I woke up with a raging headache and a loud ass phone ringing besides me.
I grab it and put it to my ear, "hello?" I groggily answer.
"Valentina Rosé fucking Devora. What in the absolute fuck is on your instagram story?" Sabrina yelled.
I wince and rub my face, "what the hell are you talking about?"
"I tracked your location. Come downstairs to the lobby now," before I could even respond she hangs up.
I sit up with a groan. I look around, "where the hell am I at?"
I don't see or hear anyone so I take the flip flops and find a pen and paper. I write a small note and find a take out box. I look inside and see tacos.
I look around and then shrug and take them. I put on the flip flops beside the couch and find the front door.
I take the elevator down to the lobby and do the walk of shame past people to get to Sabrina, Blair, and Naveen.
"You slept with the fucking enemy?" Blair whisper yelled.
"What are you talking about?" I ask.
Sabrina turned her phone around.
I was on Fredrico's back as he walked. "Hey everyone! This is my Rico, we just tacos." I put the camera up in Rico's face.
I touch his cheek, "he has the most softest skin ever! It's like i'm touching silk. We're going home now bye guys!"
I stare at the phone is disbelief. "that's not me."
"We're at his place right now," Blair deadpanned.
"At least it's on my private instagram," I try to reason. Only twenty-five people followed me on that.
Naveen, Blair, and Sabrina all gave me a look.
I run a hand through my hair, "where's the car?" I mumble.
We all go outside and get in the car.
"I don't remember any of that. I was at a bar. I only had two drinks because I was going to drive Aaya back home from the club. Gabriel came up to me and tried to speak with me. I told him to fuck off, he left me alone. Then I had another drink, I started to feel funny. A man pulled me out my seat and I blacked out. The rest is fuzzy."
"So Gabriel drugged you is what you're saying?" Naveen asks.
"He had to. I remember him smirking at the bar tender and the bartender smirking back," I mumble.
I run a hand down my face, "my head is pounding."
"You look like shit," Sabrina said and gave me two advils and a water.
I take them then open up the takeout box and eat the cold tacos.
•TIME SKIP•
I woke up to Ivy slobbering on my cheek. She nibbles on my cheek and I open my eyes.
I wrap my arms around her and sit up. Troy sat at the edge of my bed looking like shit, "what the hell happened to you?" I ask.
"Nico dragged me to a party last night. I just got back." He climbs in my bed and lands face down.
I pat his back. Ivy giggles and lays on his back.
I turn on the tv, "want to watch a movie?" I ask.
"I thought you had work?"
"Nah, I took today off," I mumble.
"That's unlike you," he mumbles.
"While you're at home i'm not going to be at work as much," I tell him.
"I'll be back on campus full time by tomorrow. All of my important classes start the following day."
"Aw i'll miss you," I say and ruffle his hair.
"Who wouldn't?" He asks and flips his imaginary hair over his shoulder. I roll my eyes, "I take it back." He laughs, "i'm kidding! I'll miss you too." I hum.
"The Book of Life?" I ask. He nods and I put on the movie. He rolls on his back and sits Ivy on his lap.
As soon as the movie starts my phone rings.
I grab it and see it was an unknown number calling me. I pick it up, "Valentina Devora-"
"Val! Val! I'm in so much trouble oh my gosh," Aaya cried in hysterics. She cries while trying to talk. I can't understand shit.
"Aaya calm down. Where are you?" I ask.
"By L.A Fitness on the upper east side," she cried.
I run to my closet and throw on some sweatpants and a shirt. "Stay there. I'm coming to get you," I tell her.
•TIME SKIP•
Aaya was hysterical the entire drive to my house. I pour her a cup of strawberry lemonade while she cries.
"My life is over," she mumbles and pulls at the roots of her hair.
"Aaya I can't help you if you don't tell me what's wrong," I tell her.
"I got disowned," she cried.
I furrow my brows. "What?"
"I got disowned Val," she said more clearly.
"How? For what?" I ask.
"You know how I have a private instagram account that's just for friends right?"
I nod my head. "Well somehow one of our cousins saw my instagram posts from someone and shared with with Papa's side of the family. Papa flipped when he saw that and when I came home he disowned me in front of all of our siblings and Mama," she cried.
"He said he wouldn't have a whore for a daughter and kicked me out. It was so humiliating Val! He made me give him all my cards and said I couldn't take any of my clothes because i'll be more comfortable in my whore clothes anyway. He canceled my college tuition and banned me from the estate. He even stopped paying for me to go to dance."
"What did Jamila say?" I ask.
"He wouldn't even let her speak!" She yelled in frustration. "He's the man of the house so he makes all of the final decisions. That's the way it's been Val. It'll never change."
"For fuck sake," I mumble. "This isn't the 1960s."
"What am I going to do Val? My own twin didn't even stick up for me," she cried.
"Firstly, you're going to go upstairs and take a shower because you look like you need it. Secondly you need sleep because those eye bags under your eyes are vicious, no offense. Then thirdly, you're going to think about what new classes you want to do for college."
I grab her phone, "no texting. No calling. Just take a shower, go to sleep, and think about new classes. I'll handle the rest."
She took a sip of her lemonade and stood up. I direct her upstairs and into a bedroom. After she takes a shower I give her some clothes and tuck her in. I stay beside her until she falls asleep.
Then I go back into my room and sit on the bed with a sigh.
"Should I be worried? She sounds like she's having a midlife crisis."
"Her father just disowned her and humiliated her," I tell him.
He grimaced, "well that's not very nice."
I laugh, "exactly."
My phone rings and Troy hands it to me. I pick it up, "hello?"
"Valentina please tell me your sister is with you," Jamila cried.
"She is, she's sleeping at the moment." I answer.
She sniffled, "i'm done. tard aya kan qishati al'akhirati. laqad aintahayat min hadha alzawaji. hadha alzawaj hura'a." She cries in frustration. (Kicking Aaya out was my last straw. I am finished with this marriage. This marriage is shit.)
I take the phone off my ear and look at the screen to see if I was really talking to Jamila. It was surprising hearing her cursing and using an aggressive tone.
"I'm done trying," she whispered.
"So you want a divorce?" I ask.
"I can't get one. The contract says I can't," she mumbled in defeat.
"Get dressed. I'll come get you. Pack your most valuable things," I tell her and hang up.
•TIME SKIP•
I pull up and the guards let me in. I drive up the long driveway and find Alfonso and Jamila fighting. He backhands her and Jamila falls to the floor. He gets on top of her.
I quickly get out the car and slam the door shut. Jamila and Alfonso were both yelling.
I get behind Alfonso and punch him hard in the head. I elbow him hard in his neck then kick him as hard as I could in the back.
I kick him until he falls on top of a crying Jamila.
I roll him off of her and was met with a punch to my chest. I raise to my full height and jump with unnecessary force on his chest. He wheezed in pain.
I punch him until I get pulled off.
I turn around and see all of their sons watching the commotion. "What the fuck is wrong with you?" Alejandro yelled.
I ignore him. "Jamila grab your suitcase. We're leaving." I tell her.
She gets off the ground and grabs her suitcase.
I turn around and kick Alfonso one last time. "Touch her again and I promise you, that will be your last day fucking living."
I turn around to Alejandro. "If you even think about bringing down my company or Fredrico's, I will use every fucking resource I have to make sure you're company burns to the fucking ground and you get black listed."
"Any of you so much as text one mean word to Jamila or Aaya, I will find you. And I will hurt you." I say to everyone.
I look at Amir, "I honestly expected much more from you Amir. But that's my bad."
I turn around and walk to my car. "Consider yourselves disowned from Jamila and Aaya for the time being." I yell and get in the car.
I speed down the driveway and when we get down the street I stop and park the car.
Jamila was shaking beside me as she held her cheek.
"Would you like a hug?" I awkwardly ask.
She nods her head and tries her best to smile, "that would be nice, yes."
I lean over and hug her tightly. She kisses my cheek and hugs me back just as tightly. After a long hug I finally pull back and look at her face.
"I'll clean you up when we get home," I mumble.
•TIME SKIP•
I cleaned up Jamila and let her get some rest.
It was around eight o clock when Aaya and Jamila woke up. Troy was out with friends and I just put Ivy down for bed.
I set a plate down in front of each of them. "I hope you both feel better. How's your face?" I ask Jamila.
"Better, the ice pack helped. Thank you," Jamila said with a small smile.
"Mama how long has he been hitting you?" Aaya asks.
Jamila takes a bite of her food and looks down. Aaya and I both wait for an answer. Jamila looks at me, "this food is really good."
"You're dodging the question," I say.
She sighed, "I have been lying to you Valentina. My marriage has never been great."
"Clearly," I mumble.
"He started hitting me a few months after we got married. I was having a hard time adjusting to seeing my family everyday, to not speaking to them. He caught me crying on the phone. I was telling my twin I wanted to come home because I hated it in America. He hung up the phone and beat me and made me cut off contact with my family in Colombia."
I get out a box of tissues when I see tears forming in her eyes. I slide the box in between them.
"But it got better because Lily and her husband moved here from New York, so I would invite Lily over all the time because he wouldn't dare hit me in front of her." She grabs a tissue and dabs under her eyes.
"He stopped hitting me completely when I got pregnant with Alejandro. He would just yell at me. But after I had Alejandro the hitting started again. So I kept getting pregnant so he wouldn't hit me."
Jesus christ, this woman needs a lot of therapy.
"But after I had Aaya and Amir I fell ill for a little and since my body had been through so much trauma the doctors told me it was best that I don't have anymore children or I could die from childbirth. Your father only hit me in private and not in front of you all, which I was grateful for. I learned to be happy spending time with my children and being a mother."
"Why is there a gap between me and both sets of twins? Why didn't you get pregnant almost right away like you did?" I question.
She sharply inhaled, "I was in the Dominican Republic."
I raise a brow, "for?"
"I ran away from your father, but I got homesick. I missed my sons so I went back home and Alfonso made sure I could never get away again."
"God your life is so depressing. I would have killed myself," Aaya mumbled.
I hit her arm, "don't say that," I sharply whisper.
I turn to Jamila, "I love how strong you were through all of this. Not only did you raise eight- well seven children. You also had to endure beatings and getting abused. I admire you strength." I try to be positive.
I would've killed Alfonso long ago if I were her.
"I contacted some people while you were sleeping. I got you a good lawyer. One of the best to ever practice law. My friend Blair did some digging and found that the contract only has Alfonso's and your father's signature, not yours. And since you were eighteen at the time, you would have needed to sign too since you were technically an adult in America. You never signed it so the contract is basically void. So it should be a clean divorce."
"In the meantime, you two will both lay low. That means, no texting people every detail of your life," I take Aaya's phone from her.
"If you want to see Liliana and Rory, that's fine. Just let me know in advance."
I grab Jamila's phone off the table and I slam both of them down on the floor, "what the fuck Val!" Aaya yells.
"You'll get a new one tomorrow. Be prepared to wake up at five in the morning tomorrow. We'll be moving to a new location. Your phones could've been tracked to here. I don't need my house raided."
"You two will have guards on you twenty-four seven. I don't know what they're plans are, but Alfonso will most likely try to kill you both. Maybe even me," I say with a shrug.
Jamila looked horrified by that, "don't worry. I won't let you get killed."
Jamila cleared her throat, "can you see if you can contact my family? I would love to speak with them."
"Yes, i'll have all of that by the morning. But for now, just rest. If you need me, i'll be in my office." I say and grab the baby monitor.
"Hey Val?"
I hum and turn around, "thank you," Aaya said softly. I nod awkwardly and turn back around.
I pinch the bridge of my nose and try not to think of the shit show this is already becoming.
"Positive thoughts..." I whisper as I run up the steps two at a time.