American Oxygen

Twenty-Three (alt)

Alternate Ending Two

One year later....
RIHANNA POV
Fenty Family Home
St. Michael, Barbados
9am
I thrust up out of bed grasping at my chest as I inhaled deeply. I felt like I was....

The memories flooded back into my brain. It all was suddenly right there before me. The truth. My truth.... But I was dead? But I was home? ... Well not home home, but my family's vacation home.

I looked around me hoping and searching for something. Was this my heaven? I'd seen a few shows on tv and they all portrayed heaven differently. Was heaven more like Supernatural's version? Secluded individual heavens or was this something else?

Was it all a dream? A horrible, long, and convoluted dream?

"Dad?" I yelled out as I stepped out of bed. "Mom?"

I looked around the room for signs of anything. I wanted it to be a dream. It had to be a dream.

There was a note placed on the nightstand,

"from one mother to another -KK."

I grabbed the note and ventured out into the hallway. There were pictures of my brother, Aubrey, and I as kids smiling and playing. There were family portraits but nothing out of the ordinary.

Downstairs I could hear some light chatter but mostly laughing and bumping around.

Life.

But I couldn't recall the sound as any kind of personal memory.

Maybe I wasn't dead.

As I rounded the stairs, the laughing was louder. I could hear the pitter patter of feet and suddenly-

"Mommy's up!" The little girl screamed, continuing her run.

"DADDY DO IT!" Milano ran after the smaller girl.

After a moment I recognize the first little girl from my dreams as well. It was Nala. It was my Nala.

Without a second moment, I hauled ass after them. Only to run smack into another person. I stumbled back into the wall, shaking my head before coming back to reality.

"Happy Mother's Day, baby." Chris smiled helping me up.

"Happy Mother's Day, Robyn." I looked over to see Matt manning the stove. He smiled before focusing his eyes on the pan in front of him.

"HAPPY MOMMY'S DAY MOMMY!" My two girls said in unison.

"Whats.. Where's my parents?"

Chris looked back at Matt before looking back at me, worry all over his face. "Rob.. Are you feeling ok?"

"WHERE ARE MY PARENTS?"

"Robyn, your father is dead. He died a year ago." Chris said more concerned. "And Monica... She's-"

"Granny's in the jail." Milano cut in.

"What? ... What happened?"

I stumbled back into the wall again another hundred memories seeping into my mind. My mother had shot my father when she found him cheating with another woman... She had killed the woman too. It was the cover up. They'd pinned my crimes on my mother.

"Robyn are you feeling ok?"

A stream of memories rolled in again. They'd fixed it... They allowed Chris and I to remarry. They allowed me to have my girls back. They wrote the truth this time.

I remembered waking up in the hospital after my mother shot me. She hadn't killed me. She hadn't even killed Kim. She had shot us with tranquilizers.

I took a step back looking at my husband, my girls, and Matt. This was my real family. "Yes. I'm fine, baby I'm so fine."

"Damn right you are." Chris chuckled.

I turned my attention solely on Milano and Nala. "Can I have a hug please?"

It been years since I'd held Nala and I'd never been able to hold Milano. But I knew that wasn't the truth. As the memories continued to flood, I remembered holding them and taking care of them over the past year.

"You s'posed to get whatever you want. It's Mommy's day." Milano laughed wrapping her little arms around my midsection.

Nala followed behind her, slipping her head up under my arm. "I love you mommy."

"I love you too Nala."

"What about me?"

"I love you too Milano." I laughed.

"What about me?" Chris pouted playfully.

"You know I love you."

"I guess I'm just chopped liver, huh?" Matt chuckled.

"EWWWW LIVER." Nala giggled before flicking her sisters nose and running off down the hall. Milano huffed and quickly hurried after her.

"It's over Robyn. You're alive. You have your family. We're free." Chris said.

"What?"

"I know what you're thinking and this is real. I'm real. The girls are real. This life is real. Trust it."

"How?"

"Let go." Matt said simply. "What else could you honestly want? Maybe you have more questions, maybe you need more answers, but just let go. You don't need any of it."

"You can't be happy if you hang on." Chris said. "Trust that I love you. Trust that the girls love you."

I nodded. Maybe they were right and maybe they weren't but honestly what else could I want?