The Promised Tomorrow

- Gaia's pov

When I was 14, I lived with my parents and brother in a small town in California called Forks. We moved there when I was six years old, before that we lived in Brazil, yes, I was born there and spent part of my childhood there.

When my mother got pregnant, we moved to California, and a new life and routine soon followed. After a while I realized that my parents were no longer the same, there was no longer that sparkle and love in their eyes.

As soon as Matteo was born, my parents' relationship got worse, with swearing and fights, everything happened in front of me, I always cried because I was afraid of what would happen next, and this went on for years and years.

On the day of my 16th birthday, when we were singing happy birthday to the guests, a woman burst into the party and revealed that she was having a "relationship" with my father, leaving me and my mother disappointed, so soon came the divorce, along with the fight for custody of me and my brother.

My father didn't get custody of Matteo, but unfortunately, he got custody of me. I didn't want to go with him and my mother tried to convince him to let me stay, but all he did was pull me out of the house, where I was forced to leave everything, I had, including my mother and my brother who had just turned nine, so that I arrived in Brazil with only the clothes on my body.

Rafael was absent, irresponsible, sexist, and insensitive towards his daughter, forbidding me to keep in touch with my mother and brother. He only allowed me to keep in touch with Pedro, my best friend from Forks, after much insistence on my part. Until Pedro moved here and we went to college together.

And after seven years...here I am, driving my car that I paid for with my sweat and toil, on my way to Forks, determined to find my real family again.

"Jesus, Gaia, we've been in this car for a century! I'm hungry as hell!" Oh yes, I forgot to mention that Pedro had come along and that I was about to throw him out of the window.

Pedro is the sheriff's nephew, his mother died in a car accident and his father abandoned his mother a few years earlier, leaving her pregnant and alone. Luckily, his uncle Noah Dixon decided to raise him as a son, together with his wife and son Pietro, but unfortunately, his wife also died after a while. It's all very crazy and confusing for both of us, I think that's why we understand each other so much.

"I told you to bring the fucking food, I'm not going to stop somewhere where we could risk being mugged, kidnapped, or even killed!" I complained because he's an idiot, hard-headed and proud who doesn't know how to listen to me.

"Did I mention that you're paranoid?" he asked a look of debauchery on his face.