Meet Anastasia Acosta ---From FaerieWolf

Anastasia Acosta is tired of lies.  She is tired of her Junior League efforts to keep her philandering husband's political career afloat.  She is tired of watching her kids watch her keep up with the lies.  Her son sees her as a second-class citizen, her daughter looks upon her with placid disgust.  They have both pulled away so much that time with them feels as fake, plastic, and phony as "2 'tini Tuesdays" with her friends and going to bed with David.  She makes it real easy for him anymore, anticipating his after dinner phone call (always between 8:30 and 9:00) and cutting him off before he lists the excuse by giving him one ("Oh that deposition ran late", or "You have to prepare for court tomorrow").  While it is true that he is next in line to make circuit court judge, and is on a number of philanthropic and community committees, she knows that it isn't his big heart keeping him from home night after night.  What she also knows is that she is the core villain in the demise of her family.  Nothing has been the same since the accident and, while she continues to go to therapy, it's just a show.  There is something still horribly wrong in her mind, but bringing it to light and dealing with it would be more embarrassing for David than her quiet exit will be.  This is the only lie she isn't tired of.  The only reason she gets out of bed each morning with a smile.  This is the only lie worth telling.  She is faking it so good that no one will see it coming.  Because no matter how big of a lying son of a bitch her husband has become and no matter how hatefully her children treat her, she truly loves them with everything she has.  The problem is, she doesn't have much.  That's why this time with them is so critical.  She knows they love her too, and that they are as tired as she is of faking it.  She can't imagine growing up with a crazy mom, or trying to be intimate with a depressed wife.  Her suicide is a mercy.  This won't be like last time.  The kids were too small then.  She'd been too distant.  They knew something was wrong and when their greatest fears were realized, the whole world came crashing down for them.  For all of them.  David talked about going back into the public defender's office, the kids slowly dropped sports and dance.  Everyone was as miserable as she'd become accustomed to being.  Not this time.  This time, everyone will be blindsided.  Old friends will show up again to bring casseroles and all who knew her would breathe a silent, guilty, sigh of relief.  Her death will hit Laural the most, but it will be better than the alternative.  She will be drawn into the world of kids her own age who will accept her as is.  The "mother" part of Laural's story is a tragic one.  Always will be.  At least with her gone it will be a tragic history.  Perhaps people will love Laural  a little more, being left behind by her selfish, crazy mother. Yes, better to be the leaver than the leavee.  Anastasia knows she needs to be institutionalized, but she knows what that would mean for her family--it would be admitting defeat.  It would be dull Sunday afternoons with unsalted green beans and warm milk on their obligatory visitations.  It would be a death sentence for them--a lifetime of looking after Ana, who never really could pull herself together. Nope.  Not if she has anything to say about it.  She hears Laural slide the other chaise up next to her on the roof, the one place she and Laural still feel like mother and daughter.   She squirts some SPF 8 onto her hand, handing the bottle to her left without looking.  "How was school, dear?"