"If you didn't behave like one--"
"Michael!" Hannah's mother interjected, giving her husband a scolding look, which he paid no attention to. "Please don't provoke her any further."
"It doesn't matter Mother. I won't have to put up with him any longer."
"Where are you going? What will you do for money? How do you intend to support yourself?" Her mother rapidly asked one question after another.
"I don't know yet. I just have to leave this house before I truly do go insane. I have some money saved up from my part-time job and I've told you both that my book is in the midst of being published." A few weeks after returning from her 2,000-year-old trip, Hannah decided to write a book based on the relationship and some of the adventures she shared with her partner. For as long as she could remember she wanted to be a journalist, but after being reacquainted with her past life, she found that being a bard was much more to her liking. Luckily, Hannah secured an agent who made a deal with an up and coming publishing company to take a chance on her book.
"You mean that twisted book about you and this fictional woman?" Hannah's father inquired in a tone filled with derision. He'd read some of it and frankly, it made his stomach churn.
The young woman glared in his direction. "I'd tell you to go screw yourself but you're my father so I'm trying my best to respect you." Michael's hand curled into a fist at his side, though he made no move toward her.
"Hannah, don't speak to your father that--"
"That's right Mother. Take his side like you always do." Hannah walked out of the bedroom, which she had grown up in, thinking that she would never return. "I'm out of here." Her mother called out to her several times yet the petite blonde kept walking, not daring to even glance over her shoulder. There was a greater chance of dancing leprechauns greeting her on the other side of the front door before she allowed her parents to see the tears.
3 months later
"Hannah I loved your book. I mean really loved it," the awestruck woman gushed as she thrust her copy into the novelist's hands. "It's amazing how real your characters sound! Oh, to experience such a strong love... Anyone, who writes it so well like you do, must have it. There must be someone special in your life. Your soul mate." It sounded like a statement, but anyone with two brain cells could tell that she sought verification.
Obtaining her fan's name, Hannah began to write on the first page of the book while she answered the technically unasked question. "Now that I realize that I have a soul mate, I'm searching for them. If I keep looking I know that they'll turn up eventually." A bright smile on her face, she handed the signed novel back to the woman. "Thank you for reading Gladys."
Gladys clutched the book to her bosom. "And thank you for writing. One more thing before I leave. What makes you realize that your soul mate is out there?"
Months ago, Hannah concluded that sharing her journey to a past life with people wasn't the greatest idea (she'd yet to make a believer out of anyone), so she had learned to keep her mouth shut. If readers believed that her novel was pure fiction, then so be it. Looking up at the woman standing in front of her, Hannah came up with what she thought to be a reasonable answer.
"One day I woke up…truly woke up…and on that day I realized that anything was possible. It was on that day that I started to believe. And I do believe that a person exists who is indeed the other half of my soul. This person will complete me and I them. In that I believe."
Gladys smiled, resisting her urge to crawl across the table and hug the small novelist. "You keep on believing."
One green eye winked at her. "I shall. You make sure to do the same."
Hannah had just enough time drink a teaspoon worth of sugar-laced coffee before another copy of her popular book was placed in front of her. Picking up her pen and opening the hardback cover, she asked for a name.
"Please make it out to Michael and Rose Webster."
Her blonde head snapping up, Hannah came face to face with her parents, neither of which she had seen since the day she left home. Confused as to why they would be purchasing her book, considering they had been against it from the moment she told them that she planned on writing it, Hannah asked why they were at her Barnes & Noble book signing. Surely, they weren't intending to make a scene in front of all these people. No, that was unlike her parents. They preferred to discuss difficult issues behind closed doors.
"Isn't it obvious?" Her father asked with a benign smile on his face. "We're here to support you."