Chapter 148) Tears

“Loss of a mother can never be replaced, but the love of a mother a never be lost.”

Kelly Flannery

Weeping Willow Cemetery

Blaine’s heart felt like stuck in a metal clamp with someone turning it tighter and tighter. It took all he had to get through the service, the priest’s words were just sounds that washed over him. Too big was the pain he felt from the loss, more than he thought possible. Even bigger was the pain watching his son in so much agony, helpless, same was true for Vivien.

Blaine heard his best friend Kai next to him clearing his throat, purposely ignoring him wiping his eyes, Kai’s wife Cheyenne suffered a mild nervous breakdown when she heard the news, but managed to pull enough strength from always calm and composed Kai to attend the funeral, along with their three kids, twin teens Benedict and Ballentine and 7 year old Dylan.

The funeral of Blaine’s ex-wife Bristol and her husband Cole.
Mother of his son Blake, and like a mother to Vivien for many years.
Lifelong best friend of Cheyenne’s and godmother to her and Kai’s twins.
Mother to a toddler daughter with Cole, Celeste.
Sister, aunt, daughter, friend, …

Blaine and Kai had known Bristol since they were 16, over twenty years now, and despite their several attempts at a doomed relationship they had always managed to maintain a sort of close friendship, even after the divorce, not only for the sake of their son. Blaine genuinely still cared greatly about her. This tore him to pieces.

It pained him more to look up and see her brother Phillip and his wife Alycia, their oldest son Julius and twins Paxton and Gracelyn in so much pain, they were good people, he had always liked them, he knew the siblings had been close, neighbors even for the past few years, and he finally lost it and allowed the tears to run when his gaze fell onto Bristol’s toddler child, Celeste, being held by her cousin Julius, the little girl barely comprehending what was going on, probably wondering why all were crying and why mommy and daddy weren’t there. Such a sweet child, barely three years old and now an orphan. Celeste’s grandparents, Bristol and Phillip’s parents, were estranged from the rest of them, but had surprisingly shown up for the last rites for their daughter, still noticeably at a distance from Phillip and his family and far from Blaine and his. They were his son Blake’s grandparents too, but Blake barely knew them, nor did he seem to care to change that if given a choice.

“Oh Bri, why? Why, you silly girl, WHY?! You knew having another baby was such a risk! And why did that ass talk you into that?! If he had survived this, I’d fucking kill him with my bare hands!” Blaine mumbled, only loud enough for himself to barely hear it.

What had happened was that despite a very rocky pregnancy with Blake, an even worse one with Celeste, Bristol had tried to have another child. Phillip hinted around that her husband Cole had been talking about wanting a son of his own. Many unsuccessful and frustrating attempts later – a feeling Blaine himself still remembered all too well from when they were trying to conceive Blake – one severe emergency after an ectopic pregnancy, but then Bri and Cole finally got a confirmed pregnancy. Only Phillip had known so far as he told Blaine. That fateful final day of Bri and Cole’s lives Blake had been over to his mother’s for the scheduled weeklong visit, she had another emergency. Complications had arisen, the pregnancy had turned toxic, Bristol had been screaming in pain, Blake was at the park with friends and there was no time to get him. They dropped off Celeste with Phillip’s wife, then rushed to the hospital, never making it there, perishing in a fatal car crash on the way there. By the time Phillip figured out where Blake could be, the clever 8 year old was on a bus to Forgotten Hollow to find his sister.

It was unclear what would happen with Celeste now, for the interim she stayed with Phillip in familiar surroundings until CPS could determine something definite. Blaine and Scarlett even offered to take her, after Phillip had mostly cut ties with his and Bri’s parents he had been the sole source of income for his family of five, another mouth to feed would be a struggle, but Blaine only received a dismissive snort and a raised eyebrow from the CPS worker.
He had simply been introduced as the ex-husband, had he dropped his name and fame card, undoubtedly things would have looked a lot different, but be didn’t feel like it.
He didn’t feel famous and like a celebrity with constant special treatment now, just a man who lost someone he still deeply cared for, even worse, his children did and he could do nothing to ease their pain.

To add insult to injury, Scarlett’s pregnancy was now showing, an easy pregnancy for them. The moment Blaine and Scarlett decided ‘why not?’ she got pregnant nearly right away after they stopped birth control, getting there had been fun, romantic and playful, none of the rigid labor it had been conceiving Blake. Scarlett’s pregnancy had so far been uneventful, save the usual nausea, one of the benefits of being a vampire, leaving them both to simply enjoy it and dwell in the wonder of the life they had created together.
Scarlett hadn’t wanted to attend at all, but Vivien and Blake begged her to come, so she did, uncomfortable all the way, not only because it was a little too much daylight with occasional sun for her, but the looks of the Sinclair family burned equally as hot on her. To them, she would always be the other woman, the homewrecker, who stole Blaine from Bristol and ended their marriage, no matter what the truth may really have been.

Once the funeral was over, there was little interaction between the families, except Kai’s and Blaine’s, mostly to say goodbye again already, none of them truly felt much like socializing. The Camores had enough of the sadness, the kids couldn’t miss too much school, all were eager to get back to Sulani. Kai wasn’t licensed to practice law in Willow Creek, where Bristol and Cole last resided, so everyone who thought they may be mentioned in the will had to stay in town until it was read.

Blaine, Scarlett, Vivien and Blake didn’t. After briefly making the rounds to say hello to their family in Windenburg, Brindleton Bay and Forgotten Hollow they flew back into familiar surroundings, home to a surprisingly rainy Del Sol Valley, matching all of their somber and melancholic moods about a splendid life ending too soon. Only a set of double-rainbows reminded everyone that all pain subsided and the sun would shine for them again. Eventually.

TO BE CONTINUED