12. Chapter 12

AN: I'm not going to lie... this is a short chapter. The next chapter will be up tomorrow.

Also... a lot of you read a lot into the last sentence on the last chapter. It wasn't meant to be ominous, I just suck at endings of anything, including chapters.

And... drum roll please... I have finished writing this story. It will be a total of 15 chapters, plus a last chapter that sort of seems more like an epilogue than another chapter. I don't currently have a sequel to this planned, but if I get the right inspiration for it, I'm not opposed.

I have also had an idea I want to pursue with a new Encanto story that I'm really excited for. I'm hoping to start writing that one now that this one is complete, but I won't post it until I'm finished writing it like I do for most of my stories. This story was very much the exception and not the rule when it comes to posting it before completing it.

Thanks for all of your wonderful responses and support!

Alma had a lot of thinking to do.

Her family had been angry and pushing back at her at every turn recently, and she hadn't understood why. She hadn't known how to fix it.

And then that encounter with Isabela.

Her oldest granddaughter had seemed determined to push back about everything, as if that would make Mirabel okay.

And then Alma realized.

Isabela wasn't pushing back at everyone - just the things she thought was damaging for her family members, especially her hermanas.

She pushed back about break times and did not want them leaving Mirabel alone.

She pushed back about long work days and working in less ideal conditions.

But Alma still didn't fully understand. Not until she went off on her about her treatment of Luisa.

Alma had spent hours after that argument in a bit of a daze, and later that night, slipped out to reflect and just cried.

She had been so determined to keep her family together, to protect her family, her home, their Encanto, that she had lost sight of what was actually important.

She wasn't protecting her family - she was making things worse.

She had heard whispers, and understood now that Isabela had not wanted to marry Mariana, but was doing it because Alma thought it good.

Dolores had become so protective over Mirabel - she must have heard something that made her realize sooner than the rest of the family just how hurt Mirabel had been by all of their actions, led by Alma.

As Isabela had pointed out just that day, Luisa was killing herself to meet Alma's expectations of getting the house complete - a house that wouldn't be worth anything if the family inside of it was not happy.

Camilo rarely spoke around her, and hadn't in years. But it didn't used to be that way, did it? She remembered when he was a small child, full of energy and jokes. And he still was that way - but not when she was around.

Antonio was still too young… he hadn't had his gift long enough. But even he had been nervous on the day of his ceremony. Had that been because of her?

And her own children. It hurt more to think of how much she had hurt her triplets.

Julieta had spent much of her time as a child cooking, perfecting her skill in the kitchen and using her gift for everything. Why had Alma allowed her to be used like that? She could count on one hand the number of times Julieta had taken a break from the kitchen in the last 45 years.

And Pepa. Her spit-fire middle child had always been angry and boisterous - could that be a result of forcing herself to feel things she didn't, just to keep her clouds under control? Or to make them appear when the town needed them? She had never allowed Pepa to just be as a child.

And Bruno. Oh Bruno. She had likely damaged him the most out of all of them. Bruno, who was feared and bullied and mocked by the town by the age of 7, and what did Alma do?

Nothing.

She had allowed it. She had even joined in on it. Commanding Bruno to continue to do visions for people that had not appreciation for his gift. Forcing him past what he could physically handle in a day. Getting angry when something bad happened and he hadn't foreseen it. And getting upset herself when his visions foretold something that she didn't want.

She had treated her youngest child so poorly that he had left and stayed hidden in the walls for 10 years because he hadn't trusted her with his last vision. And he had every right not to. He had every right to be angry with her.

She saw the anxiety with every handful of sugar or salt tossed over his shoulder, with every knock on wood and ritual that he did.

And the most painful part was that he was right - she would have been fearful of Mirabel if she had known of the prophecy. And she'd like to think she wouldn't have treated her differently, but didn't she already do that, even without the prophecy?

She didn't know how to fix it, she didn't know how to fix any of it.

But, maybe action wasn't the first step right now. Yes, these were all of the things that she saw that she did incorrectly. But there were likely more.

Alma vowed to take a step back and just observe - to allow her children to be, and to parent their kids, and she would watch.

And then… she had a lot to apologize for.