“I’m ready for you to tell me,” I said softly.

My eyes were focused on my mother sitting on the bed. She had already taken a bath and was ready for bed.

“Come in honey,” her voice cracked slightly.

I hesitated for only a second before taking a seat on the edge of the bed. With my legs crossed, I faced her and waited expectantly.

“What do you want to know?”

“Everything.”

If I didn’t do this now then I would chicken out. For days I’ve been finding the right time to talk to my mom, but I haven’t until now. Stress from the exams and choices I needed to make about universities, was eating away at me. Three weeks ago I walked away from Stephen and we haven’t been in contact since then. The nightmares had returned with a vengeance.

Most of my nights were spent with me staring up at the ceiling. Every moment I had with Stephen would be repeated in my mind. Every word spoken until that day.

“Mike and I were very good friends. He was the one who introduced me to his brother, Michael. I like him. He was the opposite of Mike. After a few months Michael asked me out. We’ve been together since then.” She glanced down at her hands for a few minutes before looking up at me. “We were happy. We got married and we had kids, but it started to go downhill. Michael was one of three officers that were chosen for an undercover mission. I knew very little about it, but I knew that it was going to be dangerous.”

“Go on,” I urged when she fell silent.

“He left a week later. I had to cope with Tyler and Brad on my own. Back then I had a job so it wasn’t easy. I was so tired and then I got news of the bombing. Two officers showed up at my work and told me that Michael might be dead.” She sucked in a sharp breath as her eyes filled with tears. “I was devastated Alia. It got harder to get back to my normal routine. I lost my job and it made me more stressed. More information came about the bombing. They said two bodies were found and that one of them might be him. Mike was there. He was supportive and thoughtful.” Letting out a slight laugh she finally glanced up at me. The tears in her eyes had dried. “It was just a kiss. One kiss and it should’ve stopped there, but it didn’t. We both agreed that we would never talk about it again. We were both married. It was a mistake.”

“Does he know?”

“By the time I found out about the pregnancy, Michael was back. Everything had turned to normal. I lied and told him that I was pregnant with his child.”

“So how did he find out?”

“Michael figured out that the dates didn’t add up. He confronted me and I told him the truth.”

“Do you still have feelings for Mike?”

“I’ve never had feelings for him honey,” she whispered. “It was a onetime thing. It hasn’t been repeated.”

“Does he know that I’m his d-daughter?”

“No.” My mom leaned back against the pillows. “He doesn’t know, but if you want me to tell him I will. Back then his first wife was a barren woman. If they had found out then he would’ve taken me to court. There was already so much going on between Michael and I, so I kept it silent.”

I stared at her silently. With some hesitation, I crawled towards her. I surprised us both when I suddenly burst out into tears.

“Oh Alia.”

I clung to her as I began to sob. With my face buried against her neck, I took in her scent. She smelled the same. It was the same floral scent she always used, but there was something different about it. My arms were wrapped around her waist. She was rubbing my back soothingly as she whispered in my ear. I’ve missed this. I’ve missed her hugs and her laughter, and her kisses. I missed the closeness of her.

Eventually our peace was disturbed by the bedroom door being pushed open. I sat up and moved away from her as I wiped my cheeks. Once I felt composed, I looked up. Michael stood hesitantly in the doorway. He cleared his throat before stepping into the room and closing the door softly behind him.

“I’m happy to see you ladies had finally made peace,” he said softly. “I was making plans to lock you in a room together so you could talk.”

“Well you can cancel those plans,” mom said with a laugh. “We talked. And we’re okay now. Right honey?”

I nodded. I swallowed the lump that has formed in my throat once again. My eyes locked with his but he looked emotionless. Would he ever be able to look at me with love and not hate?

“We need to talk to you,” he said. “Your mother and I will be leaving for it this weekend. We’d be gone for two days.”

“Where are you going?”

“I have a function that I have to attend.” Michael took a seat on the other side of the bed. He glanced at my mother then back at me. “We were thinking of having you stay with your aunt for the weekend.”

I shook my head even before he had finished speaking. “No. I don’t want to stay with them.”

“Well you don’t have a choice.”

“Michael.” They shared a look that spoke volumes. Letting out a small sigh my mother took my hand. “You can’t say with Tyler and they can’t come here.” Her hand gripped mine. “With the complications in her pregnancy, she’s been put on bed rest.”

“Pregnancy?” I whispered surprised.

My mom gave me a small smile. “They found out only a few days ago. She didn’t know until she started feeling sick. The doctor said she’s about four months along already.”

“Wow.”

I haven’t been paying much attention to anything or anyone after I’ve returned from the vacation. My mind was focused on the exam and Stephen. A wave of guilt flashed through me.

“Patrick won’t leave her alone. The only option is your aunt and Mike.”

“I can stay here. I’ve been home alone many times before.”

“Yes but not for a whole weekend honey,” mom said. She reached out and gently stroked my cheek. “With the number rising on young girls disappearing, I just don’t want to take that risk.”

Ice washed through my veins. The memories of that day at the mall made me shudder. I could feel my hands starting to sweat. My heart was beating in my ears. I feared that they would be able to hear it too.

“Why don’t you go and get some sleep? You look tired.” I leaned into her touch. “We can talk about this tomorrow.”

“Okay. Night.”

Walking out of the room, I made my way towards the kitchen. The house was silent and almost completely dark. I stared at the contents in the fridge. Nothing seemed appetizing enough. Instead I grabbed a bottle of ice water before making my way back to my bedroom. Before climbing into bed, I picked up the teddy bear and placed it on my bed. 

I changed into one of his shirts that I had borrowed from him. With his smell surrounding me and my arms wrapped around the teddy bear, I drifted off to sleep.

***

This was the first time in weeks that the whole family sat at the table. I forced myself to stay seated. The smell of eggs was making my stomach turn.

“So Michael and I talked last night.”

I glanced up at her. It didn’t look like she was interested in her plate of food either.

“We will agree for you to stay here, bit only of one of my men stay here with you.”

“Okay,” I muttered.

Staying at home with one of his men wasn’t bad. I’d feel better knowing someone was here with me. As long as the man minded his own business.

“We trust you. I don’t want to find out you said one thing and did the other.” My mom narrowed her eyes at me.

“Don’t worry mom, my plans for this weekend is simple.”

“How simple?” Michael asked.

My eyes snapped to his. He was still so controlling.

“I have two more tests. Kate is coming over on Saturday so we can study together,” I said, giving him a tight smile. “Please excuse me. I have some things to do before I leave for school.”

I walked out of the kitchen and down the hall towards the bathroom. Taking a quick shower to cool down, I dressed in my school uniform.

The rest of my morning routine followed. After that I made sure that I had everything I needed for the exam before heading out. The school was half empty– like it usually was during the exams. When you write an exam you come in on that day and leave once the exam was finished. It was heaven.  I sat in my car as I went over my study work.

Halfway through that my mind started trailing off. I missed Stephen. Even the littlest things reminded me of him.

A knock on my window made me jump. Slamming my book shut, I glanced up to find a girl standing beside the door.

“Hey. You’re Alia right?” she asked as soon as I rolled down the window.

“Y-yeah,” I muttered.

She glanced around before pulling a paper from her bag. After a second of hesitation, she handed it over to me. “I found these on the bathroom wall.”

My mouth fell open as I stared down at the picture. It was taken on our vacation right after I was almost kidnapped. The picture was slightly blurry but my naked body was clearly visible.

Stephen’s face was buried against my neck and my head thrown back. It was perfectly clear that we were having sex. Above the picture in black ink there were words written.

“The Virgin Mary isn’t a virgin anymore,” I read out loud.

“There’s also this,” the girl said, holding out another paper.

“Looking for a good time? Prude Alia is the girl for you. Hit me up and I’ll give you the time of your life.”

There was a picture of me lying on the bed. I was smiling up at the person who took the photo. My body was covered in a red bikini– the same one I wore at the beach.

“That one was photo shopped,” she said softly.

I glanced up at her. In my panic I had completely forgotten about her standing there. “H-how do you know?”

“Look here,” she muttered, leaning down. “Whoever did this did a shitty job. You can see the parts of the picture the added to photo too.”

She pointed everything out in the photo. The closer I looked and the more she explained, the clearer the picture became. The original photo was taken with Kate and Trina. We were all posing for the photo. Someone had edited out the other two and placed my photo on a bed.

“I found these in the girl’s bathroom. I don’t know if there’s more in the others.”

“I need to go check.”

Grabbing my books, I stuffed it into my bag along with the papers. The first still stood there when I got out of my car and locked it. I paused and stared at her.

“I’m Emily. We have Tourism together,” she said.

“Oh.”

I’ve seen her once or twice but we’ve never really talked. Emily was the same height as me. She was slim with dark brown hair and pale skin. Her brown eyes watched me with curiosity. I felt cautious as she followed me. Making new friends wasn’t on my list of properties at the moment.

I wanted to write this exam and go home. That was the plan, but it got thrown out the window when these posters popped up.

“I’ll show you where I found these.”

The bathroom was crowded when we entered. Girls stood giggling and talking loudly.

“She’s such a slut!”

“How many guys do you think she slept with?”

“I can’t believe she’s wearing that! If I had her body I would keep it covered.”

“Me too!”

“Look at that fat. Agh!”

Someone shouted something which instantly made every one fall silent. One by one they turned to face me. Some more giggles started as they piled out of the bathroom. I waited until I was sure the bathroom was empty, and then walked towards the wall. It was covered in photos of me. Some were taken with Stephen and others were edited with other guys. These were definitely taken without us even realizing it.

“Whoever did this has some serious issues,” Emily muttered.
“They must really hate you.”

I ignored her and stepped forward. With blurry eyes I started to rip them from the wall. Emily came forward with a plastic bag she found somewhere. I paused when I saw her ripping the photos from the wall. She was helping me. Not once did she make a comment against me or insulted me.

“You should tell him about this.”

“Who?”

“The guy in the photos,” Emily nodded towards a photo of Stephen and me. “He has the right to know that about this. In a small town like this, things never stay at one place. It’ll be all over town, so it’ll be better if he heard it from you instead of someone else.”

I mulled over her words as I stared at the plastic bag. A part of me knew that she was right. He had a right to know that someone was dragging his name through the mud. And I needed to be the one to tell him.

“Thank you,” I whispered.

Emily gave me a small smile and then surprised me by hugging me.  “Don’t let this bitch get you down,” she whispered. “Karma will get her.”

“Thank you Emily.”

“Anytime Alia. If you need someone to talk to, I’ll be there.”