“Vega, hi!” Nathan stated, dropping her backpack at the door, and running over to him.
“Rohan!” Omari squealed simultaneously, skipping over.
Both men chuckled, and Omari climbed onto the couch into Rohan’s lap. “Do you want to know what I did at school today?” she asked.
He smiled at her. He made it a point to ask her and Nathan that question whenever he saw them on weekdays. “I do, but first Jalen needs to talk to you.”
“You picked up the results, didn’t you?” Kodi inquired from the arm of the couch, where she’d sat.
“I did,” Jalen responded. “I wanted to wait until you all got here to open them.”
“Well, it’s better if we rip the band-aid off, right?” Landon asked from where she stood beside the loveseat.
Jalen nodded, leaning up and grabbing the envelope, and Rohan didn’t miss the fact that her hands shook a little. Reaching over, he placed his hand on her knee, rubbing circles around it.
The room was quiet; even the twins were tuned in, and it seemed as if they were all waiting with bated breath as Jalen opened the envelope. She pulled out three sheets of paper and looked at the first one.
“You aren’t my father, Vega,” she spoke on an exhale that Rohan knew was not of relief, but of disappointment, because he was sure a part of her hoped. “You aren’t Landon’s either,” she then told him once she’d moved to the second page and looked it over.
Rohan glanced at the mentioned teenager to see her biting her bottom lip, and she swallowed hard. Attempting to swallow down tears he knew were forming. She’d wished, probably harder than anything, that Vega would be her father.
“But you are Mikal’s,” Jalen concluded, and Rohan watched as the eleven-year-old’s eyes grew wide.
Landon let out a pained gasp, inhaling sharply before leaving the living room. It was only a split second later that Jalen followed her.
????????????
Jalen followed behind Landon as she went into her room. Collapsing onto her bed, she immediately cried into her pillow. Stepping inside the bedroom, she closed the door behind her and went over. She sat down beside her on the bed and rubbed the teenager’s back.
As she watched Landon cry, Jalen’s heart broke for her little sister. She knew Landon would be upset if it turned out that Vega wasn’t her father, and while she knew that she could have gone along with him asking her to tell her sisters that he was, she knew it wouldn’t be fair to her sisters, and it wouldn’t be fair to their fathers if they ever looked for them, found them, and reached out.
Jalen had also never been one to lie to her sisters. Her childhood had been built on a foundation of lies and abuse, and she’d promised herself she’d keep nothing from them and be better than what she grew up with.
There was nothing that she could say that would ease her sister’s hurt, that could ease her heartache. So, she wouldn’t try to. Instead, she would be there to comfort Landon and let her know she was there if she wanted to talk, if she wanted to vent.
They stayed like that for several long minutes until Landon had cried all the tears she had at the moment.
Landon sat up and suddenly threw herself into Jalen’s arms. She buried her face in her neck and apologized. Jalen furrowed her eyebrows, puzzled.
“What are you apologizing for?”
“Because,” Landon started, her voice muffled by Jalen’s neck. “You just found out he wasn’t your dad either, and here I am throwing my pity party.”
Jalen shook her head. While she wouldn’t have been opposed to Vega being her father because from what she’d seen of him, he was a good man, another part hadn’t gotten her hopes up. She was at the age that she would be fine never knowing if that were the case, and while, like any child, she’d always wondered and wanted that connection, it was nowhere near as deep as it was for her sisters.
“I’m okay, Landon. I’m more worried about you.”
The teenager pulled her face from Jalen’s neck and looked at her. “I mean, I knew when you told us at dinner that he was Kodi’s father that there was a possibility he wouldn’t be mine, but I hoped. I’d spent all that time talking to him and getting to know him.”
“This entire situation has given me a new outlook on the men who could be our fathers. If Valerie never told Vega, then sheprobably didn’t tell the others, and she may not have known who they were.”
Jalen was well aware of the fact that her mother was a hoe. She used men to get what she wanted, and in order to do so, she used every asset at her disposal.
“So, I’ll help you look for your dad if that’s what you want.” She paused for a moment. “Vega said he would as well.”
Landon nodded. “Can I think about it? I don’t know if I’m ready to start that journey again, and besides, Nathan was right. We have Rohan.”
Jalen smiled at her sister. They’d worked on patching their relationship since her first teenage rebellion, and she was not naïve enough to think it was her last, but Landon was getting back to her old self. Jalen also figured that Rohan might have had something to do with that. While Landon had been suspended, she’d spent several of those days with him at his office.
