I Lied [On Hiatus]

There's A Reason

Cookie forced her to have a sit down with Hakeem after she heard about their dispute. Maybe it was for the best. Maybe she could finally get what she had been missing all those years.

'Both of you are strong and stubborn just like all of my children, but this right here needs to stop. I mean it.' Cookie stressed as Hakeem and Shawn stared at each other.

She was playing mediator and right now her methods were a long way from being taken seriously.

'Hakeem, what is it you have to say?' Cookie asked.

The boy who seemed like he despised his sister actually looked confused for a moment. His steel barrier was cracked, but he had everyone fooled.

'Why her? You love her and Jamal more than me?' Hakeem questioned like a small child. 'I've been here waiting for that feeling of having my mother but it still hasn't come.'

Cookie breathed out.

She had been troubled for 17 years about her sons and daughter, now they were reunited. Hakeem had been a year old when she left. The others barely old enough to fend for themselves as well. Shawn never had a chance.

'Whatever I did back then shouldn't affect you or who you want to be. I made a mistake and I am still paying for it. I know your brother a little better than you and I lost her before I even had a chance to love her.' Cookie admitted.

Shawn was quiet the whole time. She had grew up with a rich family giving her everything she thought she needed and wanted, but this was it. This was real. She had been waiting for her real family to claim her.

'You feel like I stole something from you, but I'm only taking a piece of what belongs to me. My family. My mother. My father. My brothers. I grew up alone and never felt like I fit in...' Shawn replayed every moment she had been blessed to spend with her family back home. 'But they did their best and now I want to know what I missed out on. If this is it, all this hatred and pain, then I don't want it. Any of it.'

Shawn shrugged as she stood to leave grabbing her purse and handed over some photos to her brother.

'This is where I come from.'

Cookie watched her walk away as Hakeem stared at the images.

One of them was Cookie holding her daughter hours after her birth and the other was of Shawn's family finalizing the adoption of their baby girl.

Her life was not her own, yet she claimed to be something she was not. Hakeem could see them patching things up, but slowly. She had, after all, slept with his girlfriend.