Madison was in tremendous pain. All through her journey from the bakery, back to her motel earlier this morning, and the long hours in which she had changed her clothes, cleaned her motel and sat listless in her bed the entire day, she had not fully realized this till now. She had sat up all through the evening brooding, but she did not feeling any emotion except for the obvious emptiness in her chest. Now though as night began to fall, the events that made up Madison's week began to replay in her head once more, and with each calamity, she felt a renewed kind of pain, her heart shattering and that was when the overfilled dam burst. She clutched at the sheets she laid on, her chest tightening as she sobbed painfully. She had felt pain before but this time it was so overwhelming, that she didn't know what to do with it other than to let it out through her tears. Overpowered by her pain and tears, she dialed the number of the only person she could be vulnerable with. "M-mom?" She whimpered through the receiver, tears filling her eyes as her mother demanded what the problem was in alarm, hearing her cool voice, "I-I have no idea what to do…I'm completely lost, Mom." "Shh, it's okay. Calm down…take deep breaths okay?" Madison nodded shakily, shutting her eyes and imagining her mother stroking her hair affectionately like she used to do in the past, when she lay on the bed in her room when she was still a kid. It made her feel slightly better, when she was done and now it was having the same little soothing effects on her. “Good girl…now, tell me everything. Talk to me. What is bothering you? Money problems? Health problems or what?” As steady as she could keep her voice, she narrated the whole story to her mother, this time not leaving out the part with Damien and Alvarez, the dress, what happened at the club and at the bakery. She hadn't mentioned Damien to her mother the first time, because she wanted to leave him out of any conversation and she had only told her of the misfortune that had befallen her ever since she arrived at New York for the gig, but now she couldn’t hold it back. Yes! At this point she was so helpless and in so much sorrow, that she had to tell someone close everything… to get it off her chest, and there was no other person than her mother. "God, Maddie. Baby…” Her mother whispered through the phone, pain and worry evident in her voice, her voice breaking, as she asked slowly, “You met Damien after all these years, and he didn’t this to you? How will you survive all this? What is happening?”By the time she finished asking the questions, Madison could hear her sobs and this time it made her cry even harder. "I don't know, Mom. I have nothing to do… nowhere to go and nothing to do. I am nowhere close to gathering enough money to pay for that damned dress. With the two jobs I secured I would have been able to, but all I have left is seven hundred dollars, from all the work I've done, and the remaining half of the money you sent me the other time. W-what am I supposed to do now? I’m just tired!” She burst into fresh wave of tears, the reality of what could happen if she failed to clear off her bills sinking in, and her chest squeezed in enormous pain. "Shh…it's okay, baby. It's okay. Calm down." Her mother let her sob for a while, and after a few moments had passed, she spoke up again, “What about that friend of yours, Alvarez? I remember him back then, and he was good to you. You mentioned him right? You met him right?" Madison sniffed, "What about him?" "Well…from everything you told me, he seems to have your best interests at heart seeing as he paid some of your bills, and insisted you stay at his house some time. Right? What do you think about asking him for some money?" Madison froze in shock, “What? Mom, no. Why would you even ask me that? He has done so much, and I still feel like a terrible person. You know me, and there’s only so much my ego can take, mother.” She began to state firmly, her face already beginning to redden at the thought of begging Alvarez for help, "I know I'm in a terrible situation at the moment, but I still have my pride. I can’t ask him for money, worse still an amount this much. I don’t know if he even has it, and his friendship with Damien is even strained because of this and…” She stopped abruptly seeing that she was revealing to much, and she prayed that her mother wouldn’t ask her to finish that statement and luckily she was lucky. "Maddie… look I understand where you're coming from, but this is bigger than your pride. He's the only person who could be of help to you. You have no other options and no choice. If you could just cast your pride aside and do this, we might be able to get at least half of the problem solved." "Mom, I can't do—" "If talking to him is the problem you can send his number to me. I'll call him, talk to him, and when I explain everything to him I'm sure he'd see reasons with you." Madison's eyes widened in horror, “Mother! Please don't talk like that. Give you his number? Absolutely not. For what!” She exclaimed, but Madison knew her mother wouldn't give it up so easily so she sighed and replied, "Okay, I'll think about it.” "That’s my girl. Anything you come up with, don't hesitate to let me know. Take care of yourself, honey. I miss you so much."Madison's grip on the phone tightened as tears welled up in her eyes yet again. She missed her mother so much, and it had been long since she saw her. With the current distance between her and her father, the fact that she was a prodigal daughter and had been disowned made the situation much to bitter. She longed to be close to her mother, especially now that it seemed like everything was going wrong but well wishes weren’t horses that she could ride so well. "I miss you t—" "I-I have to go now. Your father's home. Bye, I love you." Before Madison could get any other words out, the line had gone dead. She knew her mother had to be careful every time she spoke to her, which was why they had specific days when they talked. Her father would flip if he found out that any member of his family, from his wife to his sons was still in touch with Madison. For all he knew she was dead to him, and he cared less about her well-being. She only spoke to her mother on arranged days, usually when her father would be at work, or out of the house. Pain shot through her as she began to sob afresh, cradling her pillow in her arms. The cold, empty motel room seemed even emptier today, the vast space eating her up. She was alone… completely alone, but then she had always been. She couldn't even talk to the one person who could comfort her without standing the risk of angering her father, and rocking back and forth clenching her fists, tears continued to streamed down her face. Like every other night since all of this started, Madison cried herself to sleep, heart twinging painfully...