HIRAETH

Twenty One

Sebastian's alarm went off early the next morning. Too early considering we stayed up most of the night.

We both had to scramble to get ready in time for him to make it to set. As much as I enjoyed spending time with him, we were both ready for him to get back to set and finish this movie so he could have some time off. If everything went correctly in the next few days, the movie would premiere at the beginning of next year.

Aurelia woke up around 7:45, which is a little later then her usual. She was grumpy and made sure everyone knew it.

"I don't want breakfast." She huffed as she crossed her arms at the table.

"Why not? Aren't you hungry?" I asked trying to keep my cool. She had already been testing my patience.

"No."

"Okay." I said as I bit into the banana I had just peeled for her.

Sebastian had already left and I texted him, letting him know Aurelia seemed off. I get that sometimes kids just have a bad day, but after learning about what almost happened to her, we started to pay more attention to her mood swings.

Sebastian was still in the process of finding a good child therapist for her to see. He was being very thorough and when I asked him if he needed help he said, "I have to do this. This could have been prevented if I had kept her from Alexia."

I tried to convince him this wasn't his fault in any way, but he was hell bent on blaming himself. I just did the best I could to keep him sane.

"Go away." Aurelia mumbled when I walked into her room to play with her.

"Aurelia." I said, irritated that she was being so rude.

"I want to play alone." She said, not so much in a mean way, but almost like she was sad.

"Aurelia," I said as I softened my voice a bit, "what's bothering you?"

"Nothing. I just want to be alone." She continued to brush her doll's hair and never once looked at me.

"Okay." I sighed as I left the room. I texted Liz and Mackie to see if anything weird happened with her last night.

While I was typing, I got a text from Tara. I opened it.

"Have you seen this?" The text read and I clicked the picture that was under her text.

It took a moment for my phone to load it, but when it finally popped open, my mouth dropped.

"SEBASTIAN STAN BLAMED BY ALEXIA ONIN FOR ATTACK ON THEIR CHILD."

What the hell?

There is a picture of Aurelia with Sebastian plastering the front of a magazine. It's from the day of the trial and I feel my blood boil.

How can anyone believe this?

I called Tara back instead of texting and walk out onto Sebastian's balcony so Aurelia doesn't hear the not so nice words I'm about to call her mother.

"Hey girl." Tara says in a concerned tone.

"What does the article say?" I ask.

"It's apparently an interview with Alexia. She basically put all the blame on you and Sebastian for what happened with Aurelia."

"But how? Aurelia was in Alexia's home when it happened." I feel the anger in me continuing to rise.

"She said that you two were so busy being caught up in each other that Sebastian was putting Aurelia off on Alexia so you two could have time away from her." Tara scoffs.