A Deceiving Passion

Destiny

When the next morning arrived, Brian would have left---taking the boys to school like any normal day and left was Stevie and Sofia. But before they could get any further into their day, Maya did happen to come by and she was rather anxious considering she didn't know where she stood on the woman's radar.

Of course the singer opened the door to her and allowed her entrance, but instead of being bitter and angry, she earned herself a hug.

Maya embraced the woman in return although she couldn't help but still feel guilty and anxious.

Pulling back, Stevie kind of grinned. "I understand, now, what you were doing. Since I got here... You've been hinting to me things and they went right over my head," she smirked. "I can't believe I was that daft, but..." she shrugged.

"You're not mad at me?" she wondered. "I lied to you too..."

"Yes, but no..." she shook her head, closing the front door. "You've done a lot in order to help me; you humored your brother, you humored me but you helped me raise the kids."

"Is my brother home?" she then wondered, looking back at her.

"He went to work this morning. Boys are at school..." she paused. "Your brother has no idea you were trying to help me. I didn't tell him either," she mentioned. "I have three twenty something year olds and a teenager; all they do is cover each other. I saw the look in his eyes; he didn't want you to be in trouble. And let the record show, I don't hate either of you and I'm really not as mad as you would think. I'm a little overwhelmed to say the least..."

She nodded.

"Not to mention, I am a little sad..."

"Why's that? Aren't you happy to be going home with your family?"

"Of course I am. I'm just not ready to let go of this one. And with some luck, I won't have to."

Maya creased her brow.

"Come on, let's sit and chat..." she led her to the living room, where Sofia was watching cartoons.

Stevie had a lot of things to take care of, things to think of and she needed her baby occupied for the time being.

Sofia never even noticed that her aunt had entered.

"Brian and I were discussing some things last night. I want at least partial custody of the kids..."

"Oh," she arched her brow.

"Yeah... and I wanted to talk to you about it."

"Why me? They're not my kids..."

"No, but they're your niece and nephews and you have helped me take care of them. I know that if I were to take them to California, surely you'd miss them."

"Is that what's going to happen?"

"I'm not sure quite yet. But Brian and I have been in accord---he told me he thinks they should come with me. Of course, I'm not trying to keep them away from him or vice-versa, but he doesn't seem keen on moving back to the states. I don't want them to be pushed and pulled, back and forth. It's not fair to them."

"No, that would he tough..." she agreed.

"Brandon and Roman seem to have a good understanding of why I need to go, so I'm not worried about them. I am worried about this one," she pointed to the little girl, not wanting to grab her attention by saying her name. "It wouldn't be fair if I only took her. And then brought them all back to California during the summer, brought them back here for school but still had the baby all year round. Besides, I do have to come up with a solution for the end of this year. I'm supposed to be going on tour in the midst of September all the way to the end of November and my youngest daughter, I take her to my sister in-law's if my husband and I go out of town. She's sixteen and now that her siblings are back in town, it's different and quite frankly, my sister in-law is supposed to come with us, which she might not only because she has her daughter and my niece is still little too."