𝑅𝑒𝑤𝑟𝑖𝑡𝑡𝑒𝑛 - 𝐵𝑒𝑛𝑗𝑎𝑚𝑖𝑛 𝐺𝑟𝑒𝑒𝑛𝑒

𝐶ℎ𝑎𝑝𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑆𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑛

After making a coffee for Leo, my family sits on the couch in the living room in front of the fireplace. I hand Leo his coffee and he thanks me for it as I sit on my resting chair by the fire to keep me warm. Patrick stands up to explain with a nervous look on his face. "It's about Benjamin... There's no easy way of saying this." He looks at Della. "We, well, Della and I, we were out and we happened to..." He pause with a nervous look on his face, I had never seen him that nervous before, "Della and I already share the news with Leo, believe me, we did not want to see anything."

"Just show her already," Della replies. The strange feeling in my stomach comes out again, and I look at my family with curiosity and apprehension.

Patrick pulls his phone out, looking for something, and he looks at me with sympathy. "I'm really sorry, Dahlia..." He hands me his phone, and there is a photo of Benjamin. With someone... not just someone, a young, colored woman who looks similar to me... I absolutely regret ignoring my sense of Benjamin; he is a problem...

"Well, I was so right all along," said Leo, leaning himself on his legs.

Della punches Leo, "This is about our sister, not you, dickhead."

"I was right, Della... Benjamin's up for no good for anyone of us, including our adopted sister. I'm sorry, sis." I keep looking at the photo, heartbroken inside, and I don't feel anything now.

Patrick approaches me and puts his hand on mine for comfort while I'm still looking at the photo with my other hand, "You don't deserve this, sis... Some con artist going around targeting young, really young women with darker skin like you."

Della interrupts Patrick saying that I'm not that young. "I meant in an older, brother way, Della. The point is, he's out dating other colored, young women the closer age as Dahlia, even younger, for some kind of nefarious ends, which I can only imagine are financial seeing as... He's due to be evicted, sis. We have proof if you don't believe us." He still holding my hand as I am looking at Benjamin's photo. I can't breathe.

"Excuse me." I give Patrick his phone back and left the room. I sit on my staircase, tears in my eyes. I close my eyes, and I put my hand on my mouth, holding it, but I couldn't stop it. Sobbing quietly out of my unbreathable lungs. This is what it feels like being heartbroken: couldn't breathe with my empty lungs, hands shaking, tears falling hard, putting my hand on my chest to breathe... a broken heart.

As Patrick calls for me, I wipe my ugly tears with the sleeves of my cardigan and walk toward my family. Della comes toward me to put her arm around my shoulders and her hand on my arms to comfort me, "Sorry, Dahlia, that was so inelegantly done, and that's an understatement." I smile sadly at my sister as she holds me tight.

Patrick replies to Della, "You'd have done a better job, would you? Sis are you... Are you okay?" I nod to Patrick saying I am okay. Okay for still being crushed. "What are you going to do?"

"Break up with him, obviously," answers Leo. "Do it when he gets back, Dahlia."

Patrick spoke up that he should speak for him, then Della informs him, "Can't break up with someone on someone else's behalf unless you're 12. She's a grown-up... and even then."

My family kept arguing that Patrick and Leo should stay for me while Della kept informing them that I can do it on my own. All the noises in my head are telling my family, they need to stop arguing on behalf of me. I shout, "ENOUGH!!!" My family looks at me speechless, waiting for me to respond more than two words since then. "Thank you for telling me. I want to be by myself for now, ok?"

My family understands and leaves the house, with hugs and their goodbyes, as I wander into my office. Full of sorrow.

Benjamin's POV