Enemies by Fate, Lovers by Choice

Luna felt uncomfortable after having a fight with her mother. It was the first time she had raised her voice, but she just couldn't suppress herself anymore. She touched her cheeks, feeling the pain, and her tears kept coming out. She wiped her tears and started to think about what had gone wrong. She just wanted to be friends with Mira, but she also understood her mother's side. What she couldn't understand was why her mother had to extend her hate to Mira.

Luna stayed on her bed in a daze, still deep in thought, not knowing that her mother had been knocking on her door.

Lilith, who had been knocking, opened Luna's room. Inside, she saw her daughter sitting on the bed with a blanket. She felt bad for what she had done, it was never her intention to hurt her own treasure.

"Luna?" Lilith called softly, but Luna didn't answer.

Lilith came close and sat next to Luna. This time, Luna looked at her. Lilith took this opportunity to coax her daughter.

"Sweety, I'm sorry. Mommy was wrong. I didn't mean to hurt you,"

Luna, who also felt uncomfortable, couldn't help but soften herself as her mother took the initiative to apologize. She nodded her head slowly without saying anything.

Lilith smiled. She knew she was wrong, and Luna's words earlier made her scared but also made her think about what she had done but before thinking about it, for now, she had to take care of her daughter. Lilith didn't urge Luna to talk, she carefully put an ice pack wrapped in a white clean towel on Luna's cheek. She felt pain seeing the red cheek of her daughter that she had caused. Her daughter was easily hurt, so she never let any dangerous things around her daughter. Little did she know she would be the cause of Luna's pain.

Lilith couldn't help but shed tears. She apologized again to Luna.

Seeing her mother, Luna panicked. "Mom, please don't cry. It didn't hurt that much. It's my fault too. I'm not blaming you." she wiped her mother's tears

"No, it's me who's wrong. I'm the older one and your mother. I'm supposed to be the one who understands you instead of being unreasonable just because of my own personal matters,"

Luna's eyes widened. She hesitated for a moment, then she asked, "Mom, do you... hate Mira?"

Lilith paused for a moment, thinking about it. "No,"

Luna quickly looked straight into her mother's eyes with doubt and confusion.

Lilith understood her daughter's expression and answered her doubts. "I don't hate her. It's just... I can see her mother in her."

"But... they seem... different,"

Lilith realized that her daughter seemed to know Maria, so she asked her, "Have you met Maria?"

Luna reluctantly confessed, "Yes, but I just saw her in a shop with Mira. They didn't know I was there."

"You followed them?" Lilith asked with interest.

"Well... I got curious. Mira is always alone on campus, and I never see her soft side. But at that time in the shop, she acted like a different person, especially when she talked to the lady beside her. When I saw the face and heard Mira call her mom, I understood that it was her mother."

"You watched her well," Lilith commented. At the same time, deep inside, she felt a little jealous of her daughter. Even if she hated Maria so much, every time she heard that name, happy memories would come back. So she could only remind herself always that she hated Maria. Maybe that's the reason why she became unreasonable over time.

"I'm not," Luna quickly denied.

"Okay sweety if you say so, anyway, it's because of that. But yeah, they are different in personality."

Seeing that they could talk about this topic now, Luna continued to ask, "Mom, have you thought of talking to Ms. Maria?"

"I... I don't know," Lilith said. Then she added, "You take a rest now. It's already late." After saying that, she went out of Luna's room and walked straight to her room.

Lilith took a bottle of wine that she had hidden in her cabinet and drank it while looking outside the window. She thought of Luna's question. 'At that time, I couldn't even see her because of that man so talking to Maria became impossible. So I could only move forward in life with hatred. But... what about now? What if... Maria needs help? That man is said to be getting married soon when he already has Maria. What to do? '

Lilith became restless. She didn't realize that her hatred for Maria that she kept instilling in her mind all this time was easily blown away with just Luna's words.

Maria woke up early and noticed that she had fallen asleep in Mira's room. She got up, fixed the bedding, and then noticed Mira's phone. She froze and got shocked. She quickly took out her phone and called Mira's number, thinking that maybe she had just changed her phone. However, she thought wrong. It was only 6 in the morning and she estimated that they are still in flight, but she still sent messages to Liona, saying that Mira's phone had been left and asked her to help Mira buy her phone first before parting ways later, or she would be worried.

Maria calmed herself down, put Mira's phone in her pocket, and went downstairs to prepare her breakfast. She planned to find a job today, which had been set aside. She had waited for Mira's departure before finding a job because she wanted to spend more time with her daughter as much as possible. Maria quickly changed and look at herself for the last in the mirror then gathered her documents.

She planned to apply as a cashier at the newly opened restaurant she had seen, which was not too far from the subdivision she currently lived in. She had seen that restaurant before coming to the house and made a note of it. Knowing that they were still looking for people, she wanted to give it a shot.