VIPER ♱ b. o'conner

08: new beginning

"I'll take it." She gave a stiff nod to him.

-

The next morning she stepped out of the courthouse with her representative. She pushed her hair back from her face with her sunglasses. A manila envelope was in one hand as she shook the woman's hand with the other while leaning on her crutches.

"Your best bet is to stay put, Lolita. Finish out your parole in state and go from there. If Dominic chooses to show up or reach out to you then you have to tell the detectives." Her representative, Sherri, spoke to her with genuine care for the young adult. "You have a daughter to think about."

A soft laugh left Lala's mouth as the woman spoke. "I know what terms I agreed to in there, you don't have to repeat them to me."

Sherri nodded and took out her keys. "If you need anything, reach out. Hopefully we won't be seeing each other soon." She gave a small smile to Lala and walked across the street to her car.

Lala ran a hand through her hair and shrugged to herself. "We definitely won't be." She muttered as she took her phone out of her back pocket.

-

Cartoons were heard coming from the front room as Lala hobbled into her stepmother's home. She missed her soft and squishy little girl over the past few weeks, it hurt her knowing she was going to have to miss her even longer. There's no way she'd drag Letty all over the place. She needed stability and safety. Two things that Lala couldn't provide for her right now no matter how hard she wanted to.

Haley, her stepmother, stepped out of the kitchen with the little girl on her hip. "Hey, I wasn't expecting you today. I thought we were meeting at the mall tomorrow?"

"I'm leaving the area for a while, I need to set out to meet up with Letty." Lala sighed and set the envelope on the catch all by the doorway.

"It's a good thing you gave me the job of looking after this little bundle of energy then, huh?" Haley joked lightly. She knew that when it came down to it, Lala would run through flames if it meant bringing her sister home safe. Even though the girls lived separate lives growing up - it didn't change the fact that they cherished their relationship and love for each other over everything else.

"You're still sure you want to take care of her? I mean...it's a huge commitment, Mom." The two sat on the floor with baby Letty crawling off to her toys on the blanket. "I can stay."

Haley cupped the younger woman's face with a gentle touch. "That's not what you want, mija. It's what you'll do if you absolutely have to but it's not what you need to do. You need to go set everything right and that includes you-know-who."

A groan escaped her mouth as she threw herself backwards into the couch. She didn't want to forgive him, she wasn't ready to forgive him. "No, Ma. I'm not setting anything right with him." An over exaggerated frown found its way onto her stepmother's face.

"But he's mi princesa's papi, all three of you need each other." Haley pulled her back to a sitting position. "Look at that baby girl and you tell me that you don't think she'll ask for her papi. She has one, she deserves to know him."

Lala looked at her beautiful daughter and sighed softly. She knew Brian would want to meet her, he'd asked about her in the hospital the last time they saw each other. Of course Lala insisted it was too soon and too fast for them to meet. But she'd been talking about herself not Letty and Brian.

"Fine, I'll make things right with him. I'll go to him first since I know where he is then I'll go find Letty." She grabbed her phone and looked back at Haley again. "If the cops come..."