At home, Bernadette arranged most of her clothes into a bag. After putting them away, she went ahead to write down some few useful places to look out for.
She was going to move out of the mansion.
She realised that she was fed up with Tracy's constant bullying and insults. The worst part of it was that it was done in her own father's house— which she had no right over.
The only regret she felt was not being able to take care of Walter for a longer time. She had already promised herself not to leave him alone with Tracy, but seeing how Tracy doted on him, she knew that it was either safe for him or that Tracy was putting on this act just so that she wouldn't lose custody of an heir of a rich man.
Either way, she had no control over it. She really felt bad for Walter which was why she didn't plan on telling him that she had plans of leaving.
She would visit him frequently, but she just couldn't stay here anymore.
Another thing that kept bugging her mind was why Tracy hadn't thrown her out yet. Clearly she had all the rights to send her away but she didn't.
At first she felt it had something to do with her father's will. Maybe there was something— a clause that forbade her from being thrown out?
Or was they some benefits she would get if she kept her here?
This had made her to do some investigation back then, but she came up with nothing.
As for why her dad hated her, she had a general idea that it was because she refused to attend business school.
As Bernadette reminisced about the old memories, she felt disappointed in herself. She was such a weakling who couldn't do anything to save or protect her brother.
She did all she could back then. She went to lawyers, but it didn't help. The only thing she hadn't done was trying to force Tracy to abuse little Walter. She couldn't stand that.
After staring into space blankly for a while, she snapped back to reality when she heard the little voice call out, "mom? Are you leaving?"
"What?" She looked at the boy who stared at her with a pained face, "of course not, where did you get that idea?"
"You've been acting weird lately, and now your bags are all packed!" Walter stumped his foot on the floor to show his disapproval.
"Come here honey bear," Bernadette pulled him to her bed and sat beside him, "I don't want to leave you, really."
"Then why are you leaving?"
"Because Tracy doesn't want me here. You've seen how she treats me, right?" Bernadette said with a choked voice.
"I have. But maybe I could talk to Aunt Tracy, get her to be nicer to you. You don't have to leave!" Little droplets of tears were now falling from his eyes.
"It's not as easy as you think." She said sadly. If it were that easy, she wouldn't be so worried.
"But you are my SISTER!!" Walter stood up and backed away from her. This was the first time he had called her sister, when they were together, with so much authority.
"Listen to me, Tooda," Bernadette switched her tactics, "I won't leave today, nor this week, nor this month. I'm just packing up to make the room look nice. And I'm still undecided where to buy a house."
That was a lie she made up when she noticed that Walter would break down if she continued saying that she would move out.
Now she felt like a bad mom who wanted to leave her child behind without even saying a word, so inhumane!
"Really? Is that it?" Bernadette nodded and gave a pinkie promise.
"Thanks Mom," Walter hugged her tight as if she would disappear if he didn't hug so tight, "please don't ever leave."
"I won't leave you." Bernadette smoothed his hair and kept whispering the words.
She had made the decision to leave because after a bit of thinking, she discovered that she wasn't at home most of the times because of her job. She realised that she had never been the one taking care of Walter, but Tracy.
The most detested woman in her life!
Although she would one day leave this house, she had a new resolve to digging up something from Tracy's past and using it against her to make her "willingly" forfeit custody of Walter.
Right now the only language she knew was the language of desperation....