Once we got inside I sat in the lobby with Erin Uncle Dre and Derrin. Uncle Dre had the chest take Joey to the kitchen with her to help make holiday cookies. I was glad uncle Dre sent him away because when it comes to Joey I want to protect him from as much negativity as possible. Erin sat down beside me as uncle Dre kept watch for my dad.

"Carly we need you to tell us exactly what happened today." Erin told me.

I sighed in a panic that I might leave something out.

"Nali I don't know if I can right now! I'm still trying to process this shit!"

This was the first time I cursed out loud in the last few months because of my dad and in infamous jars. Just out of instinct I pulled out a $20 bill and handed it to Derrin.

"Here. Keep track will ya?" I said.

He smiled and went over to the jar on the receptionist desk.

"You think that you saw your mom and you're worried about the swear jar? Kid you're brave." He replied with a little bit of a chuckle in his voice to lighten the mood.

"I'm not so brave if I ran from somebody who I've been waiting to deck in the face since I was 8 years old." I said softly.

Erin gave me a hug and rubbed her hand up and down my right arm.

"Well you didn't and that means you've grown up. There was once a time where you had no filter at all. Like the time you were bold enough to sneak into the First Avenue kitchen and take a whole meal."

"Well you try eating bullshit meals with no taste from an orphanage! A girl wants real food! Not horse shit." I joked.

"Carlyn come on now let's get serious. Your dad is gonna be here any minute and we need to tell him something. You know how pissed he's gonna be if you don't start talking?" Uncle Dre began to scold me and it wasn't in his nature to do that.

"Geez dude why are you yelling at me? I didn't ask for my mother to find me!" I snapped as I jumped up from the couch.

"Come on Carly calm down." Erin said as she tried to pulled me back down to sit next to her.

"No he needs to hear this! You know very little about my past. I don't want my past to find me and it just so happen that it did! My mom is now out there and I don't want to ever see her again after she dropped me in a public place and didn't dare look back. She didn't even say goodbye or I love you! She just fucking left! So don't tell me what to do when it comes to telling my father about this pop up bitch! If I want to talk to him about it than I will! But I need to do it in my own way on my own terms!"

I didn't know it but by the time I had finished ranting at my uncle I had been crying a river of tears. Uncle Dre was in a bit of shock as he stood there and listened to me go off on him. I think I made him feel bad. I didn't really mean to but I was so hurt from everything that happened today anybody at this point was fair game. Uncle Dre came up to me with his arms out wide.

"Aww kid I'm sorry. I didn't mean to yell at you. Come on and give me a hug."

The sincerity in his voice caused me to run into him and just cry my heart out.

"It's alright little mama. We're all family now. We'll figure this out together. I promise you. We'll figure all of this out don't you worry."

As I continued crying the front door clicked and swung open with the sound of Tony's voice carrying over to us.

"Hey! What's going on?" Tony asked as he saw me embracing uncle Dre in tears.

"Tony where's P? We got something going on that he should know about." Uncle Dre said.

"He's on his way in." Tony replied.

Just as soon as he called it dad walked in with his tan fedora in his hand. The smile he once had on his face was nearly gone when he notice the sight of me crying. He was also surprised that he saw Nali and Derrin standing in his lobby.

"Erinalia what are you doing here?" He asked trying to be concerned but the excitement in his voice was taking over.

"Well I was going to surprise you later on tonight since it's holiday break at school but literally ran into your daughter at the mall today and she was pretty shaken up."

"Oh? Andre what happened?" Prince asked in a now worried and stern voice.

"Well I had Joey with me at the toy store and Carly was just across the way looking at clothes. We were supposed to meet back but I guess me and Joey were having so much fun picking out his dinosaurs that I never noticed Carly leave the store. I didn't think she would just take off and not come to me."

Uncle Dre was worried that my dad was going to never trust him again so I let him go and wiped my face coming to his defense.

"Please don't blame him daddy it wasn't all his fault. I was the one to took off because I wasn't paying attention to where I was going after I found out that my mom was the one who was watching me."

My dad dropped his fedora on the floor and his light face was completely pale.

"Carlyn. What did you say?" He asked making sure he wasn't going crazy.

I took a deep breath as the awkward silence was taking over the room.

"Daddy? I think my mom found me today."

Daddy was stunned. It looked like he lost all brain function. His eyes were giving me a blank stare.

"Dad?" I called.

For the first time my dad's witty quickness was delayed. He was completely frozen stiff like a computer network. I wasn't sure if I wanted to just say April fools even though it wasn't April and I definitely wouldn't break down and cry for no apparent reason. There was no taking what I said back. Erin came up to him and gave him a nudge to snap him out of it.

"Hey! Prince you ok?" She asked.

He came back from his temporary black out and his eyes had fallen on my face.

"Tony?" He said softly.

"Yeah boss?" Tony answered already in work mode as he always was when he knew my dad was about to get serious.

"Get a few of your guys together. At least four. Carlyn is going to need extra eyes for school tomorrow. Andre, Carlyn and Erinalia come with me. Derrin I'll be needing you after I'm done so don't leave."

My dad headed to his office with the three of us following behind him. I noticed he didn't have his fedora so I ran and picked it up from the floor and quickly made my way up the steps catching up with Erin and uncle Dre. The office door opened and we went inside with my dad coming in last. This was about to get deep. I only knew that by the way the door had closed behind us. Slow and long.