“Baby, are you serious?!” I exclaim, excited for her.
Even though I knew this would happen soon, there had still been a small part of me that worried that Sasha would keep trying to drag this on. I was happy that she’d come to her senses and stopped this madness once and for all. I wanted to believe that she’d had a change of heart and that it wasn’t because of what I told her, but I knew better than that. Whatever the case may be, I was just glad that she’d kept her word.
“Yes!” She nodded. “Apparently, her lawyer finally got in touch with her, and she told him that she wanted to drop it. He said that she felt that Serenity was being well taken care of by us and that she stood by her original decision not to be part of her life.”
“How do you feel?” I ask because I knew that it was nothing short of bittersweet.
“I mean, of course, I’m happy that this seems to be all over, but I can’t push away that sadness that bubbled up after realizing that all of this really was just so she could stir up more chaos in my life,” she sighed. “Serenity is surrounded by so much love, so I’m glad she doesn’t have to deal with someone like Sasha, but I do kind of feel like it’s 2021 all over again, and that hurts.” I wiped away the few tears that fell. “Why couldn’t she just leave me alone? Why did she have to put me through weeks of panic and anxiety for no damn reason at all? It’s not fair.”
“It’s not,” I shake my head, holding her tighter in my arms. I kiss her forehead lightly. “But we’re gonna be okay, love. As long as I’m here, that’ll never change, understand.”
“Understood,” she nods, looking up at me with a smile.
Her hand reaches up to cup my cheek, and she pulls my face down until our lips connect. I savor the taste of her for a full minute until Sera runs back in, asking for a snack. We chuckled before breaking apart to handle everything we needed to do before we had to head out later tonight. Everything was once again looking up.
CHAPTER 14
History Mixed With Peace.
Zseyah - December 13th, 2023 - 8:20 AM
“Papa, do you really need all of this?” I groan, lifting the third box in a row. “No wonder you can’t find anything. You’re like a keepsake hoarder.”
He chuckled, but he didn’t look up as he sifted through a different box of papers. I’d agreed to come over to help him organize his storage room, but I’d slowly started to regret it because I forgot just how much shit he had. He was the type of person who thought they’d need that one receipt from 20 years ago again. Or those blurry disposable camera pictures his kids took when they were five. It was wholesome, but extra as hell.
“I guess things have gotten away from me over the years,” he says, pulling a stack of photos from a box. “But I think it’s so worth it. Here, come look at these.”
I place the box I was holding down before sidestepping a few others until I’m by his side. He handed me a photo of a young girl who had my eyes and smile, and I instantly recognized her as my mother. Of course, I’d seen pictures of herbefore. There were a few downstairs on the wall, but this was the first time I was seeing one of her so young. She looked about thirteen or fourteen.
“Mom…”
“Yeah,” he nods, handing me a few more pictures. All of them of my mom when she was a preteen at what seemed to be a summer camp. “That’s Anaias. She was always so happy and full of life. I remember how excited she was when she finally got to go to that camp that summer. She had always dreamed of being an actress, so going to drama camp was like a dream come true.”
“She sounds like she was a lot of fun,” I chuckle, to which he nods.
“Yeah, she was a ball of sunshine, much like you and Serenity,” he admits, motioning for me to take the box in front of him. “I know I rarely talked about her when you were growing up, but I think it’s about time I share my memories of her again. So, whatever you want to know about her and her life, I’ll tell you.”
“Okay,” I smile. “I would love that. Thank you.”
He spent the next few hours recounting all the fondest memories he had of my mom. I laughed, I cried, and in the end, I felt all the love in every story he shared. He even told me about my mom’s first love, who also happened to be my biological father. When we realized that we were doing more talking than cleaning, we decided to finish organizing another day.
So with my box of my mom’s memories in hand, I followed him out of the room, and we headed to the kitchen to order lunch. There weren’t many restaurants that deliveredaround where my dad stayed, so we settled on plate lunches from a local soul food spot.
As we were waiting for the food to arrive, I took that time to finally look through the box of my mom’s things. There were enough pictures to make a photo book about her life, and I made a mental note to do that soon. I also found a few certificates and awards from her youth. I paused when my eyes landed on an envelope labeled with nothing but a heart. Inside were about ten photos of my mom, about eighteen, and a man who shared the same eyes and smile as me.
In most of them, she was hugging the guy, smiling and laughing as if it were the happiest moment of her life. In the rest, they looked madly in love, almost as if what they had was deeper than anyone knew. I was curious about their full story, and wondered if my Dad knew. So, I asked him.
“Dad,” I say, showing him the photo. He cocks his head to the side, squinting his eyes.
“I remember taking these,” he smiled, nodding. “I believe this was a bit after they first met.”
I flip it over and read the words scribbled across the back out loud:
Freshman Year - October 1994
Anaias Morris Trenton Green
“That’s right! This was during their Freshman Year of college,” he states. “Those two were inseparable. Best friends for a few years until they started dating. I honestly thought they were going to get married, but unfortunately, they never got to that point.”
