Haiden entered her old house, bending down to rub their dog's stomach, before walking around until she found her mother out back drinking from a glass of wine.

Allison looked at her, "Look who stopped by. Did you run out of money?"

Her tone was spiteful. She was angry that her ex-husband remained in contact with his daughter but wouldn't even answer the phone for her.

"If I ever ran out of money, I wouldn't come here looking for it." Haiden replied with just as much malice, "Did they start handing out checks for people who sit in the house and drink wine all day?"

"They did actually. It's called alimony."

Haiden scoffed and looked towards the pool. Allison had tried to be a good mother to Haiden, she was just bad at it. She never knew what to say or when to say it, leading to more awkward moments and arguments than she cared to remember.

When she and Samantha were still friends, she would help out, pitching in where Alison failed, but after finding out about her affair with Isiah, that was over.

It wasn't as if she wanted to hurt her friend, Isiah was just perfect in Allison's eyes, everything a man should be. They'd had sex for months before finally getting caught over something as stupid as him leaving his tie at her home.

Grace, who was 4 at the time, was the one who found the tie under the kitchen table the next morning, showing it to Samantha, saying it looked like her daddy's tie.

That's because it was.

Allison fired her housekeeper that same day.

She and Samantha haven't spoken since that day, though she'd heard from Haiden, her source for all news concerning the Simmons, that she was doing terribly, barely existing.

It's her fault for staying with a man who clearly wanted to be with me, She thought.

"I came by to check on you." Haiden finally stated, sounding like she was lying.

"Did you?"

She paused at her mother's question, thinking of how to tell her the actual reason why. She'd been here yesterday while Allison was gone, and went looking through her medicine cabinet in search of Xanax.

What she found was something entirely different.

Haiden saw medicine names she didn't recognize, and she Googled them, finding out that Allison was taking medication to control HIV.

• • •

The routine for Celina had been the same for years.

She'd arrive at the Simmons house around 5 so she could have breakfast ready for Isiah before he left at 6 that morning.

When she walked in this morning, to her surprise she smelled burned eggs.

Going into the kitchen, she saw Grace standing over the stove, raking the eggs out of the the skillet and onto a plate, before moving to the toaster where she removed two severely burned pieces of toast, and placed them alongside the eggs.

"Okay so look." She spoke to someone as she picked up her phone, "Does this look right?"

Celina heard Josiah's sleepy reply, "Yeah that's perfect."

She couldn't help but laugh loudly, to which Grace turned to look at her, "Thanks Jo. I'll text you later."

Grace then picked up the plate and held it towards Celina, "I made you breakfast."

Celina would rather eat a brick. The way that toast looked, that might as well been what she was about to eat.

She knew this was Grace's olive branch, and she was more than willing to accept it.

Sitting at the table, she began picking at the food while Grace poured her a cup of orange juice. The eggs actually weren't bad, just a little crispy.

Once Grace sat at the table, Celina began to talk, "I shouldn't have told Brielle about what goes on here Grace. I know you probably won't believe me, but what you told me, those conversations, they stayed between us."

Celina had only given Brielle cliff notes of what went on in their home, and that was mainly because Brielle would express her displeasure at how much time her mother spent with Grace.

Grace nodded, she purposely didn't ask Josiah exactly what was said because she knew if she found out, her relationship with Celina would be irreparably destroyed.

"I believe you. Josiah made a valid point when he said you may have just been ranting to someone you trusted, and never intended for it to leave your house."

"He's always been a little smart."

"Just a little bit though." Grace laughed, "Are the eggs good?"

"The best eggs I've ever had." Celina replied with a smile, her heart once again full that Grace was speaking to her.

Much like how Grace was closer to Celina than her mother, Celina sometimes felt closer to Grace than her daughter.

Isiah entered the kitchen, looking at the two of them talking before speaking, "Goodmorning."

Standing up from the chair, Celina greeted him and was about to go make him breakfast when Grace stopped her, "I got it. Dad I'm making breakfast for everybody this morning."

His eyes went to the half eaten blackened toast, and eggs that were clearly scrambled for too long, "I'll actually just have a coffee."

Samantha was the next one to come in, taking Grace up on her offer for breakfast and eating it as if it were prepared by a five star chef.

To her credit, the toast wasn't burned this time. The eggs will just take some time.

After passing out hugs to her mother and Celina, Grace left to go to her internship.

"Who would've thought?" Celina asked with a head shake when the door closed.

"I'm going to see Mason today." Samantha stated, "I'll tell him you said hi."

"Thank you. Please tell I love him too."

"I will."

Celina knew there was something else Samantha wanted since she hadn't left. She quietly wiped down the counters until she finally spoke, "Has that girl been here again?"

"Grace and Haiden aren't speaking."

"Finally." Samantha sighed, "I thought it'd never happen. I can finally get rid of that family."

This job Celina had was one that she needed. It was one that provided for her family, and if she got fired, it'd be hard for her to find something where the pay was this good.

So no matter how badly she wanted to, she let Samantha think she'd gotten rid of that family.

_____

i'm shoookkk. as long as sis has been taking her medication regularly tho she can't spread it 🤧 i rlly hope she was.

thanks for reading 💕