Selfless

2

Dad came into the room I was in as I felt my chest tightening. Who was that man? I couldn't have a fiancée..I would remember that.

"Daddy what's going on?" I asked and ran to hug him. He smoothed my hair down and just held me tightly. "You're okay squirt...you're okay." He murmured quietly as I started to cry, "where are we? This isn't home." I said as he just tightened his grip. "This is your home, you live here." He said and I shook my head, "no, I live with you in North Carolina. Are we in North Carolina? I don't make enough money at Vinny's to afford a house like this." I said shakily as he pulled away from me. I looked around the massive bathroom and shivered with anxiety.

"Listen to me squirt, something happened to you and you're having a hard time remembering things. We are gonna bring you back though." He said and I frowned, shaking my head, "I never went anywhere!" I yelled with frustration.

"Shhh, hey okay. Relax." He said and hugged me again. "Daddy please just tell me what's going on, who was that man?" I wimpered and held onto him for dear life.

"That was Colby, your fiancée. You love him so much Cora, so so much." I shook my head, "I've never seen him a day in my life daddy how could I love him?" I asked and felt the tears forming again.

"Just listen to me, no questions. Do you trust me?" He asked and I nodded, "okay, I'm telling the truth so please just listen." He said and I nodded again.

I had to admit I was really freaked out but dad wouldn't lie to me like this.

"You moved to LA over a year ago. That's where we are right now, when you got here you worked at a coffee shop and met your best friend Katrina. Katrina is dating Colby's best friend and that's how you two met. You have been together for almost a year and you two are supposed to get married in February." I shook my head, not believing him, "look at your left hand, Cor." He said gently.

I lifted my left hand and sure enough there was a shiny diamond ring on my left ring finger. I gasped and looked at him with wide eyes. "Why don't I-" I started but he shook his head, "no questions." He interrupted, "you live in this house with your closest friends, and your daughter." He said and I gasped so hard that I started to choke, "my what?!" I yelled and stood up. Backing away from my dad, "you have a daughter, sweetheart." He said and I shook my head "I can't...I couldn't have...I.." I stuttered as he stood up, "shhh, you wanna go meet her? I think she will make you really happy." He said and I just stared at him. "What happened to me?" I asked and he frowned. "It's...it's all my fault actually." He said as I took another step away from him, "I'll explain that later. I just dumped a lot of information on you. How about we go walk around the house and meet your friends again?" He asked and held his hand out to me. "O-okay." I whispered and grabbed his hand.

"This is yours and Colby's bedroom. He said and gestured to the large room. It didn't spark anything in my brain, but I didn't really expect it to.

We walked down the hall and into a room with a crib in it, "this is Mia's room." He said and I scrunched my brow, "Mia?" I asked and he smiled, "your daughter. She's downstairs right now but this is her room." He said as I slowly walked around the room. So I really had a daughter? How could I be ready for that?  I could barely even take care of myself.

"You love that little girl so much, and she loves you just as much back." He said and I nodded, "what's next?" I asked and walked to the door.

"This is Sam and Kat's room. They are dating, it's amazing because your best friend is Kat and Colby's best friend is Sam so the four of you are inseparable." He said and I nodded, I just wish I had faces to these names.

We walked around the entire upstairs area, as dad explained every room to me. "Okay. So how many roommates do I have?" I asked and bundled my sleeves in my hands, "seven, including Colby." He said and I nodded slowly,

"and they all like me?" I asked in disbelief as we walked slowly down the hall, "they absolutely love and adore you Cora. They are your second family." He said and I shook my head, "that's not possible." I said and he just smirked, "they are all downstairs, you'll see when we get there how much they love you." He said as we slowly walked down the stairs.

The house was huge, how could we possibly afford this?

"This is Corey's room, he is the funniest person I have ever met." Dad said and I nodded as I looked into the room that had cloud lights in it. "Okay." I whispered as we continued to walk, "this is Jake and Tara's room. They are dating, and honestly they are both pretty weird but they learned how to love kids just because you had Mia. That alone shows you how much you mean to them." He said with a laugh, "how old is Mia?" I asked and bit my lip. "She's about 7 months old now." He said and I nodded.

My head was starting to hurt at all of this new information but I wanted to keep going. I didn't like the idea of not knowing who my so-called family was.

"Let me know if you need me to stop." Dad said but I just shook my head, "no, it's okay. What's this room?" I asked and pointed to a random door, "that's the movie room, that's where everyone is right now, so let's finish the tour of the house before we go in there." He said and I nodded.

"This is Devyn's room, she is very soft spoken but is sweet to you, she always offers you support when you need it. She and Tara are the bridesmaids for your wedding." He said but I shook my head, "I don't have to get married to someone I don't know right?" I wimpered out, feeling the tears start to sting my eyes.

"No sweetheart, Colby would never ask that of you. Knowing him he would wait forever for you. He really really loves you Cora." He said and I shook my head. "I don't deserve that." I said and he pulled me into a hug. "Squirt, you deserve the world. Please know that." He said and I shook my head.

I didn't deserve anything.

I have never had anyone but my dad. He was the only one in my life that cared about me, so this all must have been a lie or some weird parallel universe because nobody cared about me.

I was meant to be alone.

We walked through the rest of the house before dad pulled my arms so I could face him, "how are you holding up?" He asked and I shook my head, "none of this can be real..how could I have all of this and not remember any of it?" I asked starting to get frustrated.

"I know it's scary and frustrating but I can't talk about how this happened yet, because I don't really know what happened but trust me, this is real." He said and wiped my tears from my cheeks.

"C-can I meet them?" I asked and looked over to the door of the room they were all in.

"Yeah, let's go meet your family." He said with a smile and started leading me to the room.

I would be lying if I said I wasn't nervous.