Now that she finally told her sisters what she had been dealing with for the last six months, alone, she felt it relieved a lot of her stress. She put it in the back of her mind because cancer was not going to be her endgame.

She focused on her daughter and her business. Long as her daughter was happy and healthy and provided for, she was not going to be sad or depressed about her condition. She was a fighter, always had been, and this was just something else she had to fight.

"Girl! Miss you up in here in the shop," Freya, her right hand, best friend, assistant, partner and been there through thick and thin homie from the Lou said while they opened the shop and readied for the day.

"I miss getting my hands in some heads." She straightened her station, ready for her first client in about five minutes. She ran a tight ship, and lateness was not welcome on either side, her stylists or her customers.

At Styles by Ley they did some of everything because she hired as many diverse people as she could. She had two white beauticians for white clients that loved her, two African braiders, a Hispanic sister, and three Black stylists, one her good friend Raphael. He was gay and could do some of everything. From braiding to weaving to coloring to relaxing and natural hairstyles and did barber cuts. He was the best to ever do it, besides her.

If she had a specialty, and every stylist should, it would be weave. Any kind, from sew-ins to glue-ins, to braiding to bonding. Women, black, white, and everyone else, wanted not only longer hair, but they also wanted hair unlike their own, either soft and silky or curly and bouncy, or they wanted to sport an afro. There was nothing wrong with it. In fact, she wished more women diversified their look. Hair was an accessory like a pair of earrings, and who wanted to wear the same pair day in and day out?

Right on time her client walked in and rushed to her chair.

"Miss Ashley, girl, I miss those hands. Hook me up sister...or should I say Miss. Sexxy Ass Sister?"

"Girl look, you can call me whatever, long as you paying me and buying whatever I'm slanging lining my pockets and my family pockets," she said with a chuckle. "Kitty ain't the only one gonna be a millionaire in this family."

"Say it! Praise Jesus!" Freya said and looked up to heaven with a prayer.

She snickered at her because she was not much of the praying type. She loved God, went to church every Sunday she could with her family, and sang with the choir, but she believed if it was meant for her it would be.

"Can I get a loan?" Sheree asked, hand out. "I just need about four, five hundred thousand...I'll pay you back in the next lifetime."

"Girl, shut up." She grabbed a cape and tucked it around her, pulling up her sew-in locks, so she could begin the process of taking it out, washing, and reusing it.

Pretty soon, the shop was filled with stylists and customers and it was pretty noisy and gossipy. She was here for it all. She spent weeks traveling doing work for KStyle Fashions, it felt good to do her own thing.

"Girl, when is your sis mall opening? I'm ready to shop and ball out!"

"And is her man gonna be around for autographs, hugs, kisses...I mean, you know Icee fi-one!"

"Okaayyyyy!"

"Damn, I wish his brother was alive, I'd be all over that."

"That part!"

She laughed at them. She never thought anything about Craig or Icee. They were nice looking for sure, but she never fangirled or lusted after them. Big fan of their music, she listened to everything they put out and appreciated them putting little Springfield, Mo on the map. Good thing, now that her sister was married to Icee.

Did she enjoy the fame she was having right now? Yes, but she never asked for it, never wanted it. Anything she could do to have more money is what interested her. Her daughter would be set for life, and that's all she cared about.

She would be damned if anyone came with a handout asking for what she worked hard for. That included her long-lost father.

After making contact with their sperm donor, he invited himself over to the house and told her to gather all "his girls." Of course, she texted Sarena about the meeting, but she knew she would not come.

"I wonder what he looks like?" Nola asked as they all gathered once again at the Kelly house.

"Like he did before, but older," Kitty said.

"But...I don't remember that, so he'll just look like a stranger to me."

"Good," Ashley said. "All we have to do is hear him out, that's it. Don't get all emotional about a man that didn't care about us back then."

"But...we can forgive him and move on," Nola stated.

She was not with her sister, she just was not.

She could clearly remember what her father looked like. Looked more like her and that would be eerie. All her life she envied the twins for looking like their mother, who she thought was the most beautiful woman alive. As much as everyone told her she was pretty, she had nothing on her mother. Carrie Kelly could have been the model in the family.

The doorbell rang and she inwardly groaned. Maybe this was not a good idea. When everything in their life was going so great, should they invite him back into it?

"Let me get it." Nola rushed to open the door, and there stood Christopher Kelly, the father that abandoned them over twenty years ago. "Uh...hello."

"Baby girl. Nola, my God! Look at you all grown up."

He grabbed her in a hug and Nola did not try to resist. The rest of them just watched. He indeed was the man she remembered. A good-looking man, like Will Smith debonair, probably how he caught their mother.

"Umm...hi...dad," Nola said.

"Look at how pretty you are." He rubbed her cheek and Nola ate it all up.

"Come on in, we have so much to talk about dad."

Christopher walked in and smiled big when he saw all of them. She did not know what to feel. On one hand, the man that gave her life was standing there, on the other, the man that abandoned her, stood there. Which man was he going to be?

"Look at my girls. You girls...wow, I'm so proud of you. All of you are really doing good."

"You heard my songs, daddy?" Tennille asked, already in little girl mode just around him for a few minutes. She was always over him when she was little and he was around.

"Of course I have!" He put his arms around Tennille to hug her and she started to cry.

"I missed you, daddy!"

"Aw, baby girl, I'm here now." He wiped tears away from her face.

Krystle sat quietly, wiping tears away, trying not to let them see, but she saw. Kitty was quiet as well, and expressionless, not looking toward him. She understood, she did not know what to feel. While Nola and Tennille were all over him, she still felt unsure.

"This house..." He looked around the same house he left twenty years ago, with no major updates at all. "Wow! You girls kept it up nice."

"Mommy kept it up nice. All by herself," Ashley remarked.

Christopher silently nodded his head, looking around at them again.

"Where's my big girl, Sarena?"

"She's not ready to see you. She did have to step up and help parent us after you left," Kitty said, still not looking at him.

"Oh my goodness, look at you two. Look like your mother just spit you out."

"Why did you leave us?" Krystle asked.

"Well..." He took a sit on the sofa with Tennille and Nola on either side of him. "I'm sure your mother did not tell you everything, she did not know everything."

"You didn't even come to her funeral," Kitty said. "Did you not love her at all?"

"I loved her very much," he said, looking down at his hands. "I didn't want to leave. I wasn't man enough to stay...be a part of your lives, and I'm sorry for that."

"Dad, it's okay, you're here now," Nola said, hugging him again.

"I see how you all are so successful, everywhere in the news, I just...so proud of you."

"Which you had nothing to do with, our success." Ashley felt she had to be the realist in this as if Sarena was there. As much as she missed her father and seeing him made her super emotional, she was not going to pretend as if everything was honky dory. Their mother struggled for years to keep them fed, clothed, and a roof over their heads.

"Ash, I understand if you're upset with me."

"Upset? You're not worth the energy. I agreed to this meeting for my sisters, not you. They needed to see you, I was okay without-"

"Ash, you're still my child, all of you are. Let me explain my side of things."

She crossed her arms across her chest, ready for whatever tall tale this man had to say.

"Your mother and I married young. She was eighteen, I was nineteen. She was amazing. Gorgeous, smart, everything a man would want. She was happy being a housewife and raising you girls, and she helped me with school and work when she could."

She knew her father went to trade school to be a car mechanic. Nothing glamorous but he made decent money. When he was there, they always had enough. Once he was gone, she remembered days of going hungry and wearing old, worn-down clothes. 

"Anyway, I wanted a big family just like she did, that's why we kept having more. She was super happy, I-"

He stopped talking and they all sat quietly waiting for it.

"I became restless. I wanted something more." He looked down at his hands. "I'm ashamed to say I started having an affair."

Even at nine, she knew that was what it had to be. Nothing shocking to learn. Her mother was not the type to tolerate cheating.

"And then she became pregnant with Nola...and so did my mistress."

"WHAT?" she screamed out.

"Your mother didn't know...she knew there was someone else, not about my...I was so...Let me explain."

"Explain!" she yelled out.

He turned to Nola and held her hands. "I wanted you, I did, I don't regret any of you girls...but I wanted a son and Lin was able to give me that."

"You son of a bitch!" Ashley jumped up in a rage. "How the hell are you going to come to us with this bullshit right now? You picked your one son over us?"

"Daddy, I have a brother?" Nola asked.

Christopher nodded. "His name is CJ, he's only a few months younger than you."

She was stunned beyond belief. Her father was the lowest of the low, but she asked for it.

"I want to meet him," Tennille said. "Does he know about us?"

"No, I never told him. I knew your mother wanted me to stay away from her. And I still loved her and didn't want to hurt her. I wish I wasn't so much of a coward."

"It's okay, I understand," Nola said, hugging him.

She didn't. She confronted him, but as far as the rest, she was over him.

"I hear I'm a grandpa," he said, looking over at Kitty, not her. Of course, he heard of Kitty's baby, IceeJay was all over every media source. Did he not know about Sarena's girls, her daughter?

"Look, here he is," Kitty said, showing off pictures of the baby from her phone.

"You also have my daughter and Rena's two girls," she stated to him. "Oh, and twins have two more on the way."

"What? Oh, that is awesome!" He hugged Kitty and kissed the top of her head. "I want to be there for them. I promise I will be there for my girls from now on."

A/N: What do you think of Christopher Kelly? And WHAT? The Kelly sisters have a brother??