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“I wouldn’t mind a dress for this one time,” she agreed, and I was glad that wouldn’t end up being a fight. Though really, if she wanted to wear pants that would have been fine with Maya and I.
“We can go and look and see what you like. But we have to keep this quiet, because everyone in town already believes me are married, remember?” Maya said.
“Got it. My lips are sealed,” she said as she zipped up her mouth.
“That’s my girl. Alright, I will get dinner ready. You head up and wash your hands,” I said with an easy smile. This conversation had gone over really well, and I was hoping that meant it would all be smooth sailing from here.
Maya
“Howareyoufeeling?”Hellen asked after we ordered our lunch.
“I’m doing okay. I’ve been waking up without morning sickness more and more so I am taking that as a massive step in the right direction,” I said with an easy smile. Every day that I could wake up and not feel like I was going to die was a massive win.
“That’s really good. I remember I was so sick with you. I cherished the days where I felt somewhat normal.”
It was still weird to hear someone talking about being pregnant with me. I was trying to adapt to all of this, but it was still taking some time.
“That’s a new ring,” she commented with a nod down to my ring finger. Gone was the wedding ring, and in its place was my engagement ring. I knew people were going to notice, but I figured I could tell them my ring was getting resized.
“Charlie proposed to me,” I couldn’t help the massive smile that spread across my face. I never thought I would be getting married for real, but I also never thought I would be having a baby either. Everything was so different, but I was embracing the difference.
“I thought you were already married,” she said, completely confused.
I gave a light chuckle before I began to explain everything that happened with Charlie, his grandfather, and this town.
“Wow,” she said as she tried to take it all in.
“I know.”
“Scandalous. I love it. Okay, so now you are in love and getting married, and having a baby. Who would have thought so much could change in just two months eh?”
“I know it’s soon,” I began, but she cut me off.
“Love has no time limit. Only you know how you feel, and if you love him and want to marry him, then go for it. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.”
I had no idea why, but hearing her support meant a lot to me. I knew I was trying to deal with the fact that she was my mother, but I didn’t think there would be a connection between us. Maybe it was biological, but I wanted her to be happy for me. I wanted her support, even though she was a complete stranger to me.
“We’re gonna keep it small and simple. Get married in our backyard. Everyone kinda already believes we are, and we don’t need that getting out. I don’t know what your plans are, but maybe you’d like to be there for it.”
We hadn’t talked about what she was going to be doing or when she would be going back to her home. She had a business to run, and I was sure she had friends or a makeshift family to get back to.
“I would love to be there. I also wanted to ask you about how you would feel if I threw you a baby shower for when you are closer,” she hesitantly said.
I hadn’t even thought about a baby shower. I really hadn’t thought that far ahead. “Um … yeah that would be fine. I didn’t even think of a baby shower,” I admitted.
“It’s early days I know, but it’s an important milestone. You should get to experience it. I can coordinate with some of your friends to get it all set up. Do you have a lot of friends in Houston?”
Friends, right. That was going to be tricky. The only friend I had was Holly, and she wouldn’t be able to be down for the wedding, and she wasn’t going to risk being followed for the baby shower either. It was still upsetting that she wasn’t going to be able to be there, but I understood why. And it did make me feel a bit better knowing that we could have her on video call so she could share the day with us.
“Um, friends are going to be difficult,” I began. I had no idea what I wanted her to know, but I guess at some point this was going to come up. It would be better to have this conversation now compared to my wedding day when she noticed practically no one was there.
“Why? Did you have a falling out before moving here?” she asked with pure concern lacing her voice.
“No, no nothing like that. I wish that was it. It’s a long story, one I can’t really get into much detail here. But essentially, five years ago on my way home from school I witnessed someone being killed,” I started, making sure to keep my voice low.
“What?” she asked, horrified. She moved closer to me, leaning in so she wouldn’t miss a single word I said.
“It’s complicated, like I said, but the man that was killed was a criminal. He was laundering money for the cartels, and the man that killed him was a hitman hired by the regional leader of the cartels in Southern California. I tried my best to save his life. I called the police, etc., but he didn't make it. I did the right thing. I made the ID of the killer, and I agreed to testify. Only my life was threatened by the cartel’s boss and the hitman. I was placed in protective custody until the trial. Afterwards, I was supposed to be free to go back to my life, but the threats continued, and I had no choice but to leave my life behind. That was five years ago.”
