I went to sleep for I don't know how long. When I finally woke up, I did feel better. I don't know why I was so tired.

I stretched, stepped out of bed, and decided to take a shower. I washed my hair as well. Maybe while I was here I could get my sister to braid my hair again. Having to comb and do something to my hair every day was a chore. My messy ponytail or bun, my signature style, was getting old.

I grabbed my phone to see if King made it back to school okay.

I just woke up. Sorry I did not get to say goodbye

All good. Get all the rest you need

I wonder what he talked about with my father after I left. I was afraid to ask.

I miss you

Miss u 2 Rave, facetime me tomorrow when you're good

OK

It was late and I think I missed dinner, but I knew my father left me something to eat. But first, I needed to check in on Angel. I knocked lightly on her door, did not wait for her to say come in, then opened the door. Angel was sitting up in bed, remote control in her hand. She had long box braids, something I never saw Angel wear. On the nightstand was her plate of mostly eaten food.

"Hey you, come on in," Angel said to me.

She was huge since the last time I saw her. Was she having twins? I knew it would be rude to say how if she was, so I kept it to myself. It was not just her stomach that was huge, her face was fuller, even like her nose and her lips were different. This pregnancy was doing a number on her physically.

"How are you, step mummy?" I walked over and stood beside the bed.

"Girl, I am fine, I need to be asking you the same."

"Are you really on bedrest and can't get out of bed?"

"I can move around some the doctor says, but yes, yes, basically I lay in bed all day and I hate it. I can still run my business from bed, so that's good. I miss going into the store." She muted the TV. "Come on, get in bed and talk with me. Have you eaten? I can tell your father to bring you something."

Sounded like a plan to me. I kicked off my flip-flops and got in the bed and under the covers with Angel. She texted away on her phone while I picked up the remote to find us a movie.

"So tell me all about this new boy?"

I giggled at that. Angel nor my father ever met Diallo, and good thing. I hoped they liked King. "King. I like him a lot. We were just friends at first and now we're trying to see how dating works. I don't want to lose him as a friend if things don't work out."

"Your father likes him, he must be a good guy. Maybe I will meet him next time."

My father liked him? Now I wondered what they talked about.

"King had been there for me when I needed him. This whole mess with Tod...I mean, I don't know what my father told you but...it was scary. Still is scary. My roommate thinks it's not over. I want it to be over. Why is this happening to me?"

I held in tears and Angel put her arm around me.

"I'm sorry you're going through this as well."

"When he came into my residence hall, and no one else was around, I thought he was going to hurt me. The look on his face...screaming at me like a madman, even with the Hall Director came. I can't get it out of my head."

Angel squeezed me and kissed the top of my damp hair.

"I never wanted to tell you this...but something similar happened to me."

"Huh?" I pulled away and looked at my stepmother.

Angel looked down at her hands and fidgeted with them for a bit before she said anything. "When I met your father, I was still married. My ex-husband did not want to end the marriage although we both were not committed to the sham of a marriage. I think when he saw that I met someone else, he wanted to ruin that. He stalked me and kept coming over harassing me and your father. Well...not your father, but he was here when some things happened."

"That's why I was staying with your father when I first met you and Symone. Matthew, that was his name, had threatened us."

"Oh wow." I had not heard any of this. I knew Angel was married before, but I thought she was happily divorced before my father came into the picture. "What happened? What made him stop harassing you?"

Angel rubbed a hand over her braids. "One day he broke in while Hook wasn't home yet. With a gun. My father had given Hook a gun for protection and I went to it and used it in self-defense. He fired at me and I shot him."

"Whoa!" Why didn't I remember any of this? Why hadn't they told me? I wasn't a kid, I was thirteen.

"You remember my old house, right?"

"Yes." We would go there some weekends and it was the first time I had a nice bedroom to myself. Angel did not have a pool, but it was a very nice house far, far from the city where my father lived. I never questioned why she moved in with her parents because I was not that close with her then.

"It happened there and I never could go back there, that's why I moved in here before buying my parent's house. You remember coming to my parent's house for the first time?"

I know it was only five years ago, but I could not remember that. We came to the house a lot because Rayvn and I loved the pool. Angel's parents always gave us sweets to eat and let us run around the house as if we lived there. Then after they moved away, Angel redid the house and made the basement a walking runway for us to model clothes.

I was never into clothes like that, and Symone quickly lost interest, so Angel and my father redid the basement when my father moved in and made it his man cave.

"That first time you girls came over I was still recovering from getting shot. Anyway, Matthew was very well off, and since we were still married, all his assets came to me. I gave away most of the money, and even though your father and I were not together at the time, that's when I set up trusts for you and Symone."

This was a lot for me to digest! The money Angel gave me was not hers, it was her crazy psycho ex-husband's? I don't know why I felt some kind of way about the money now. Like it was blood money. What did I ever do to deserve that crazy man's money?

"I did not tell you all of this to make you any more stressed out, Rave. I wanted you to know because I want you to continue to keep your guard up. But also, live your life. Your father wants to pull you from school, I told him you needed to decide on your own."

"I don't want to leave school! If I leave, it's like he wins."

"How are you feeling? Like besides all of that going on?"

I shrugged. My mother issues were temporarily handled. No more of her calling begging for money. She seemed fine with the amount I was sending her. No boy issues either, King and I were still new, but I was hopeful there would be no problems. No roommate issues either. Gay was not perfect by any means, but we worked well together.

I had a job, made my own money, new friends, and my grades were better than they were in high school. If this Todd issue went away permanently, I would say I had the best life.

"Sometimes things get overwhelming and I feel like I can't breathe. But I just push through."

"You need someone to talk to?"

"I'm talking to you now. I don't want to keep calling you and stressing you out when you're already under pressure."

"No, no, I mean, a professional. Some therapy."

"Huh? What are you saying? You think I have mental issues?"

Angel took my hands and held them. "I think you have been through a lot and talking to someone can help you deal with depression or anxiety that I can't help you with. It's perfectly normal. Your father and I see someone."

My stepmother was dropping bombs on me. "You do?"

"Yes, for years. Well, for me, since I was a little kid. Your father, just the last few years. It has helped us both. We probably would not be married without it."

And here I was thinking Angel had it all together. She grew up rich, beautiful, successful, with two loving parents, why did she need therapy? Now I knew the whole ex-husband/stalker thing was an issue.

The door opened and my father and AJ walked in. My father held a plate of food on a tray. AJ rushed in and jumped on the bed on my side and I grabbed him in a hug.

"Missed you, bro bro."

"Come sleep in my room!" AJ said to me as I tickled his sides.

"Hey, cut that out," my father said. "Eat this food without making a mess in my bed."

I moved AJ to the middle of me and Angel and took the tray of food my father handed me. I snorted at him, "Pretty girls don't eat like pigs."

Angel smacked her forehead. "I'm sorry I ever said that to you guys! And you and your sister never let me live it down."

"I guess Angel never looked at herself when she eats my food," my father said, kissing her cheek. "The messier you eat, that means the food hittin'!"

I looked down at my plate of mostaccioli, green beans, and cheesy garlic bread. Oh yeah, I was about to make a mess.

"I can't wait till my new princess comes." My father leaned over to kiss Angel's stomach. "Come on baby girl. I can't wait for you."

Ugh! Times like this I wanted to stay home and get spoiled by my father and Angel. Be this big, happy, loving family I did not grow up with. Watch how my father treated Angel, expecting the same from whatever guy I ended up with.

Now that I knew more about Angel's past, and that it was not so perfect, I wondered how much more trauma did I have to go through to get to my happily ever after.

A/N: I am still undecided about a lot of things I want for Rayvn in this book. I did feel like she needed to know the story of Matthew.

And yes, I'm going to keep bringing up the "Pretty girls don't eat like pigs," comment. It was one of the most commented on lines, for better or worse. Comments like that echo in kids' heads for years. It can shape who they are. Personally, I did not think it was that bad of a comment, not to be taken so seriously. But when said to nine-year-old Symone (in Hook an Angel) maybe she did not take it the same way as Rayvn took it playfully.