wednesday — january 12th
9:27 AM
Tori, Kayla, Kamari, and Laura sat in the living room of the youngest Murillo household in shock. "Tori, this can't be real. How could this happen?" Laura asked, holding her daughter's pregnancy test.
"I don't know. I thought we were being careful," Tori cried. Actually tears streamed down her face as she thought about the life growing inside her. She had no plans to feed another mouth. She had no interest raising another child. Or idea of how she was going to tell her husband. This wasn't part of the plan in anyway, but the couple was going to have to figure something out because an abortion seemed off the table. Right?
"You know you're going to have to tell your father, right?" Laura reminded. Allwyn hasn't been in the picture for so long Tori sometimes forgot he was supposed to be playing a major role in her life. She hasn't even seen him in months, so at no surprise telling him was not at the top of her list.
"No. I'm not telling anyone. We aren't telling anyone. Not dad. Not André. I'm not ready." Tori panicked. In a rush, the mom of three left the living room, locking herself in her bathroom.
"Guys," Kamari rallied. "What are we going to do? We can't let her do what she's thinking. A life is at stake," she pleaded. Laura dropped the test in the trash and washed her hands
"As much as we don't want it to happen, it's still her choice. A choice she can decide to make with or without André. And we have to respect that." Laura advised. Because, despite Kamari's intentions, Tori would be the one taking care of this baby at the end of the day. Not them.
"She wouldn't, right?" Kayla asked, fearful for her unborn niece or nephew. Silence coating the room, since no one had a definitive answer. They hoped, Tori wouldn't abort, but she'd thought about it before. What was to stop her from actually acting on it this time?
10:57 AM
Tori sat in the studio with her good friend Bruno Major working on a song, but all she could think of was the little plus sign swirling around her head. As they wrote, her phone went off, interrupting the two. "What?" Tori groaned.
"Where are you?" The voice asked. Tori rolled her eyes and sat back in the office chairs
"I'm at the studio," she replied, not even trying to mask her annoyance. Bruno glanced over as Tori picked at the arm of the chair. He couldn't exactly hear the other person that well anymore, but Tori looked over it. "You don't believe me? That's fine. You don't have to," Tori snapped. "If you show up here, I'll call the cops," she threatened. That fully got Bruno's attention forcing a protective spirit out of him. "That's what I thought," Tori said as the other person hung up abruptly.
"Everything okay?" The musician asked, Unsure of what he'd just heard. Tori nodded and dropped her phone in her bag.
"Just my dad," she simply replied, holding back the tears that had threatened to slip. "I can't—" Tori stuttered. "C-can we just talk? I really need to talk to someone with no bias other than simply being my friend," Tori asked on the verge of tears. Bruno leaned in warmly and placed a gentle hand on her leg.
"Tori, you can always talk to me," he encouraged. A comfort shot through Tori at the feel of his warm touch. A comfort she hadn't felt with André in a while. A friendly comfort.
"Well, I recently got a huge heap of news and a responsibility to make some decisions. But every time I think about it, I feel like I'm floating outside of my body. Like this isn't really my life," Tori recalled. Bruno slowly changed his grip and firmly, but gently grabbed her knee, scooting closer.
"Is this about your dad?" He inferred. Tori nodded, wiping a few of her tears. She leaned against the arm of the chair in thought.
"And some other stuff. It just feels like on one hand I should be happy about him trying to step up. But on the other, I know it won't last," she mumbled. Bruno sat face to face, only inches away from her. He could see the fear and anxiety beating on he pupils. It was clear she was holding back on him, but he didn't want to push her.
"If your dad, is going to walk out on such an amazing girl, then that's his loss. You and your kids don't deserve that. You deserve better," he said. The last part however, had nothing to do with the relationship she had with her father.
Tori started to feel a pull in a direction she was not meant to go and immediately pushed them apart. "Uhh, yeah." She awkwardly replied. "I guess you're right. Hey I'll text you later. I have to go pick up my brother from school soon," Tori lied, grabbing her things and heading out. Bruno slapped the sound board as the door shut. On the other side, Tori took a deep breath and placed her hand over her stomach.
Too close.
The singer sprinted to her car, knowing that the bomb she almost detonated could've destroyed her family had she pulled the pin. That session was supposed to bring her peace. But now all she has is a mess of feelings tangled with a man who is not her husband.
—
An hour away, André sat a weight down on the rack as the sweaty mess that was his cousin surfaced before him. "Dude, you good? You really put the work on that press," Caelan asked. André nodded, not wanting to get into anything. He just wanted to keep his head low and get out. "Dré, what's up?" Caelan pushed. André shook his head, and snatched his bag from the floor.
"Nothing man. I've just got a lot on my mind. It's chill, bro," André deflected. Caelan knew his cousin wasn't being transparent, but didn't want to push the envelope or worse rip it. So he dropped it and watched André disappear out of the doors.
12:15 PM
Tori and André rode home to Temecula in silence, with forty-five minutes left on the journey. Tori's eyes where glued to the road with her hands firm against the wheel. She felt like André could sense Bruno all over her even if they hadn't done anything.
"So what are we going to do?" André reluctantly asked, dropping his phone in his lap and glancing at the tense statue of his wife.
"Wh-what do you mean?" Tori stuttered. He couldn't be talking about the baby. He didn't know. And he definitely couldn't be talking about Bruno.
"What do I mean? With your father! Are we just accepting him or what?" André frustratingly asked. Tori was a bit taken back at his tone. Why was he being short? For all he knew, Tori hadn't done anything.
"I don't know. I mean he's here. He said he wants to be apart of our lives again. I th—" Tori was cut off by a short scoff from André's direction. "What's the problem?" She asked, getting to her own place of defense.
"He says a lot of shit. But we've seen no action. Where's the money he promised for Noah's soccer stuff. Or all the weekends he was supposed to take him. Or any of the time he's was going to come to Sunday dinner?" André just barely yelled. Tori felt a quake in her body, unsure of why all the anger was coming to her.
"Babe, I don't—"
"Don't say you don't know. You never know anything!" the angry giant yelled.
"Dré!" Tori fought.
"You're so fucking stupid," he muttered. Tori's mouth gapped, never having heard him call her anything out of her name in such a derogatory way.
"Why are you yelling at me? I didn't even do anything." She tried.
"Just, shut up! You never fucking do anything," He burst, before turning his back on his wife. A knot formed in the back of Tori's throat.
What the hell?
Tori's brain was so confused as to how this became her fault. He was just as clueless as she was, but somehow she was stupid? Silent tears fell from Tori's eyes as she tried to block out her thoughts and just get home.
2:18 PM
André locked himself in the office off the foyer playing X-box, while Tori was stuck in the living room with the kids. "Mommy," Joey whined, forcing Tori to check back in to see her eight month old sitting in her walker playing with toys. And her two year olds, pointing to a paused TV. Netflix was asking if they were still there and of course the boys didn't know what that meant.
"Goldie and Bear!" Jaxon whined, as Tori looked around for the remote. Under a blanket she found what she was looking for and resumed the kids show, before blocking off the gate and heading to her bedroom. Exhaustion had hit and Tori was out before the theme song of the kids show was over.
2:46 PM
"Tori!" André yelled, throwing his wife back into reality. She looked up to see her husband holding Ella, but she was only in a diaper. "Why are you sleeping in the middle of the day? Get up. Your kids are hungry," he grouched, dropping Ella on her abdomen. A short wave of fear came over the mom of almost four, as the weight of her daughter slammed into her unborn. However, the remembrance of how much Tori's body went through whilst pregnant with Ella, put her mind at ease.
André stormed out of the room, slamming the door behind himself, causing Ella to jump. "They're your kids too," she mumbled, sliding from under Ella and picking her up. "Ella, where's baby?" Tori asked with a smile. The child looked around for a second, then pointed to her chest. "No, this baby," she giggled, taking Ella's hand and guiding it to her stomach.
The child started to babble to her mother only receiving head nods as Tori acted like she could understand her. "Yeah, I'm hungry too. Let's eat eat," Tori replied, taking them out of the room, to the kitchen.
—
Almost an hour passed, before André finally emerged from the game room, hungry. "Tori! What'd you cook?" He asked, seeing his kids eating at the table and Tori nibbling at her plate.
"Spaghetti," she answered, sliding the plate towards him. "But you can have mine. I don't feel good," she said, getting up to clean the kitchen, André gladly accepted the food and took his wife's seat.
"What's wrong with you? You sick or something?" He sassed, taking a huge bite of one of his favorite dishes.
"No. I'll be fine," she insisted. As she started to put the food away and run the water for the dishes, Tori got a bit light headed, but hoped André hadn't noticed. Sadly, he did.
"Yo, you drunk or something? When was the last time you actually ate?" He asked, attitude ridden. An eye roll flew from Tori as she continued to clean.
"No. I can't even had a drink. And I'm not hungry." She said.
How much clearer could I be?
She thought. André took her answer and decided to just eat his food.
Guess I'll have to spell it out.
"Hey, we need to talk."
"I don't want to."
"You don't have a choice."
🙃🙂🙃
To Be Continued...