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“Lying! I’ll stop lying when you stop lying. When do you plan to tell Heaven that you’re her birth mother and tell Miranda that you got pregnant by her ex-husband!” Dante shouted.

“WHAT?!” Miranda, Linda, and Heaven screamed in unison.

Dante’s revelation hit Myla so hard that it threw off her equilibrium. She stumbled around as if she were punch drunk.

Dante looked at the horrified looks on Miranda, Linda, and Heaven’s faces. He smirked because he had successfully gotten the attention off him and the transwoman that he was taking to pound town.

“Myla, what is he talking about? When were you pregnant?” Linda asked; she was genuinely confused. There was never a time in her life that she noticed her child was pregnant.

Myla held her head down in shame. Linda had no way of knowing that Myla had indeed had a cryptic pregnancy. Due to an anterior placenta, Myla’s stomach had never protruded like most pregnant women. Her full-term baby bump simply looked like she was bloated, not pregnant.

“Aunt Piggy, what is he talking about? Mommy, what is he talking about?” Heaven asked; she was frantic.

The hysteria in Heaven’s voice made Myla’s knees weak. She wanted to run, but her legs would not cooperate. This was a conversation that she never planned to have. She had done everything to bury this part of her past.

“Mommy, what is he talking about?” Heaven asked Miranda. But Miranda also couldn’t speak. After seventeen years, she was just seeing the similarities between Heaven and her ex-husband.

The big brown eyes, light skin tone, and the small mole that sat above and to the left of her lip like a Monroe piercing. She looked exactly like her father. For so many years, Miranda had never seen it; now it was all she could see. Miranda’s heart shattered.

“You slept with Dakota. You got pregnant by Dakota?” Simply asking the question made her stomach sink.

A violent wave of nausea stole her breath. Bile stung the back of her throat as she forced it down. Heat spread through her entire body. Rage turned to fury so hot that it felt like she was being burned alive.

Myla trembled in fear. But with all eyes on her, she knew she needed to tell the truth.

“Let’s go!” Dante mouthed to Violet.

He was ecstatic. The light had been taken off him and was now shining onto Myla. He and his friend quietly got dressed and eased out of the house. This family drama was none of his business. Everyone was so engrossed in the latest Myla drama that no one saw him leave. Myla tried to come up with a soft way to explain her actions.

“It was a mistake.” Her voice cracked.

“What?” Miranda asked, unable to comprehend that her best friend stabbed her in the back. She tried to recall a time when Dakota and Myla ever showed interest in one another, but she couldn’t. Her so-called best friend and her ex had always kept their distance.

“I’m so sorry, Mimi. You were sick when you were pregnant with DJ. Because you were on bed rest, I mean because you couldn’t have sex, I just didn’t want him to cheat on you. It only happened a few times, I promise,” Myla lied.

“Bitch, stop lying! Heaven is four days younger than DJ. I didn’t start getting sick until I was six months. We were pregnant at the same time! You were fucking my boyfriend and smiling in my fucking face!” Miranda screamed as she tossed a vase at Myla’s head. She was so hurt that she couldn’t think straight.

Myla burst into tears. Somehow, she hoped that Miranda would have forgotten that fact. She was so young and stupid back then. She had never seen a man that looked like Dakota. It didn’t matter to her that he was dating her best friend; she wanted him.

When Dakota let her know that he wanted to marry Miranda, jealousy took over. Even though she never wanted kids, she intentionally sabotaged the condom. It wasn’t until she truly got pregnant that common sense kicked in. But she could never and would never admit that part.

“Mimi, it didn’t mean anything. It was just a fling that had gone too far. I tried to make it right. That’s why I asked you and Dakota if you’d like to adopt her,” Myla admitted.

Heaven’s animalistic cries filled the room as she learned the truth about her existence. Hearing the truth did something to her psyche.

Everyone paused. No one had ever heard this sound coming from her. Heaven was always funny, filled with laughter and jokes.

“Heaven, baby, please listen to me,” Miranda begged as tears clouded her eyes. She squeezed Heaven’s arm because she needed to feel her. Miranda needed Heaven to know that she was there. She needed her to understand that it would always and forever be them against the world.

“Don’t fucking touch me! You’re not even my mother!” Heaven screamed as she pushed Miranda away.

The words, not so much the push, knocked the air out of Miranda’s lungs. Heaven had been her reason for breathing. From the time she was placed in her arms, Heaven Renee Oxendine had been her entire world.

Linda gasped.

“Heaven, don’t say that. You are our baby. You know that. Nothing has changed,” Linda added. She had always referred to Heaven as her granddaughter. Now that she knew she was biologically her granddaughter, she would do everything possible to help Heaven navigate these new feelings

“GiGi, I don’t even know who I am! I need to get out of here. I need some air!” Heaven screamed as she pushed past Linda to run out of the room.