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Elijah West and Aliyah Pryce have something in common: They have both been hurt before.
Aliyah Pryce plans weddings. That's one thing she was absolutely sure about doing. She loved the idea of love so when she plans an amazingly beau...
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"YOU OKAY, BABY?" Kiara asks her daughter as she closes the patio door behind her, a pill of activated charcoal and a glass of water in hand. "Why you out here by yourself? Where's Elijah?"
Aliyah turns her body on the lounge chair that she was resting comfortably on. She'd managed to drink some soup her mom brought over before she came outside and it managed to stay down.
"I told him to go inside." She tells her mother, "He needs some human contact that is not me."
Kiara rolls her eyes at her daughter, knowing that Elijah has his eye on her from inside the house, before waving her hand so she can scoot over. Aliyah adjusts her body so there's enough space for Kiara to cotch on the seat beside her.
"Here," The Jamaican mother hands over the activated charcoal and the water and watches as her daughter takes it before resting the glass on the floor beside them. She runs a hand through her daughter's hair, lovingly, "I love you, you know that, right?"
Aliyah tilts her head to face her mother, a sweet smile on her face as she cuddles into her hold.
Nothing like a mother's touch.
"I love you too, mommy." She says, her mind bringing her back to her younger years when she had a nuclear family — a father, a mother, a brother. Now, not that she was complaining, she has her mother and her brother left.
And she loves them with her entire heart.
"And Elijah loves you." Kiara whispers, trailing her finger down her daughter's hairline. "I can see it in his eyes. He looks at you like you are the sun and the moon." Aliyah's cheeks heat up as she snuggles closer to her mother. "Unuh beautiful together, mi baby. Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful."
A tear escapes Aliyah's eye at her mother's acceptance of her relationship. She'd never stated it so explicitly before and this just seemed to hit Aliyah right in her emotional ballpark. With these emotions comes thinking of all the time she had spent with Elijah.
That just brings her to think about to when he and her mother met. Then she thinks about the fact that her mother was angry at her for not speaking to her for almost a month.
And then she remembers why.
It felt as if it was years ago that night happened. And as much as she wants to push it from her mind, looking up at her mother, she is reminded that she never told her.
Aliyah can't keep it from her any longer. She has to know. And what better place to do it than here.
"Mommy?" Aliyah pushes herself to sit up, her leg now hanging off the lounge chair, awkwardly, "I have something to tell you."
