It was morning, the sun was up and peeking in from the blinds in my room. I yawned and lazily stretched my arms, pulling up the white duvet to cover my head as I slipped back into a slumber.

"Wraya!" The tiny voice disrupted my sleep. Recognising the voice as Reality's, I groaned mentally as the memory of the previous night came to me.

I had promised to get dressed with her for her friend's birthday.

"Sweetheart..." I started.

She jumped on my bed and got under the blanket with me. "I was waiting for you to come but you didn't so I decided to come by myself," She said as she wrapped her tiny arms around me.

"Sorry, I was sleeping," I said.

"Hmm. I have no clothes to wear to Mono's party so Daddy gave me his card," She said. I pulled away from her embrace and questioned, "He gave you his card?"

"Hmm, I kind of demanded his card," She corrected. "...but I needed a new ball gown anyway so it doesn't matter who takes me to buy it."

"So what you're saying now is that I need to take you shopping for a new ball gown that you'll be wearing to your friend's birthday party in a few hours," I stated, trying to process the information.

"Yes," She responded.

"Wait—how did you even get inside here?" It finally hit me that I had no idea how she got in. "Nova opened the door for me," She replied.

I mentally facepalmed myself for forgetting that I wasn't staying alone. My brain wasn't working well and my mind was all over the place.

"Oh—okay. I'll freshen up, then we can go buy you a ball gown." I said and finally dragged myself off the bed and headed straight to the bathroom. I took a quick bath and got some clothes in my closet.

I chose to wear something simple as I was going to still change into another outfit later in the day. I was in a black long-sleeve-cropped top, black denim skirt and black lace-up boots. I finished it off by spraying my Victoria's Secret bombshell oud and a knockoff Gucci purse.

"C'mon let's go," I held her hands as we headed downstairs. We found Nova and Raven already dressed up in the great room, waiting for us. "Good morning," We exchanged greetings.

"I'll be your driver for today," Raven said, raising her hands and jiggling a car key. "...and I'll be your assistant," Nova said with the brightest smile ever.

"The car keys?" I questioned pointing to the keys.

"Daddy gave it to me. He said to drive to the mall," Reality replied to my question and Nova stepped closer to me and whispered in my ears, "Hots for you,"

I rolled my eyes discreetly and headed to the door with the little girl's hands in mine.

Maybe the beige man liked me. It was 50/50. It was either he was being nice to me solely because of his daughter or he—very ridiculous and it was probably not true—liked me.

"I know a store that sells the most beautiful kids' dresses ever known to man. We should go there instead of the mall," Nova said as we got into the elevator. Reality looked up at me discreetly asking if it was true.

"Don't worry, Nova is the queen of all things fashion," I said, reassuring the little girl.

We got to the first floor in a blink of an eye and went straight to the parking lot. Nova couldn't stop wiggling her eyes brown to me. Knowing what it meant, I could only roll my eyes discreetly.

"The bosses should get in the back seat, please," Raven said, dramatically opening the door for Reality and me to get in. She got into the driver's seat while Nova got into the passenger's seat.

While in the car, I texted Jake saying I wouldn't be able to come to his place.

Jake Maxwell

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• — Okay.

Today 10:12 am

Hey, how are you and the kids doing? I just want to say I won't be able to come today coz of another important plan. Let's discuss the college stuff over the phone tonight. I'll wire the fees if needed rn — •

A few minutes later, we got to the store Nova talked about and to be honest, it was exactly what she said it was. The dresses made me wish I was a little girl so I could fit in them.

"How did you know a place like this?" I asked looking at Nova.

"I once came here to buy my daughter a birthday present but I couldn't afford any of the things here back then," She responded leaving me completely and utterly speechless.

To say I was dumbfounded would be an understatement and even Raven seemed shocked. I realized I knew nothing about her. I would have never in a million years thought that she was a mom.

"Wha—" I was cut off by one of the employees of the store. "Good morning Madam, What are you looking to buy for your daughter?" She asked with a customer service smile plastered on her face.

She is not my daughter.

Before I could tell the woman that, Reality cut me off, from replying to the woman. "A ball gown!" Reality Said enthusiastically.

"This way," The woman said, directing us to the section where dressed were hung.

—

Minutes later, we were back at my penthouse. The entire car ride was silent and awkward because of the newly revealed information. I had a lot of questions and I was sure Raven had a lot of questions too.

We were down in the great room while Reality was up in my room doing only god knows what. I decided to ask questions.

"You have a daughter?" I started.

"Yes, Her name is Lily. She is eight and I had her when I was 17. I dropped out of school and started part-time jobs here and there so I could—you know—take care of my daughter and my family since my dad has never been in the picture, part-time jobs weren't exactly paying enough. I started working at this strip club downtown, A very dirty one at that, and they treated their workers like shit. After a while, I couldn't take it anymore so I quit. Then I went into prostitution and also quit before getting hired by Oniria, two years ago. I started off working in the back room up until you came and my life changed for the better," She said everything without sparing either Raven or me a glance.

"Things must have been hard," Raven said and moved to hug her. After a few seconds, Nova calmed down and I asked another question. "Where is your daughter now?"

"With my Mom and my brother," She replied.

That brought back memories of Saya and My mom and it also made me realise I hadn't gone to see Saya ever since his funeral and I hadn't gone to see my mom either ever since my first night at Oniria.

"What about you? What's your story?" I shrugged the thoughts off and made a mental note to see both Saya and Mom.

"My story is not really..." Raven trailed off trying to find the right words to use. "I don't have parents or any family members, Let's start at that...and I lived in an orphanage all my life before getting kicked out at seventeen. You can guess what happened after that." She explained with no emotions shown on her face. "What about you?" She asked, looking at me.

I was ready to make the girls my actual friends. Forgetting Gift ever existed. "I—" I was cut off by a ringing doorbell.