"I didn't choose this for myself: the constant heartache, the feeling out of place in my own home, the lack of freedom. I didn't choose it, just like you didn't, Elijah. I can live with a husband who doesn't love me, but I will not forgo respect. I'...
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"Hi, Lilliana," my mother says from the other side of the phone. "Hi, mom."
"I haven't heard from you in a while. Is everything okay?" I scoff and roll my eyes, she's always been unaware of how much of a bad mother she is, but Jesus Christ, she's been more and more clueless about her failures as a mother, recently.
"You cannot be serious, right now. . . Are you seriously wondering why I'm avoiding you? I don't know . . . It may have something to do with the fact that you trapped me in a marriage and now you're forcing me to have a child. What the fuck is wrong with you? What kind of mother does that."
I hear her sigh, and I'm tempted to just end the call, but I want to know what excuse she's going to use. "Lilliana, I don't understand why you're so upset. I was in trouble and this was the only way I could get out of it. Baby girl, you know I always have your best interest in mind. You must know that."
"I'm going to go, mom. Bye." Without waiting for a response, I end the call.
Delani Campbell is a soulless woman. I knew it before, but she has stopped hiding it with false kindness now.
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I and Alena sit on the couch talking about her return home to Minnesota. "I don't think I'm going to be going back home for probably another year, to be honest. Great-grandma Milena is sure she's going to die soon, but no one believes her. She's got too much life left in her. After the heart attack, she had last year, we all thought she was going to, but she's made a great recovery. I'm in no rush either, seen as I rented out my place for another year."
I nod and watch as her focus is grabbed by Santi, who is talking to Daniel and Frankie. "Can one of you just make the first move? All the stolen glances and longing gazes are going to make me break out in hives."
Alena slaps my arm playfully, "Shush, no one is giving each other longing gazes." I roll my eyes, knowing that every time they're in the same room, the tension skyrockets. She scans him, spending a couple more seconds on his arms and tattoos.
No one is giving each other long gazes, my ass.
Elijah gets home and joins the conversation Daniel and Santi are having, after taking off his jacket.
