Trying to stay away from Jermaine for the past week has been the hardest thing I have ever done.
He has called me a million times and came to my home everyday for the past week, but I never answer the door. He has even came to my job but I make sure my assistant tells him I'm in a meeting, which is some what true because I am with patients most of the time I'm at work.
"Look, I have called you a million times and you haven't answered the phone. What's going on? What have I done? I can't fix it if you don't let me know what I have done. I'm sorry for whatever it was, just please forgive me and call me back. I'm going to be in the office late today so you can call me whenever. Please call me. I love you."
I listened to the 37th message that Jermaine left me and pressed 7 to delete it.
I just couldn't talk to him right now. I was too hurt.
I know I was a fool to believe that we could have something special. I was even a bigger fool to believe that he would leave his wife, my sister, for me. The husband always tells the other woman he will leave his wife but rarely ever does.
I really was just the mistress.
I just needed a break from everything in my life right now. I picked up the phone and pressed send to the number I had saved when I first got it but never called.
There were three rings before someone answered. " Hello?" A woman said on the other end.
"Hello, may I speak to Anita?" I asked.
"Yes this is her."
"Hi Anita, this is April, your daughter."
Three hours later, I pulled up to a huge home that belonged to my mother.
After talking to her, she agreed to meet me and I decided to get this over with today. Plus, I needed the distraction to get my mind off of Jermaine.
"Alright. You can do this April. Just get out of the car and ring the doorbell." I said, trying to give myself a pep talk.
I got out of my car and made my way up the walk way to the door.
I took a deep breathe in and rung the doorbell.
A few seconds later, the door opened and a man appeared before me.
"Hi, you must be April." He said staring at me with a smile on his face.
" Yes I am." I replied nervously.
"Come in, come in." He said as he moved out the way so that I could walk into the house.
I looked around the huge house. "Wow, your home is so beautiful." I said as I followed behind him.
"Thanks. We had it built three years ago. It took longer than we expected but we were satisfied when it finally was finish."
I nodded my head as I looked around.
"Anita went to the store to grab a few things, but she should be back any moment now. You can make yourself comfortable in here until she gets back. Sorry I'm not being much of a host but I have a conference call to make in five minutes. "
"That's fine. Oh, what's your name?" I asked.
"My apologies, I was so in aww of how much that you look like Anita that I forgot to introduce myself. I'm Jermaine."
My heart sunk in my chest as he said his name. The thoughts of Jermaine and all of his lies rushed to my head, instantly making me feel sick to the stomach.
"Are you alright?" He asked.
"Yea, just a little nervous I guess." I chuckled.
"Oh there's nothing to be nervous about. Did Anita tell you about the family get together we we were having today?"
I shook my head no.
"It's the twins birthday today so we are having a BBQ. That's why I'm doing my work from my home office. I'm sure she meant to tell you. Your call was just unexpected so I'm sure it slipped her mind at that moment."
"Yea probably so. Who are the twins if you don't mind me asking?"
"Your brother Andrew and your sister Anna."
"Oh, I knew I had siblings. I just didn't know that she kept in contact with them." I said as I felt a pain in my heart. Why did she want to keep in contact with them and not me? Why was I not so special?
"It's not how you are thinking. Your mom's mother kept them so she was able to see them. Your father had you so she wasn't able to find you as easily. Trust me, she loves you just as much as your siblings."
"How do you know that?"
"Because she talks about you all the time. About how much she missed you and how much she wanted to find you and make things right."
"Well why didn't she ever try to find me?" I asked, finding myself becoming upset.
"She did. But once she saw you were doing so good she didn't want to ruin your life."
"She could have ruined my life?"
"I think that is something she will have to talk to you about. I have to get going before I am late for this conference call. If you need something, just let me know. I'm right down the hall." Jermaine said as he walked out of the room.
I sighed and took out my vibrating phone, seeing my Jermaine's name pop on the screen. I pressed ignore once again sending him to voicemail.
A minute late the voicemail icon popped up and I debated for a few seconds on if I wanted to listen to it.
"Might as well." I said to myself finally giving in.
'April I don't know what I did but please answer my calls baby. You have me worried. I stopped by your house again but I didn't see your car. I hope you are alright. I was trying to see you before I went to my family's get together. I will be gone for the night so hopefully we can get together tomorrow and talk out whatever it is I did wrong. I'm sorry for whatever it was I did, just please call me back baby. I love you and our baby April. I really do.'
I pressed '7' deleting the message like I had done the others he left.
Maybe I should just call him to talk it out. It was a little childish to keep ignoring him without him knowing why.
I was in the process of calling him back when I heard the front door open and a group of people talking as they walked through the house.
I sat there listening to them as I became extremely nervous.
"I don't know what is wrong with the name Umuniqueka. I think it's cute." I heard a girl's voice say as she walked closer to where I was.
"Now you know that name is ghetto as hell. I wish you would name my niece that bullshit." A guy said.
The girl walked by the den I was sitting in glancing at me slightly. "What's up Amber." She said as she kept walking before turning back around looking at me.
"Wait, your not Amber. April?"
I nodded my head. "Hi?" I said nervously as it came out more as a question. She ran up to me and hugged me.
"Oh my goodness! Everybody come here quick!" She yelled while still hugging me.
"Ugh what is it now Anna, and who car is that out front?" I heard a male voice ask as he walked into the room with two other people behind him.
Anna finally let go of me as the room filled with an awkward silence.
"April?" My mother said with tears in her eyes as she walked up to me.
She stopped walking once she stood right in front of me.
"Wow, look at you. You are just as beautiful as the day I had you. Thank you for coming to see me. I know it was hard for you to do."
"Yea it was, but I knew I had to get it out of the way so why not today?" I said nervously as my siblings stared at me, making me feel uncomfortable.
"Well, since no one is going to do an introduction, I'm Andrew, your older brother. Wow you look just like Amber. I would know you anywhere." He said.
"And I'm Anna, your oldest sister and sibling." Anna said proudly.
"Ugh by three minutes." Andrew said annoyed.
"Three minutes, three years, all that matter is I was first." Anna said as she stuck her tongue out at Andrew.
"Y'all need to stop arguing before you scare the girl away. Hi, I'm Asia. I'm older than you by eleven months." Asia said making me look at my mom.
"Yea, I was a little wild in my days." My mother said with a nervous laugh.
Eleven months? That is so crazy. We're not even a year apart, I thought to myself.
"Hi everyone, I'm April, as you already must know. It's nice to finally meet you all."
I turned to Andrew and Anna. "Happy Birthday you two. I'm happy I could be here for the party and meet some more of my family.
"Girl, you haven't seen nothing. When I say we have a ton of family, I'm not exaggerating. You will see what I mean."
"Hey where is everybody at?!" I heard a female yell.
"We're in the den Amber!" My mom yelled back.
"Why is everybody in here and not setting up... Oh..." She stopped when she saw me.
"Wow, you must be April. Mama your genes are strong as hell." The girl said with a smirk.
"I'm Amber."
"April." I replied shyly.
"Alright everyone, let's give mama and April some time to talk." Andrew spoke up.
"Yea, give us a few minutes to talk. Y'all start setting up and Andrew get the grille going. Anna let Jermaine know we are back please." My mom said.
The nodded their heads and left the room.
"You don't know how good it feels to see you again. How is everything going?" She asked me as she sat down on the couch and motioned me to sit with her.
I took the seat beside her before speaking. "I wish I could say the same thing but I just found out about you almost five months ago. Why didn't you find me? You had them, but didn't want me?" I said as tears came to the brim of my eyes.
Anita sighed. "It's not like that. I thought about you everyday. I wanted to be in your life but I had to get myself together first. When I was pregnant with you, my mother already had custody of your brother and sisters. She refused to take another child. I knew your father would take great care of you after I had you."
"How could you leave me at the hospital by myself though?"
"I pray you will never know the feeling of being addicted to a drug so strong that it's all you ever think about. I know it may not seem like it, but I left you because I loved you. I loved you enough to stay off drugs while I was pregnant with you, but it's like the moment I had you, my need for crack was more powerful. I found myself at rock bottom many times. When my mother threatened to keep my kids away forever, I knew it was time to quit. I went to a rehab and day by day, I got clean."
"I'm happy for you and all, but why didn't you come look for me after you got clean?" I asked.
"I did."
"You did? When?"
"A few years back. I hired a private investigator to find you. He brought pictures back and told me things about you. He told me you were getting married and that you had finished school and were a becoming a psychiatrist. He had a video of you at your family reunion. You seemed so happy. I saw you with a woman and you called her mom and looked at her with so much love. I knew at that moment that you were better off without me in your life." She said as tears ran down her face.
"I wish you would have came to me. I would have loved to know that that woman was not my mother."
"I thought you were so happy, I didn't want to come in your life and throw it all off."
I sighed. "My life has been nothing but throwed off lately. I don't even care about the past anymore. I just want to get to know you and my siblings. I feel like we have missed out on so much of each other lives already. We might as well leave the past in the past and start enjoying each others company while we can. Tomorrow is not promised to anyone."
"I couldn't have said it better myself." My mother said as she engulfed me into a tight hug.
I couldn't have been happier at the moment.
-----
Three hours ago I was nervous not knowing how everything would turn out when I saw my mother and siblings, and now, here I was being introduced and welcomed by over a hundred of my family members that I had no idea existed.
I was really enjoying myself talking to aunts, uncles, cousins, and family friends.
I was sitting at a table with my mom, her husband Jermaine, Anna, and Amber.
We were having a great conversation when my mother's husband looked up and a smile appeared on his face.
"Well will you look what the cat dragged in!" He said standing up.
"Hey, it's Jay." Anna said. standing up.
"Whose Jay?"I asked my mother without turning around to where the two had went.
"It's Jermaine's nephew. He was actually named after him." She replied.
I turned around and my eyes locked with the one person I had been avoiding.
"April?" Jermaine asked confused as he walked over to me.
What the hell is going on here? I thought to myself.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: SORRY FOR THE SUPER LATE UPDATE. MY LIFE HAS BEEN HELL LATELY BUT I'M GOING TO STAY POSITIVE. JUST PRAY FOR ME.
ANYWHO, HOW DO YOU THINK THINGS ARE GOING TO TURN OUT?
SORRY FOR THE MISTAKES.
THANK YOU FOR READING.
DON'T FORGET TO COMMENT AND VOTE LOVELY PEOPLE.