The lives of Olivia and Rayden Reed are about to take a captivating turn when a figure from their past reemerges, igniting a whirlwind of emotions and buried secrets. Malia, a woman they once loved and lost, returns after eight long years with a dar...
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My phone rings, and I swiftly answer it. "Ray, guess who's back in town?"
Those are the first words that greet me as I pick up the call. Everyone is gathered at my family home, and we're waiting for Valiana and Zoey. They have a routine of going to the park every Tuesday and Thursday before joining us for mandatory family time at our childhood home.
Currently, I find myself in the kitchen alongside the rest of my relatives. My older sister, Adelaide, and her wife, Macy, are engaged in a conversation beside me, while my older brother Camden and his husband, Miguel, are nearby. In the back room, the children are occupied with their games and activities.
"Well, hello to you as well. There's no: How was your day? How are you doing? We're getting straight to the point, aren't we." I reply.
I put her on speaker. Everyone in the room halts what they're doing and directs their attention toward me, a collective expression of confusion on their faces. I mouth the words 'It's Valiana,' and they return to their conversations, reassured.
"You're on speaker, and the family is here, so speak wisely."
"Bitch. We want to hear the tea." Camden says, throwing a grape at me.
"Yeah, what can she say to you that she can't say to us?" My mother Elliot says, turning to me with a spatula in her hand.
"Well, for starters, um..."
"Malia is back in town, and you have an 8-year-old child that's a month younger than Zoey." Valiana cut me off at the same time Olivia walks into the room.
Everyone stops what they were doing again and stares at me in disbelief. I come to a halt, unsure how to answer. After the little girl called me, I knew Malia had a child, but I didn't think it was mine.
"No. Thats not true. It can't be. The records said she got an abortion." I murmur to myself, the disbelief more evident in my own voice than in the reactions around me. I fixate on the countertop. Confusion swirls within me, leaving me at a loss for words.
Oliva furrows her brows before snatching the phone out of my hands. She begins to speak to Valiana but I can't comprehend what they are saying because my mind begins to drift back to that day.
The day they informed me that she had gone missing. The day I cried into my parents' arms. I was in so much pain; I had lost so much. But I didn't have much time to grieve before being confronted with the news that my sister was dying. So I tried to conceal what I was going through because my sister needed me more.
"Oh, so she didn't get that abortion? Mija, you owe me a thousand dollars." Mama Josie snaps me out of my thoughts as she finishes peeling the potato.
"What?" All of us exclaim in unison, our heads snapping around to focus on her. I had assumed, or rather, I had been led to believe that she had an abortion. The revelation that my mother had actually paid for it leaves me stunned.
