Tamara's pov

My alarm went off, I checked the time and it was 6 am "aaaghhh" I'm not a morning person so yeah. I dragged myself off the bed, which I'm pretty sure was screaming my name cause I seriously wasn't ready to be up this early today. The winter break was over and now we had to go back to school. I got in the bathroom took off my clothes, opened the shower and just stood there as the hot water massaged my body and gave me the amazing feeling I needed to start off my week. I finished taking a shower thirty minutes later since I first just stood there and did nothing, I needed that though. After putting some clothes on I went downstairs and was hit by the smell of fresh pancakes and muffins, oh Gosh I love my mom.

So my mom is thee best pastry chef ever, she makes the best cakes and any baked goodies, she owns a cafe in Beverly hills, in which we used to live in before we bought this beautiful home two months ago,  but she hopes one day she'll have her own bakery or supply for those fancy restaurants celebrities go to if she doesn't own one cause she also makes amazing savoury dishes just that her baking is outta this world.

"Good morning mommy" I came from behind kissed her cheek, she was setting the table for breakfast.

"Morning sweety, how was your night?" Her smile is so gorgeous, I took the voluptuous smile from her. She has long black hair, she's a curvy mixed but more on the white side woman.

Her parents were white and black. Grandma was a light skinned black American but moved to London for work at 27. Grandpa was a white English man. He was super funny I loved him a lot.

"Not bad, it smells amazing in here"  she chuckled

"You're such a foodie baby, I wanted to make you guys great breakfast today as a back to school gift or something" I laughed at her a little, she's such a mom.

I started helping her set the table so we can start eating. To be honest I was starving seeing all these goodies on the table. She made chocolate chip muffins with blueberry pancakes. Blueberry pancakes are Tyler's all time favourites, I love chocolate flavoured stuff. It's funny because I'm not a fan of chocolate on it's own.

Speaking of Tyler, where is he? "Mom what time is it?" She glanced at her wrist watch pretty quick

"6:39 am, Sweety can you please go get your brother, he's gonna be late"

"alright"

I walked out of the kitchen but then saw Tyler coming down the stairs with his school bag.

"Oh you're here" he looked at me in confusion

"were you about to fetch me?" We walked to back to the kitchen together,

"mom thought you'd be late if you didn't come down" he chuckled and paused on his footsteps as if he'd just got a scent of something

"wait! Are those...." I nodded before he could even finish asking.

"MOM YOU MADE ME MY FAVOURITE?" he was basically shouting right now.

"Well good morning to you too Tyler" I giggled. Savage.

"Sorry mom" he went to give her a kiss on the cheek "good morning" he smiled at her genuinely, she smiled back

"how did you sleep honey?"

"I slept really well I couldn't wait for today" so Tyler loves school more than I do, he has a bunch of friends unlike me. I used to have one well we're still friends but it's not like before, ever since she cheated on me our friendship has never been the same. I can only stand her because she's the only one I'm used to there, I cannot wait to graduate high school and leave that school.

"Can we eat already I'm starving" my stomach was grumbling as well.

They both laughed at me and we all digged in. I started with the muffins, and they melted in my mouth right away. The buttery chocolatey and softness of those muffins made me moan so loud mom and Tyler looked at me and laughed their lungs out.

"You can't blame me for that mom this is so delicious" she chuckled a little then sipped her coffee and continued with her meal.

We finished breakfast and it was 7:21am well we better get to school now. Our mom usually drives us to school, it's about a fifteen minute drive from where we live in Santa Monica. Tyler and I go to the same school Futures Academy in Beverly hills and he's in sixth grade, he's 11. I am 17 turning 18 on the 30th of  April, yup I'm a Taurus. Mom is a Virgo her birthday is 27 August and then Tyler is a Saggitarius he was born 9 December. Birthdays are something we really love celebrating in our family, we always want them to be special.

We all got in the car which was a white beautiful Mercedes family car. As much as we aren't millionaires, I had to convince mom that a fancy car isn't that much of a big deal. She doesn't like showing off as she likes to put it. Well to be honest I just love Mercedes cars and I thought that from the huge money we got from Rick's ( the father I was cursed to have) savings after his death and from his businesses which apparently and super surprisingly he left for us, I just thought we'd buy something fancy you know.

It wasn't only the car though, oh honey no, if you know me you've got to know I bought a lot of fancy stuff from clothes to gadgets. I was spending his money like crazy just to repay all those years he made us suffer. And besides we're in California so we have to look the part right?

I got in the back seat and looked at the window while mom drove.

Flashback

"MOM! MOOOOOOOM" Still no answer, this is weird. I ran upstairs and went to my room to drop my bag and then went to mom's room, I looked at the bed and saw Tyler sleeping peacefully, it was around 8pm and I was just coming from my dance classes. I'm not a dancer but I just wanted to have something to do while here in Italy and they're dance seemed pretty fun but the teacher who was also our neighbor was a full time worker so she could only teach me from 6. I looked around the room and mom was on her window seal staring down the road. Her mind must be miles away, she can't be concentrating on that busy street and the hundreds of cars passing by nonstop. What is she thinking about?

"Mom! Mommy!" I whisper yelled so I wouldn't wake Tyler, She jolted like I scared her or something. "I'm sorry I didn't mean to scare you like that"

"how long have you been standing here?" She asked,

"About a minute or two, I was trying to figure out what you're thinking"

I actually knew what she was thinking about. Rick. I hate how that man always finds a way to control us even when we're thousands of miles away from him it's like he's always in our head. We were in Italy right now and this is the fifth year we've been on the run from that monster, I can't even remember the last time I had my clothes in a wardrobe, they're always in a bag and always ready to leave.

"Mom are you okay? Are you thinking about him?" She sighed and went back to look at the window. I hated seeing her like this, I wish I could do something.

"I got an email from his lawyer since I've been changing numbers like crazy for the past five years, he couldn't call me. He told me something" wait his lawyer? Does that mean he finally signed the divorce papers?

"Did he say he signed the divorce papers? It's about time he did something right in his fucking life" she snapped her head to my direction quickly

"Tamara Language. How many times should I tell you not to curse?" Oops did I say that out loud?

"I'm sorry mommy I didn't realise I said that out loud" I sat next to her

"You shouldn't even be thinking about cursing. What is wrong with you?"

"I won't curse again I promise" I lied and she nodded believing me.

"He did not sign the papers Tamara." I was confused

"Wait then why did he write to you? Was he trying to find out where we are?"

I wouldn't put it past Rick to use his lawyer to find out where we are. She sighed heavily and looked in my eyes deeply like she was about to say something I wouldn't have thought in a million years.

"He's dead" she took another deep breath "he died two weeks ago and was burried this past weekend, it was a car accident he was under the influence of alcohol."

It was like I wasn't hearing my mom correctly right now.

"Mom you can't trust that stupid lawyer who thinks we're stupid enough to trust him when he says Rick is dead, no this is one of his plans to get us."

She cupped my cheeks and I saw a tear fall down her cheek

"it's all over baby, he's gone" now she was crying "I had Brian confirm it and I know you trust him since we're still alive today because of him"

she was right, he's been helping us with fake IDs and passports for the past five years. Brian was mom's cousin, he was like the only relative we were talking to since the others would alarm Rick of our whereabouts not intentionally but he'd hack their phones and track our numbers, Brian had an untraceable number so it was safe.

"So he's gone? Forever?"

"Yes" she nodded her head and I hugged her tightly while she cried hysterically.

As much as she was the mom she was the sensitive one and me on the other hand I hated crying, I only cried once okay maybe a few times but no more than five time, first was when Rick beat mom in front of me when I was 9 and that was the last time I saw him in my life. I swore never to cry again but Jas said letting it all out helps.

End of flashback

"Tamara are you coming out of the car or not?" I shook the thoughts out of my mind, I looked around and realised we were in school already.

"yeah yeah" I unfastened my seatbelt "bye mom" I opened the door

" love you" she said before I got out

"love you too mommy" I got out and saw Tyler was already with his friends by the school hallway.

I sighed and started walking slowly "here we go".