Natalia sat at the stop light, her head propped against her hand as she closed her eyes, rubbing at her sore temples, not like that it was out of the ordinary for her to be in a constant state of pure irritation. She figured that she had finally figured out how to control her urges to thrash those who got in her way, no matter how big or small the offense was, but since this trip back home and the emergence of Aubrey, her willpower seemed to be slipping right through her fingers.

    The blaring sound of an impatient driver made her scoff, as she finally pressed her foot to the gas, purposefully cruising down the street. Her head began to thump just then, making her wish she hadn't chosen a hotel so far away from her parent's home so that getting there could have been quicker.

     When she arrived, the young valet attempted to greet her as was his job, but she paid him no mind as she coldly rushed to her room. Kicking off her heels, and removing her bra effortlessly, Natalia made a bee-line towards the small mini-fridge, withdrawing fun sized bottles of wine.  Even though she could see her resemblance to her mother as she fumbled with the bottles, she continued on towards the bed, plopping down as soon as she was able to open the small bit of comfort that slid past her lips. Her eyelids became heavy as she stared mindlessly before her. Looking down at her feet she watched as she fidgeted them together, reminding her of a time from many years ago when she was groomed into the heartless bitch many probably assumed her to be.

     "Hey...looks like your brother is exploring..." Natalia removed herself from the neck of her casual boy toy as he pointed his chin in the direction of her little brother and the new leech he had picked up. Sitting back against the brick wall, she shrugged her shoulders. She had seen them together before, hiding off in the corner of the soccer field as if no one could see them together. She never really cared much about her brother looking to get involved in something so stupid. It was a lesson for Antonio to learn himself when the time came.

    "I don't know why he would want to explore that." She scoffed as she sat with her arms crossed, watching as the two younger teens laughed like they had a secret to keep. She was still trying to figure out just how the girl had made it into this school.She imagined it was because of some stupid new affirmative action quota the school was trying to reach for diversity as if that was something they honestly needed .There were virtually two minorities that she had known of, and at least they were Asian and never caused any scenes. She had been in the lunchroom at times where Sandra laughed too loud, talked to anyone who looked her way with no discretion, and just always seemed to be ...there.

    "God, Tommy. Get that look off your face." Elbowing him in his side, Natalia snarled at the leering look he directed to the girl. The more she noticed her, the more she noticed the way Tommy seemed to stare as well. She had been around when one of Tommy's friends had made a comment about his time for experimenting approaching fast. They had snickered as they watched Sandra pass by, the predatory leer in their gaze was far too telling of what they had in mind.

    "I wouldn't mind getting to know her either. I just know she could suck a di-"

    "Seriously?" Now she was disgusted as she stopped him from finishing his sentence. "You'd risk your life to get AIDS?" She asked, swiping away his hand as he reached to pull her closer as he laughed at her anger.

     "Harsh, babe...." He teased as he laid a kiss to her lips. The sweat from his soccer practice sticking to her skin."If it makes you feel any better, I'm sure even you would be better than hurt. But of course it never hurts to try things out for comparison." Natalia halfheartedly tried to fight his hold as he drew her earlobe into his mouth, garnering a smile from her instead of more resistance. The sound of approaching feet was barely enough to draw the two apart as Antonio skipped up the stairs happily. When he came across his sister and Tommy in an embrace his face grew red immediately.

     With a devious smile, Tommy looked to Antonio. "Great to see the future captain of the team putting in overtime."

    "I was just...Uh." Without saying anything else, Antonio quickly turned away, making his way to Natalia's car as today one of few days they rode home together.

    Sighing, Natalia stood too, watching her brother's fast retreating figure. A pinch to her bottom side made her yelp as she turned around in Tommy's arms.

     "I'll call you tonight?"

     "Maybe I'll pick up?" She teased with a small kiss to his lips.

     "You better, or I'll be asking your brother about his new ride..." Tommy raised a brow as he referred to Sandra.

   "Or not." Rolling her eyes dramatically, Natalia pushed away, refusing to answer any of his calls as she kept on walking.

     Throwing aside the small bottle she held, Natalia tried her best to clear her mind of Sandra and what the younger woman had meant to her back then.  She had been the annoying distraction that had stood between her and Tommy just when she needed all of the attention she could get from him in order to convince him that they need to drop the no strings attached label to their relationship. She had intrigued mostly everyone in the small private school. From that hideous accent, to her outrageously big hair...she was easily brought up conversations just about any and everywhere in school. She had captured her brother's eye and undoubtedly his heart, so after a while Natalia had grown tired of her.

    After what she had to do to get rid of Sandra, she was highly pissed that her fucking clone had made its way back into her life to remind her of the extent of her actions. God, it had been so many years...why hadn't she gotten over everything yet?

   An insistent tug at her heart hinted at just why talk of Sandra had been such a sore spot for her. It was proof that at one point in time, she had actually done something regrettable; something that even she knew went too far.

    Natalia was never the person to go back on any decision she made, and for her own pride she had to hold her head high and accept what she had done and stand by it.

    With each step she took towards the bathroom to start up a hot shower, she felt her body ache far past her 36 years. Slowly removing her clothes, she watched as the steam crept up the bathroom window, obscuring the face before her as she tried to see past the person who seemed trapped in the foggy haze.

oOo

  Antonio walked away from his car, hearing the beeps securing it in the parking garage. He had taken off a couple of hours early, something he wished he would have thought about doing from the beginning of the day. Around the office there was a quiet chaos gaining momentum, and he could feel the discord so strongly he could barely stand to be there.

    As he nodded to neighbors he didn't really know outside of passing by them occasionally, he walked into the elevator, noticing a woman standing in the corner with her gaze focused on her cell phone. He wouldn't be surprised if she hadn't even known he joined her by the way she seemed deaf and blind to the rest of the world.

    He pressed the button for his floor, and saw that it was the only glowing number before turning back to the stranger behind him.

    "What floor will you be going to?" He asked loud enough to steal away some of her attention, and it was right then he noticed the piercing look to her eyes. They skirted by him, not giving him enough time to lose himself within their intense stare.

   "Same floor as you." She smiled then, tucking away her cell phone when she saw that his mouth was opened as if he wanted to speak.

   Raising an eyebrow, she tilted her head to him. Antonio gathered himself, embarrassed by his juvenile reaction to a beautiful woman. He had seen plenty of gorgeous women before in his life, yet none had ever been her.

    Silently, he rode on. The gut dropping feeling he felt didn't come from just the elevator ascending floors. It came from the hot stare he felt on the back of his neck. Looking down to his side, he could see a heeled foot shift around as they came to a stop. The woman took leave first, making sure to just barely brush her shoulder against his, igniting something that would burn furiously if they weren't careful.

   As she went left, Antonio went right, shaking his head as he dug for his keys. When he opened his door, it was to find his mother and daughter sitting side by side on his couch. Their posture spoke of only bad news, and any other thought he had running through his head vanished as he closed the door behind him.

     "You're home!" His mother's arms opened wide as if to feign a good mood that did not speak to the stiffness surrounding her face as the wide smile on her face looked more like a cringe, telling him that whatever awaited him wasn't anything to look forward to.

    "Yes. I am. And you're here." His brow rose as he looked to Aubrey who tapped her foot on the ground so hard vibrations could be felt beneath his own feet.

      "I'm not saying it's not great to see you mom, but why are you here?"

       "I tried asking her the same thing, but she said she wanted you to be here too." Aubrey's eyes moved skeptically towards Mary. The moment she had walked into the door, she had kept the same uncomfortable smile on her face. It was stretched tightly across her aged features, trepidation poured from her eyes as she and Aubrey sat awkwardly on the couch.

     "Is something wrong?" Antonio asked concerned now.

     "Why don't you sit down, honey?"

      "Mom, just tell me-"

       "I think you would feel better if you just-"

      "Mom!" His sharp but quiet tone told Mary that he wasn't here to play the guessing game with her, and that his curiosity had now grown into angst as he waited to hear the news she brought.

     Silence filled the room as Mary rubbed her knees; the sound of the wall clock was all that could be heard until she took a deep breath and tucked fallen pieces of her hair behind her ear.

    "Natalia, she's-she's somehow gotten a paternity test done for you and Aubrey. I have no idea what that child is trying to accomplish with all of this..." Mary said the latter to herself, shaking her head as she tried to analyze her daughter's actions.

     "That messy bitch..." Aubrey whispered underneath her breath as she sat back on the couch, her back aching after being held straight in anticipation for so long. She had been uncomfortable sitting with Mary for the past 30 minutes as her half-filled bags awaited her in Antonio's room. She had been in the process of getting all of her things together when the woman showed up. The thought of Natalia going through so much trouble to humiliate and drive her away irked Aubrey. If she could, she would stay for the party just to piss her off. Get her hands on that test and destroy it...

      Even during this brief time with Antonio, she had never entertained the thought of him not being her biological father. There was no reason to think so either. Her mother had basically laid out the path to him, and she knew her mother, if she was the same as a teenager as she was a woman, she wouldn't have any reason to question who she had been with all of those years ago.

     Antonio's jaw tensed as he stood before his mother. Without a word he began to chuckle to himself.

     "Mom, the last thing I'm worried about is Natalia and her antics. All that she would be doing is making a fool of her and proving me right." Relaxing his posture, Antonio walked past Aubrey, roughly rubbing her hair out of place in greeting. Mary watched her son closely as he seemed the least bit worried.

     "Antonio, there will be friends there, influential ones of your father's as well. It will cause uproar and nobody wants that." Mary stood, following him to his room as he began to remove his work clothes. At this point she knew that she could call up Natalia and inform her that she wouldn't be attending the party which she planned to turn into being all about her and calling Aubrey a liar. From what she could tell, Natalia didn't have much excitement in her life if it didn't involve treading on someone else's. To tell her that she would be on a plane back to Texas sleeping on a palette in one of Mrs. Anderson's extra rooms in a day's time could be considered cruel and unusual on Aubrey's part as she would leave the woman devastated by ruining her plans.

     "What are they going to do, mom?" Aubrey could hear Antonio's voice call out from the bedroom, and not realizing that he had entered the other room, she froze. She had simply closed the bedroom door earlier, leaving out her bags on the bed in plain sight. When Antonio slowly walked back into the room, a pained look filled his eyes as he looked to her, blinking away in confusion as he spoke to his mom.

      "I don't think there's anything they could do to hurt me." For some reason Aubrey's stomach lurched as if his words were a direct hit to her, and the thought of what her flight in the morning might make Antonio feel suddenly became important to her. Shaking it off, she told herself there's no way those words could have been truly meant for her. Any hurt that he may feel would be gone within a week's times. He would soon come to realize, just like her, that there's no reason to worry too much about one another. That they could go on about their lives just fine, going back to normal in no time.

    They could do that.

    Mary shook her head as her son seemed to not heed her warnings. She suggested her own little crisis control plan. "Maybe...Maybe I could get in contact with enough of the guests and tell them there's been an emergency, that the party has been cancelled."

     "I think that Natalia will have no problem getting them to leave before it even begins. I can already see her parading around with her little secret, just waiting to throw it up in my face. "Antonio sat across from Aubrey, and instantly noticed her averted gaze. " Let her have her fun, mom."

    "Natalia has been having fun for as long as I can remember." Mary's head shook in disappointment as she wondered what she had missed seeing in her daughter for her to turn into someone who could commit acts so vile without a second thought.

    As Aubrey sat restlessly in silence, she casted her gaze onto the two faces that looked heavy with exhaustion. It wasn't hard to tell that this was a family who had gotten used to a certain distant routine between one another. Now sat the only two members left willing to salvage and strengthen whatever familial bonds remained after Aubrey appeared. They had been so quick to jump at the opportunity, she was well aware that they only had good intentions in their hearts.

     All of the what ifs that flooded her thoughts were pushed back as Aubrey sat with her shoulders rolled back as she spoke.

     "I don't want to be the reason that your birthday is ruined.If I hadn't just...shown up the way I did, none of this would be happening. Maybe this could have been a time for y'all to ...have a decent time together. I don't know a lot about you, but it's not hard to tell that you don't have many. I guess it's too bad I didn't leave sooner so none of this mess would have been dragged out for so long." Pulling at a strand of her hair, Aubrey looked away from the looks of dismay centered on her.

    "None of this is your fault, Aubrey." Antonio held out a hand immediately halting any blame she tried to place on herself for the possible disaster that awaited them tomorrow.

    "Absolutely not. You being here is in no way a mistake. You are exactly where you need to be, Aubrey and I could not imagine going back to a time where I didn't even know you existed." Quickly Mary had moved to her side, engulfing her in a tight embrace as she spoke softly against her hair.

     "You are a part of this family, even if we've just found each other. We have so much to learn and experience together, and a lot of love to make up for."

     "And to think of you being alone if you were to go away..."

     "I do have someone. Someone who is reliable. Someone I've known all my life. She's practically my grandmother. It-" Aubrey paused for a moment, sensing the tautness of Mary's posture as she looked down to her lap. "It wouldn't be all that hard for me to return to the life I know. It may even be for the best."

    Antonio rubbed his face in frustration as he looked to his daughter's adamant expression.

     "What if you find a woman who you fall in love with and want to marry one day? And have children?" Aubrey began to feel her chest tighten as she envisioned the life Antonio could have. A nice decent family with a loving wife, beautiful home, and children that are a spitting image of him playing in the front yard. She could imagine how picturesque they would be, how right they would look in family photos and portraits that the entire city would see and recognize. Antonio was destined to hold a high ranking position in the hearts and eyes of the people there, his family had such a strong presence....

    And having a shadow like her cast off to the side in mystery wouldn't help at all.

     "You can't have someone who will barely even be considered a girl in a couple of years hanging on your side. What...what could we even do together? What would you even want me for? There's not much left as it is!" Aubrey shot to her feet as tears began to burn at her eyes. Fear of rejection filled her hollow body.

     "I've been trying to tell you over and over again that you don't owe me anything! I'm not asking for your help or for me to end up as one of your little boys and girls club brown kids"Her words were much more venomous than she could have ever expected." I don't need that. You don't need me.I-just don't understand why you wouldn't want things to go back to the way they were. For all of this to disappear." Gripping her temples, Aubrey staggered as she calmed herself down. She wanted her mother to hold her so badly in that moment that she could almost feel ghostlike arms grace her skin.

     There had been a balance in her life. Aubrey and her mother. It worked perfectly, damn near flawlessly, but once her mother's solid weight had been taken away, leaving her suspended in thin air unable to reach the ground again, Aubrey had been trying to force her way back all on her own.

    Torn between her indifference to allowing Antonio to be an important aspect of her life, and the desperation to be a part of something she had always missed even though she would never admit to it tugged at her heart.  

    "I almost wish you were like Natalia. At least then I would have left the moment you turned the other cheek." Her words were icy as she stared straight into Antonio's heated eyes.

    "You are my daughter." Antonio was standing before Aubrey now, a pointed glare in his eyes.

    "Whatever-"Aubrey waved him off before a sudden outburst that shocked her into a timid stance.

      "Be silent and let me speak!" His hand cut through the space between them with authority, gaining the response he wanted as Aubrey sunk back and swallowed her pride.

     "You are my daughter, and nothing makes me not want you. If I had known about you 18 years ago or not would not make a damn bit of difference on the fact that I want you in my life, Aubrey. If Sandra had told me...if she had told me she was pregnant with you back then I wouldn't have pushed her away. I would have done everything to keep her...to have you both in my life-there would have been no questions asked. Nothing would have kept me from you just like now." Bringing his hands to his chest, Antonio's features softened,"I have absolutely nothing normal to return to after having you come into my life. You can come up with any kind of scenario that would make it easier for you to believe that I would ever find you unworthy, or less than Aubrey, but you would be lying to yourself. You still a child; you can't even see why deceiving yourself will be the worst thing you could ever do."

       Stillness and anticipation clenched the room as Aubrey sighed.

     "I guess I'll have to find that out on my own." Shrugging his shoulders in defeat, Antonio looked to her in disbelief and anguish as she refused to hear anything he was saying. She stood with her back ramrod straight, the same bored expression she had on her face the first day he met her.

    He had run out of ways to persuade her. In just two days, every decision she made was her own, and there would be little he could do about it-just like now.

    "I hope that when the time comes, it's sooner rather than later." Making her way towards the bedroom, Aubrey disappeared for the rest of the night.

     His fists closed tightly as his emotions roared within.

     "What am I supposed to do? I -" Taking a seat beside his mother, Antonio accepted her comforting caresses as she smoothed back the ruffled hair at his temples.

     "This will all solve its self, Antonio." Kissing his cheek she remained there with her son for  as long as he needed her.