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“Bette! We need to fix her hair. Quick,” Isabelle motioned for the comb on the floor.

“I think I’ll call her Betsy-“

“No. I want her to be Izzie!”

Their little squabble halted as soon as they heard a loud bang of the door. Loud heels clicking the wooden floor were immediately identified by them as they huddled together. It could get rough sometimes. They never liked the fights. It was getting more intense and more frequent these days as Mommy talked about ‘her’. It wasn’t so much of the context of their arguments that they understood so much. Occasionally bad words that Kit told them about would be uttered with the exact same tone that is used to speak of ‘her’. Kit called her ‘the other woman’.

The frightened girls covered their ears. The voices grew louder. Mommy dragged them both out.

“You’re scaring them!” Their eyes shut tight. See no evil. Hear no evil.

Soon both were on each parent’s laps in vain efforts to comfort the terrified girls. The tone of which words were exchanged were less cutting but the stares remained deadly.

A while later, both girls were left again as yet another marathon of heated words were exchanged between the currently estranged couple. Isabelle was blissfully playing with the doll. Her pink ‘winter snuggles’ covered her ears but Bette’s was only loosely placed and she heard most of the quarrel taking place. She was fumbling with her mother’s keys that dropped onto the floor as Mommy stormed in the first place.

What happened next was so quick but this time around she understood the outcome completely. There a little girl was robbed of her innocence as she witnessed her parents fighting over her twin sister with her just helplessly watching them. When her mother managed to snatch Isabelle from her father, she immediate made a dash in her direction as well. Bette hoped. She had hoped that Mommy would get her.  Bette was suddenly being grabbed by both her parents and the keys fell as they tried. Her mother made a choice in that split second. She chose to leave. And without her. That was it. She cried broken hearted at the abandonment as Melvin tried to run after them. In that moment, her mother chose to leave with Isabelle and they never came back.

They died in the car instantly leaving her, the leftover with Melvin. She wished she died along with them that day. Maybe she did…