Page 6 of Fated to Them

I press my lips into a line and grit my teeth. How could my life get any more hectic? As if my workload isn’t already enough, and now they are adding ridiculous hours on top. The building shuts at 5PM. Why do I have to stay behind two hours after everyone goes home, and why two before work starts? Is this punishment for flipping them off? They have to know; they have to. Why else make me do these hours?

“Something is definitely wrong,” Cyrus hums.

My eyes dart to them, watching me. “I can’t do these hours. I have other commitments,” I tell them honestly, knowing full well I am about to be fired.

“Like what?” Eli demands to know.

Geez, I don’t know, a life? But I don’t say that out loud. There is no way I am about to tell him about my life or my family’s situation. I don’t need their judgmental stares or comments.

“It’s fine. I will work it out,” I sigh. “I need to take my lunch break at 2:30PM, though.”

“And why is that?”

“Because I need to get Maya from school.”

They both seem shocked for a second, looking at each other.

“Maya?” Cyrus asks, his voice cold while glaring at me like I’ve done something wrong, making me furrow my eyebrows.

“My sister’s kid,” I tell him, and he actually looks relieved, letting out a breath, and I see Eli nudge him.

“Fine, but keep your phone on you,” Cyrus says, walking off.

I nod.

“You can go now,” Eli says, looking at his watch. “Be here on time in the morning.”

He hands me a set of keys and a security code written on a piece of paper.

“Memorize that code. It stops the alarms from going off when you come in the side entrance. And for god’s sake, don’t give it to anyone,” Eli says before he turns and stalks off.

I press the button to the elevator, slipping my shoes on while I wait for it to arrive, glaring at his back as he walks off.

Great, now I have to rearrange mine and my mother’s daily routines for them.

Chapter Four

Adeline

Getting home, I pull up in the driveway. Maya is waiting on the front porch, smiling excitedly when she sees me pull up. Her dark hair is hanging loosely in ringlets down her back, her deep dimples making her look more angelic with her big brown doe eyes. She takes my breath away; she always does when I see her little eyes light up when she sees me. Stepping out of the car, she skips happily over to me, bouncing on the balls of her feet excitedly.

“Aunty, aunty, I made cookies with grandma. They have smiley faces,” she announces, pulling on my hand.

I follow her inside. The smell of freshly baked cookies fills my nose as I step inside our home.

I grew up in this house, the walls filled with photos of my childhood and now Maya’s. My sister and I used to be close, being that we are twins. She is my other half, yet we are complete opposites now and have grown apart, which saddens me. God, I miss her.

Our house sometimes feels like walking into a shrine of our memories of happier times. My mother always used to say you could turn any house into a home, and she was right. I can’t imagine living anywhere else.

So, when we nearly lost the place after my father died while away on work, my mother, sister, and I worked our asses off to make sure we didn’t lose it because he had no life insurance. My sister and I were working three jobs, and my mother was pulling extra shifts at the hospital to cover all the bills. We struggled for years between school and working so much, but we survived it until my sister went off the rails and then got pregnant with Maya, leaving us with an extra mouth to feed and trying to get her sober again.

Walking down the hallway to the kitchen, I find my mother busily making dinner. I sit at the island bench on a stool, dumping my bag on the bench.

“Bad day?” my mother asks.

I run my fingers through my hair before gripping it. “The worst,” I tell her.

And she stops what she is doing, turning around to look at me. Maya hands me one of her cookies, and I bite a piece off.