Daniella, Evan together with Selena were waiting for the triplets in the van. When Daniella saw Leo with his ferrets in the cage coming towards them, she rolled the car window down and yelled.
"Leave your ferrets, Leo," she could see the boy's face wrinkled in disagreement but he went back inside the house without a word.
The next that came out was Ethan. When Daniella noticed the bump in his pocket, she opened the door and yelled once again.
"Ethan, what do you have in your pocket?" she asked. When the boy showed what he has in his pocket, Daniella only needed to narrowed her eyes and the boy understood her message.
When Leo and Ethan finally got into the car, Daniela who's been sitting on the passenger seat turned to face them.
Her expression went flat when she saw the monkey hiding behind Alexa.
"Alexa, do you think I am blind not to see that huge ape behind you?" she sarcastically stated.
Alexa pouted her lips when her mother said those words. She always brings her monkey with her, even in the park. She knows that her parents had spent a lot of money to pay for the damages her monkey did but the animal was her only friend.
"Can I bring her?" she softly asked but Daniella didn't bother to reply, instead she just looked at her with a bored expression.
Alexa sighed and opened the door, she let the monkey out and told her to go back to the garden.
They all waited for Louisa. When she has finally arrived, she was carrying her skeleton doll.
The triplets looked at their mother and waited for her to say something to Louisa.
"Honey, I only reserved seven chairs, if we bring your doll we won't have enough chairs," unlike earlier, Daniella said those word in a sweet-sounding tone.
But instead of doing like what her siblings did, Louisa embraced the skeleton and looked at her father through the rearview mirror.
"Her doll can sit on my laps. Does she bite?" Evan spoke after seeing Louisa's depressed face.
The girl's face suddenly lightened up and shook her head as a response.
With that, Evan started the car.
Their dinner was quick and peaceful, one of the reasons why Daniella doesn't bring her kids to a restaurant often was because they always ended up paying not only their bill but, also the damages the triplets and their pets have done.
After Evan paid their bill, the triplets and Louisa proceeded to the car while Daniella and Selena went at the back of the restaurant.
It was almost ten in the evening, the wind was cold. Selena was wearing a sleeveless shirt and a mini skirt enough to make her whole body shiver every time wind blows while Daniella was wearing a jumpsuit.
Daniella took out two cigarettes and handed one to Selena.
Selena started smoking after she graduated from the university, and she didn't learn it from her friends or the men she previously dated instead the person who taught her how to smoke was no other than Daniella, it was right after she found out that Anders has proposed to her friend Maddie.
Maddie was her best friend since high school. She thought her relationship with Anders was not serious therefore she even cheered for them, but after she saw the ring on her finger, her whole world crumbled.
In the same day, she ran to the only person who always had her back, it was the only person who could see right through her, the person that always showed up whenever she needed her and that was Daniella.
That night, Daniella brought her to a place she hadn't visited for a long time, her mother's grave.
They both sat next to the grave with wine bottles with them. When Daniella handed her one of the tobacco from her purse, Selena looked at her with a puzzled expression.
"I don't know how to smoke," she said in between her awkward chuckled. She doesn't know whether Daniella was testing her or not but when she saw the understanding smile on her face, her hand moved to accept it.
Daniella took out the lighter from her purse and burned the end of the tobacco. The moment she inhaled the smoke in her mouth, a loud cough let out from her throat followed by Daniella's laugh.
"Don't worry, try it again," Daniella encouraged her.
Selena tried it once again and after some time, she had gotten used to it. Every time she felt the smoke in her throat a satisfying feeling rush over her body making her nerve to calm.
When she finished the whole tobacco by herself, she turned the fire off using her shoes and then turned to Daniella.
"Daniella did you kill her?" she asked. She'd been meaning to ask that question since her father brought her to the morgue to see her mother one last time but she knows that if she asked Daniella, their relationship will be ruined.
But that day she was drunk, and just like the series 'How it met your mother' which she and the triplets love to watch, they have a saying, 'nothing good happens after 2 am'.
Her heart was about to burst as she waited for Daniella's reply. So when Daniella said no, she felt the knife that has been stubbed in her heart for years has suddenly disappeared.
"I am glad to know that you didn't kill her," she spoke in relief.
"I didn't kill her but I also didn't save her." Selena looked at Daniella in confusion. Wondering what she meant.
"I watched her die, Selena. I could have saved her but I choose not too and you understand that right?" There was not even a hint of regret in her voice which she understands.
Her mother and Daniella's relationship was something that cannot be fixed. First, her mother pretended to care about Daniella after her mother died, then she repeatedly tried to kill her which causes for Daniella to be on comatose when she was still pregnant with the triplets and the last was because her mother was Evan's, first love.
"I understand but Daniella what should I do now? I am so confused. I want to get Anders back. He should be with me but now it's impossible," as she said those words, the tears she has been holding since she saw the ring in her best friend streamed down like falls.
The alcohol and cold breeze had made her emotion heightened, her tears mixed with her sweat and snot.
"Well, you can always seduce Anders and get pregnant. If you remember, I also stole Evan from his ex-fiancée and look at us."
She looked at her, tears still pouring from her eyes.
"Should I?" she asked.
Daniella shrugged a shoulder and replied, "Sure but there's a difference between Evan and Anders. Evan had never loved Camille but Anders, you know better than anyone how much he loves Maddie. So yes, you can do whatever you want but will you be really happy? Will he be happy?"
Selena shifted her eyes from staring at Daniella to her mother's grave. She took a deep breath and shut her eyes, the pain of losing Anders was tirelessly pinning her heart.
"What should I do Daniella?"
There was a moment of silence before Daniella spoke up, and every word she said that night has been engraved in her mind until now.
"Leave. Runaway. If you see yourself in a hard position sometimes its best to leave. People say that running away is a sign that you're coward but, sometimes we need to be coward to find that person who will one day hold our hands and makes us feel that we belong somewhere. If I didn't run away from James and Matthew, I wouldn't have met Evan. And meeting him was the best thing that had ever happened to me. So Selena, leave and find that person, maybe he's also sitting somewhere wondering when he will meet you," Selena just stared at Daniella, watching her said those words will full emotion, and her eyes were shining with contentment.
And that's when she realized what she needed to do, and it was not to get Anders back but, to leave and find herself.
Since then, every time she sees herself falling into someone, she's running away. When she started dreaming her life with the man she's dating, she will open her eyes and leave.
With all the words Daniella had told her that night, the only word that engraved in her mind was the word 'runaway' so when she sees herself falling into someone, the first thing she does was to run away.
Her senses were pulled back to the reality when she felt her finger burning, her eyes lowered to look at her hand only to find Daniella with the lighter in her hand teasingly burning her finger.
"What is wrong with you!" she suddenly yelled.
Daniella laughed and turned the fire off, "You're pacing out. Be thankful I didn't burn you," Daniella replied in between her laugh.
Selena rolled her eyes on her and turned her cigarettes off. When she turned to Daniella, the smile she had earlier was gone.
"What's wrong?" she asked.
Daniella looked at her, her expression had become serious.
"I spoke to your father. He wants to fix someone for you to marry."
Those words made her eyes to swell in shock, the last thing she thought her father would do was to set her up with someone. Her father was a believer of love, though he had been unlucky with women. First, her mother left him for someone's older and viscous then his second wife also did some bad things in the past which ended someone's life. But even so, her father stayed with her now stepmother Samantha.
She doesn't have anything against their relationship but she's hoping that Samantha didn't convince her father to set up a marriage for her.
"Is this Samantha's idea?" she asked.
Daniella shook her head as a response and said, "your father but, don't worry I told him I will take care of you so from now on, you won't need to worry about that," there was a smile on Daniella's lips when she said those words.
"Great," she said in relief.
"You're welcome. Oh gosh! You and I are gonna have lots of fun," when she heard her wicked laugh, her skin suddenly shivered.
She wanted to ask what does her laugh meant but she was already gone.
As she watched Daniella's silhouette walking towards the parking space, a weird feeling started to grow inside her.
She shook her head to remove the thought but she could not remove Daniella's smile in her head, her empty smile was seriously giving her a creep.
She let out a shaky breath and decided to follow her, she knows that something is about to happen and whatever is it, she needs to be prepared.