DESIRÉE || ONE HAPPY FAMILY.

Ever since I could reason on my own, my mom instilled in me the idea that my dad was a superhero, bravely facing the risks of being an FBI secret agent to put food on the table and keep us away from the streets of Olney. This was the reason he only made it home once every three weeks.

Then, just five years ago, I discovered that my superhero had been married to another woman, aside from my mother, since I was six. Her name was Carmille Boulanger. She served as the editor-in-chief at Vogue in France and owned her own modeling agency, as well as a toy factory that produced some of the best toys, many of which starred her face.

I was crushed to find out my dad was a nobody. That he wasn't a good example in our community, and that he wasn't out there fighting crime and defusing bombs or whatever deadly stuff I told my friends he did. I could no longer warn them that he had an entire army of men in suits ready to descend from helicopters at any moment if they dared to mess with his baby girl.

Instead of getting a decent job with his accounting degree, he preferred fucking a millionaire for a living. "It's been the easy way out from the start, Desirée. And I'm okay with that," my mom told me, but I saw how she cried the night after the conversation they had in the living room. My dad had revealed that Carmille had someone following him, which meant once every three weeks just wasn't cutting it. So, he was going away for a very long time.

He couldn't afford to be seen with his own flesh and blood and the love of his life. It hurt being the "other family." All the time I needed him and he was away on purpose. I didn't want his filthy "l'argent." I was determined to repay every single cent he had spent on me from fucking Carmille Boulanger. Every last cent.

"Desirée, please get the door." My heart raced as I stopped setting the table. It had already been a week.

I had hesitated to come home this weekend, fearing he might be here, but I knew my mom would have called to let me know he had arrived, and Jason would have excitedly talked on and on over the phone about what amazing gift the 'best dad in the world' had brought him.

It was such a relief to discover he wasn't home when I arrived earlier this afternoon. I wasn't sure I could face him after such a long time. He had video calls with Jason, but I never answered any of his FaceTime calls and had blocked him on every platform possible.

As I grasped the doorknob, my heart raced even faster. Of course, he would wait for me to return before showing up. Why hadn't I considered this before? Why did I even decide to come?

"Hey, cousin! I'm getting married!"

Her face lit up with excitement as she thrust her sparkling diamond ring in my face, wiggling her long nails dangerously close to my eyes.

"Latoya? What are you doing here?"
Latoya was Aunty Faye's only daughter and child. We had lived with them in my mom's family house in North Philly before moving to Olney right after Jason was born.

I couldn't stand Latoya; calling her a devil was an understatement.

Back in North Philly, she practically tormented me. From hurting herself and blaming me to framing me for stealing at school, she made my life a nightmare. She once cut a chunk of my hair while I was asleep, and when I said she did it, she broke down in tears and didn't eat anything throughout the day to 'prove her innocence.'

Those were just a few examples of her relentless cruelty. She spread lies to everyone in North Philly, claiming I told my mom they were all jobless idiots who would never achieve anything and that I wished I'd never see their faces again, which was why we were moving. And everyone believed her.

"Oh, Dee! I missed you so much!" She pulled me into a tight hug, and I pulled away, but she kept a firm grip on my shoulder, grinning widely. "Oh, Dee! You look stunning, girl! Looks like you finally put on some weight. What you been eating? Whatever it is, you ain't gotta overdo it no more, or you might not fit into the bridesmaid dress imma pick out for you. Aren't you supposed to be in college or something? Y'all on break or something? Is Cynthia home?"

"You're getting married?" My mom emerged from the kitchen just as Latoya rushed in to hug her.

"I am! Look at how huge it is! Fourteen karats and over fifty percent pure white gold! I bet y'all never heard of white gold before!" She shoved her hand in my mom's face, the large stone on her ring sparkling.

"When I called Faye, she didn't mention anything about-"

"Yes," she interrupted my mom. "I told her not to cus it's not as exciting to announce over the phone that I'm marrying a millionaire," she cackled.

"Mama, you invited her here?"

"Well, yes," she said, stepping closer to me as Latoya entered the kitchen. "It's already been a year since we sat down and resolved your differences, so I wanted to check in with her and invite her and Faye over for dinner... sometime. They insisted on coming today."

"So they flew all the way from North Philly just for dinner?"

"Girl, we ain't at North Philly no more," Latoya chimed in, emerging from the kitchen with two plates as she headed to the dining table. "We moved to Panama City cus of Ma's boyfriend, and that's where I met Keith Grant at the hotel we checked at and he saw me, and I saw him, and we just knew cus it was love at first sight, and I let him have just a little taste of me, if you know what I mean. And he saw what he'd been missing all his life and ... Girl, I have so much to tell y'all! It's very romantic, I promise!"

Before I could speak, there was another knock at the door. I answered it, and lo and behold, there stood a smiling Aunty Faye. She hugged me. "How you doing, Desirée?"

I remained silent and closed the door as Aunty Faye hugged my mom and then joined her daughter at the table while I pulled my mom aside. "Really, Mama? Any other unexpected guests I should be aware of?"

"Dee, you gotta chill. Why you being a hater when everything's settled?" I turned to Latoya, who was approaching me.

"I'll 'chill' if you stay away from me."

"Desirée, just stop and help with setting the table. I have another guest joining us so we have to hurry it up," my mom said, almost heading towards the kitchen. I stood in her way, arms crossed.

"Mama, I want them out of this house this very minute."

"You don't get to command me in my own home."

"Yeah, Dee. Now's not the time to be your disrespectful se-"

"Shut the fuck up, Latoya. You could marry someone a trillion times richer than Keith Grant, and I'd still not give a fuck about your opinion."

Latoya frowned. "I ain't never known shit about college to give a 'good opinion', and I still managed to score me a real man, nothing like your FBI daddy."

"That's enough, Latoya," Aunty Faye interrupted.

"Oh come on, Aunty Faye. Like you care if your daughter trash talks me or my father. The only reason you've ever been nice to me or your sister here is because Pappy promised you and Mama a big part of his inheritance if you two just got along. You two have always hated each other and you know it, and it was only natural that your own daughters grew up with the same vibe."

My mom looked concerned. "How did you-"

"I'm 23 now, Mama. I'm no longer the 7-year old you can still keep secrets from. You've always known how Latoya mistreated me at Pappy's and you still turned a blind eye to it all and wouldn't for once confront Aunty Faye about it all for some stupid inheritance."

"Desirée..." She tried to hold me, but I went to the living room to grab my bag.

"The good thing about being an adult over being a naive little girl is that I get to decide if I want to be in the same room with these snakes or not. Bye, Mama."

I swung the door open, my heart pounding.

The last person I expected to see stood there.

After he had dropped me home the other night, I kept running into him on campus and in a couple of my classes, but he had been ignoring me.

"Alessio? What are you doing here?"

"This is the guest I mentioned," my mom appeared at the door. "He is part of the Breathe-Free Program, and I invited him for dinner to make up for canceling on him every time I was supposed to meet him for counseling. Do you two know each other?"

"Now's not a good time," I told Alessio, ignoring my mom as I grabbed Alessio's hand and led him back to his car. The idea of him being inside with Latoya scared me. She might be engaged, but loyalty was never her strong suit. I was certain Latoya would make a move on Alessio. I knew her better than her own mother did, and I was confident she would go for it, and she was likely to succeed. Not that I had a thing for Alessio to care enough, but that woman didn't deserve him. I would be a better match for him than she could ever be.

"Let's just go, please," I requested.

Alessio glanced back at my house.

Latoya had joined my mom at the doorway, giving us a disapproving look.

"Everything alright?" Alessio inquired, his voice laced with genuine concern, and for a moment, I felt an overwhelming urge to just talk about it, drawn in by the tenderness in his gaze.

I shook my head, keeping my emotions in check. "Nothing's fine. Now can we go?"

He unlocked his car, I got in, and we drove away.