavily pregnant when the first thousand dollars came in, after my babies had already been confirmed to be quadruplets.

It was a relief, because not even the huge amount of money gifted to me those years ago by that anonymous helper, wouldn’t have been enough to raise three sons and one daughter for four years. But it was a good start, till my income became steady.

“Mommy!” A tiny, shrill voice exclaimed.

A smile broke out of my face, as I spotted my baby girl, Tyris, in the crowd of kids, running out through the doors with her ponytail flying behind her. Close behind, were her brothers, hurrying towards me with big grins on their faces.

My heart filled with a warm fuzzy feeling, crouching down with my arms open.

“My babies! How are you??!” I laughed, as they all crashed into me.

I peppered kisses on their heads as they blabbered to me about some random things their classmates did. Of course, except Reon, my first baby, who was busy grabbing all of their lunchboxes. Royer, that sweet little soul and my third, was trying to help out as well.

I lead them to the car and strapped them in, while Tyris and Torin, my second and my last babies kept on chattering away.

I got into the car and eased it out of the driveway, “So, what did else happened at school today? What did you learn?”

“Oh, I'll tell you, I'll tell you!” Tyris bounced around in her seat, “Mom! Our teacher taught us about the family tree today! And all our friends have two parents, but we only have one!”

She pouted, and in that moment, as I stared at her through the rearview mirror, I realized how much more she looked like my grandmother the older she grew.

Obviously, I was adopted into the Manor family, so it was definitely not possible that my child would get any of their genes. But the resemblance was there. And it was so uncanny, that at first I thought it was just my grief playing pranks on me. But now, years later, I still saw Monica Manor in her.

“Has our dad forgotten about us? Does he not love us, is that why he's not here?” Royer's timid voice filtered out from his window seat.

The silent, sad emotion in that question squeezed my heart so hard I could barely blink the tears out of my eyes.

I spared a glance back at him, “Your father loves you all very much, and he will never forget you. You all are angels. Beautiful angels, don't you know?”

“So when are we going to see him, mom?” Torin, my last, asked in his usual assertive fashion. “You said he went someplace very very far, and he will come back soon, right mom?”

“Yes, honey, you'll meet him soon.” My voice faded into a whisper, and a fake smile. “Don't you worry, my babies. It'll all be okay.”

Reon was staring at me intently, and he suddenly straightened up and sent a firm look to his siblings. “That's alright now. Let mom focus, she's driving.”

“It's okay, Reon. Momma's a great driver.” I smiled at him.

He was a splitting image of his father, and sometimes if I looked too closely, I could feel my heart start to crack from all the painful memories. That was unfair to my boys, because looking like their father did not mean they have to be tainted my his actions.

Especially my little Reon. At such a young age, he was already so stoic, melancholic and adamant to be responsible for everyone else. Including me. I always remind him that he is just a kid, and should spend his time relaxing and doing kid things.

But he was adamant on bothering himself with adult concerns. It made me worried, scared to watch a tiny boy become parentified. I'd do anything to prevent that.

We got home, and the kids immediately ran out of the car and into the elevator leading up to our apartment.

“Wait, you can't use the elevator alone, I've told you so many times, Torin!” I exclaimed, catching up to them and grabbing their hands.

“Sorry, mommy.”

Once we got to our floor, I let the kids put the code in and run into our apartment. I strolled behind, taking out my phone from my jeans pockets to go through how my forecasts were doing for the day.

But what greeted my eyes was headlines after headlines on various articles about the Manor Company.

I froze in my steps, slowly reading the words.

‘THE MANOR COMPANY SUED FOR FRAUDULENT TAX EVASION!’

‘Raymond Manor, CEO of The Manor Company, EXPOSED by designated auditor for embezzlement’

‘... following the skirmishes within the multimillion company, Manor's shares have plummeted by 42%..’

“This cannot be true.” I gasped, looking away from my phone in horror.

This was a company grandma put so much effort in to build, to grow wealth, and maintain it. She protected the company until her last breath, and this was what had become of it. A mere ridicule, compared to the giant it once was.

This was terrible.

I took a few steps forward, shaking my head sadly. I knew that it would be run to the ground by that greedy family. I was the only one who thought the same as grandma, so they were more than happy to announce me dead to get rid of me forever.

“Mommy!” Tyris shrieked from one of the bedrooms, breaking me out of my thoughts.

I sucked in a deep breath, tossing my phone away, “Yes, baby, I'm coming.”

Later that night, I had read my kids their bedtime stories and put their overactive little selfs to sleep. I tied my soft, cotton robe around my waist and padded out of the apartment to check my mail.

I had gotten a few mails, so I settled in the living room to go through them with the TV playing in the background.

A few of them were complimentary mails from stores I frequented, a few work-related ones, but there was an envelope sitting ominously in their midst, with no indication of where it was from.

Furrowing my eyebrows curiously, I fished a folded paper from the envelope. It was a letter, and on unfolding it… it dropped from my hands instantly.

Oh god. What— This could not be real—

It's was grandma's handwriting. I grabbed my chest, my breaths rushing in and out so hard that I thought I was going into heart palpitations. I had not seen that handwriting in years, but it was one ingrained in my deepest, dearest memories.

Grandma always wrote all her important letters by hand. She got teased about it being old-fashioned, but she made it into a proud style of hers.

And here in my lap, was a letter…written by her.

Gathering my strength, I picked it up with shaking fingers and straightened it. The full onslaught of that beautiful cursive sent tears filling my eyes, but I held it back to read what was written boldly at the top.

‘OFFICIAL WILL OF MONICA MANOR’

My lips trembled, tears rolling down my face. Still, I wasn't prepared for when I looked further down the page, and saw my name written first, in full, in bold, and with love.

I broke down in sobs of realization.