Chapter 44 – Reunion

Harmoni

I had been cooped up at William’s place for the past week, trying to process everything that had happened: my kidnapping, my mother coming back, and my father’s betrayal. It was a lot to swallow.

At least my body was starting to recover. William nearly had a heart attack when the doctor listed my injuries.

I remember him sitting down on the couch and letting his head fall into the palm of his hands as he allowed himself to shed a few tears.

It was heartbreaking to see how much he held himself responsible for what had happened, and no matter what I said to convince him he just wouldn’t accept it.

William had left, to meet with his sister Stella, leaving me alone at home with my thoughts for the first time all week. My parents had been trying to reach me, but I couldn’t bring myself to accept any of their calls.

I needed to reduce the fuming anger I had in me first, otherwise, there would be no point in talking with them.

Today, I had woken up feeling depressed, I guess I had moved to the next stage. Betrayal was all I felt and it hurt. It hurt like a bitch. No matter what reason I tried to find, none of them were good enough. None of them didn’t tear my heart to pieces.

“Only one person can answer the questions you’re torturing yourself with,” William had said while he hugged me before leaving for his lunch reunion.

I decided to pick up the phone and call my father.

“Harmoni!” he picked up after the first ring. “How are you?” he asked. I wasn’t in the mood to listen to any of this. I simply wanted answers.

“I’m fine, now talk,” I said emotionlessly. I heard him sigh on the other line of the phone, thinking briefly about how he would explain himself.

“Look, I know I didn’t handle this the right way, and you have every right to be angry,” he started. “When your mother left, I had no idea what had happened, but my first thought was that her past caught up to her. I’ll let her explain that part to you when she comes back.”

“What do you mean when she comes back?” I asked in disbelief, she was barely here a week and already she had up and left. Mother of the year that’s for sure.

“She was called to DC for a briefing with the FBI, but she promised she would be back afterward,” he explained.

“I’ll believe it when I see it,” was all I said before waiting for him to continue his explanation.

“It was a few years later when you were only seven that I got an encrypted phone call from your mother. Turns out I was right and her past had caught up. She had changed her name and gone into hiding to protect both of us.”

“And you couldn’t just tell me that?” How could he think I was better off thinking my mother didn’t want me?

“You were so young at the time, you had finally come to terms that your mother wasn’t coming back. I didn’t want to confuse you anymore than you already were, and I didn’t want to give you false hope in case she was never able to come back. Not to mention how dangerous it would be for you if anyone found out,” he tried to justify.

“Well they found out anyway, didn’t they?” I was bitter and I knew it, but the pain was still fresh in my mind and I still wasn’t quite sure how to process everything. I didn’t know if I could forgive them so easily for breaking my heart and toying with it.

“Harmoni—“ my father tried to say before I cut him off.

“I need some time,” I sighed.

“I understand, honey, just know that I’ll be waiting. You can call me anytime, you know I’ll be there for you,” he said, bringing tears to my eyes.

“Thanks, Dad.”

William

“What happened to you?” I asked, still unsure if what I was seeing was actually real. I hadn’t seen my sister in years, yet here she was, sitting across from me. As beautiful as ever.

“It’s a long story,” she started, sounding unsure and wary of me.

“We have all the time in the world,” I answered, wanting to know what happened to her in the time she was gone. I gave her a reassuring smile and took hold of the hand she had resting on the table to give it a gentle squeeze.

She returned my smile, yet it didn’t reach her eyes. I wondered what had happened that had burned out the light she used to have in her.

“Well, then I guess I’ll start from the beginning. When I left the house with Marvin, he promised me he had a plan and that everything would be fine. I was young, naive, and blinded by love,” she continued, resting her head in the palm of her hands.

“He brought us to his friend’s house, or at least that’s what I thought. I later found out that it was actually a gang house. They had guns and drugs laying everywhere. I thought about running away, but he wouldn’t let me. He…,” the words caught in her throat as she struggled to keep the tears at bay.

“What did he do?” I pressed on once she had managed to calm herself down. My fist was clenched hard, no doubt creating moon-shaped dents in my palm from the pressure my nails were applying. If he hurt her, I would kill that son of a bitch.

“He chained me in the basement, for months. Only bringing me water and food. I thought it would be like this for the rest of my life. My baby grew in my stomach.

“The day of the delivery, they refused to take me to a hospital, instead, they had invited a doctor to come to help me. That’s how my baby girl was born,” she said as her eyes twinkled slightly as she recalled the birth of her child.

“How is she?” I asked curiously.

“We’ll get to that later,” she shut me down immediately, making me wonder if anything had happened to her. “Anyways, back to what happened. After Cindy was born, they kept her in the same room as me, I kept her against me as much as I could since all they had given her was a slim blanket. I was desperate to get out. Cindy shouldn’t suffer from my mistake. It took me a few weeks, but I managed to escape.”

“If I get my hands on him I swear to god I will kill him,” I hissed through gritted teeth. That son of a bitch went too far, he better be scared.

“Don’t worry, I took care of it already,” she said, smiling deviously at me. Surprise washed through me as my eyebrows shot through the sky. I guess my innocent and sweet Stella was long gone. “While I was running, a woman pulled over and asked if I needed help.

I took a leap of faith and accepted her help, sitting in her car, she took me in. For a few weeks, I stayed at her house and she gained my trust. I found out her name was Martha. This was the beginning of our relationship. When she found me I was weak, beaten, and all I wanted was revenge. This is how I ended up entering her crew. I haven’t left since. I’m proud of what we do.”

“When do I get to meet my little niece?” I was honestly excited to meet the little angel. I only realized when her face darkened that I had hit a sore subject.

She looked down, taking in a deep shaky breath before looking up to answer me.

“I haven’t seen her in a while, but I’ll tell you about this another time,” she said sadly. I accepted it. I didn’t want to push her to tell me something she wasn’t ready to share.

From the corner of my eye, I couldn’t help but notice a man, eyeing me suspiciously. He looked like he could barge in here any moment and try to break me in half. Not that he would succeed, I might say.

“I’m assuming he’s with you,” I asked, tilting my head towards the window separating us from the overly interested man.

A light pink blush settled on Stella’s cheeks, she tucked a stray strand of strawberry blond hair behind her ears before answering.

“Yeah, he’s my...,” she hesitated slightly, but the shy smile that appeared on her face when she turned to look at him said enough to me. “my man,” she finished.

“Well, why don’t you ask him to join us. I think it’s about time I did my brotherly duty of checking out the man in your life,” I told her, giving her my most serious face.