Novels by Tanya Gilford

5 years laterValerie“Anton, can you please get the fruit salad and bring it to the table out here?” I ask, carrying out a platter of finger sandwiches that Lucia and I made together. “Freya, what are you doing? Don’t get filthy,” I scold. “Marcus, please don’t dig in the garden. You know I need you to be clean.”“Mom, you are stressing too much,” Freya said, smiling. “You need to rest. We don’t want Dante to come out today.”“Freya Russo, I’m not due for another 10 weeks. I told you, we will get through this party, then I will relax. After all, my baby is only turning 13 once,” I tell her as she wraps me in a hug.“Marco, Mommy asked you not to do that,” Freya scolds with a sigh, then goes to her brother, pulls him to his feet, and brushes him off. “Come on, let’s go play with the ball.” I watch my oldest lead her little brother away from the flower garden to play with a ball. “Hey sis,” Gideon calls as he walks over and wraps me in a hug. “Are you going to make it?”“I o

LincolnFreya falls asleep five pages into the book on Norse mythology. We were reading about Goddess Freya. I waited five more minutes before moving to ensure she was asleep. I fixed her blankets and kissed her forehead. “Good night, my angel. I love you,” I whispered to her before walking out of her room.I walked downstairs expecting to see Anton and Valerie on the sofa still, or at least one of them, but they are nowhere to be found. Great, did he forget he was going to order a ride for me? “Anton!” Valerie calls out. They went back to the kitchen? I walk to the kitchen, half expecting to see them goofing around as they always seem to be doing, but the kitchen is empty. “Anton!” She calls again a bit breathless. They are in the pool. Is he seriously tossing his pregnant wife into the pool?I open the door slightly and freeze. She’s on his lap with her legs spread over his shoulders as he’s lifting her up and down on his lap. “Anton… Oh… YES! ANTON!” she screams in p

ValerieDinner was successful. Freya and Aurelia talked the entire meal as though they’d been friends the whole time. After dinner, Freya took Aurelia upstairs, leaving us adults down in the parlor. Anton sat down next to me on one end of the sofa, pulling my feet up to his lap as always to rub my ankles. “Freya is a sponge,” Betty states. “I explained buoyancy to the girls, and Freya began noticing each one.”“I told you, she loves science,” Lincoln replied. “When I told her you were a science teacher, she said it must be why she loves science too, because of her genetic traits.”“Valerie, thank you for inviting us today. I know we made some terrible choices, and I know we were not kind, but this is exactly what Aurelia needed,” Betty continued.“Freya needed it to. She’s the one who wants these relationships; it’s important she learns how to forgive. She’s got a big heart, but she’s also got a mean streak of holding grudges,” I replied.“I don’t know where she got that from

FreyaI walk back into the pool room and see my mommy floating on a noodle near the diving board, while Aurelia and Grammy are still walking around. I run over to the bin of pool toys and dig out the rings and fish I use for diving practice. Then I enter the pool using the stairs and walk over to Aurelia and Grammy. “Aurelia, I am very sorry for being rude. I’m still angry with you for pushing me off the swing and calling me all those mean names. But Daddy Lincoln says you are my cousin, and family should forgive mistakes. Will you forgive me for being rude today?” “It’s okay. I was very mean to you and hurt you really badly. I’m sorry I pushed you off the swing that day. I didn’t mean to make you bleed. My mommy told me I had to push you and tell a lie so Lincoln would want to keep seeing me. Are we really cousins?”“Well, Grammy adopted your Mommy when she was a teenager, and that made her and Lincoln brother and sister. Because they are brother and sister, your mommy i

Anton“Mommy!” Freya keeps crying and reaching behind me as I take her into the kitchen. I set her on the floor while kneeling in front of her. “You promised!” She punched my chest. “You said she wouldn’t go near Mommy!” She punched me again. “Now she’s in there alone with them. You lied!” She punched me a third time, and I pulled her into a hug to get her to stop hitting me.“Why are you hitting me? I don’t hit you,” I reasoned with her calmly. She doesn’t answer. She just sobs on my shoulder, her whole body vibrating with her rage. “Freya, Aurelia is scared right now.”“GOOD! She should be scared. I hate her,” Freya screamed.“Her mommy left her. Her daddy died before she was born, and now her mommy left her with Lincoln’s mom after getting the family in so much trouble they lost all their money, and Lincoln’s dad is in jail. Now Aurelia has no Daddy, and no mommy. Lincoln is so angry with her for being mean to you that he doesn’t even want to be near her. She liste

LincolnFreya walks down the stairs with an air of confidence and something else I haven’t noticed before. She stops at the bottom of the stairs, looks directly at Aurelia, and smirks before walking towards Anton. “We’ll show them the pool area and where they can get changed, then we will get changed,” Anton tells her.“Okay, Daddy.” She turns to look at me. I stopped near my mom and Aurelia, and I saw a flash of something cross Freya’s face. I don’t fully know what to name it, as it’s not a look I’ve seen before. She locks eyes with me. “Come see the pool Daddy Anton built for me,” she announces to the whole room, but her eyes tell me she’s speaking to me.We follow her and Anton into the kitchen, where Valerie is working on prepping the sides for dinner. Anton detours to kiss Valerie as if she’s a magnet drawing him in. “Let Lucia do the rest. Your guests have arrived, and our daughter has worked herself into a fury that needs to be monitored before it flares up again,” Anto

5 months laterSaraphina We bought our new house three months ago and have been adjusting to life as a family. The move, the transitions, and the new schedule took some time to get used to, but I feel we adjusted fine. With a larger house, we were able to give Josie more room to play, especially now that she’s officially walking. Bryson’s expansion for the hotel was completed last month, and renovations to the original building have begun. He wants an area for kids to hang out during the day, so Josie can have socialization but be near him where he can keep a close eye on her. I survived helping plan this year’s charity gala for my work. Suzanne flew to Colorado for the week to allow Bryson to accompany me this weekend to the gala. Ace insisted that we stay at his place in the city to save money and keep me from asking my parents if Bryson and I can stay with them for two nights. “Babe, we’re going to have to buy your brother a new

6 weeks laterSaraphina I wake up alone in my bed at six in the morning to feed Josie as I do every morning. I need to get her ready, then drop her off to Bryson on my way to the office. With my new contract signed, I have more responsibilities for work. My new position was announced to all employees last month. I change Josie and get her ready for the day. Then I pack her diaper bag for Bryson, before bringing her downstairs to have my breakfast and give her some oatmeal. I wash the dishes I made then get myself dressed for work, while Josie moves around the room holding onto my bed for support. It’s a routine we’ve been doing since I returned to work and Bryson started watching her. She turns 1 today, and I’m going into the office making me feel like shit knowing I’m working instead of spending my daughter’s birthday with her. At least she gets to spend the day with Bryson. “Momma,” she calls with her smile as she moves to me.

Bryson My alarm sounds, and I roll over, grab my glasses then shut my alarm off. Sara pulls me tighter, not wanting me to get up as she always does, which makes me smile. I lean in to kiss her lips. “Don’t go, yet,” she whispers. “I need to go to work. You know I’ll be back tonight,” I answer. “Don’t leave me, Bryson.” “Babe, I’m not leaving. I’m just going to work. I’ll see you in a few hours when you drop Josie off. I won’t end things until you want to end things,” I reply. “I can’t stay too long as I need to run home to get my clothes for work.” “You should bring some here, save you the trip.” “I could, is that why your holding my luggage hostage?” “No, I genuinely want to do the laundry for you. You are doing so much for me, it’s the least I can do. I can pick up your dry cleaning when I get mine if you let me.” “That gets delivered to the hotel. You

Saraphina We landed at the airport at eight and were in Bryson’s truck that he parked there for the duration of our trip at eight thirty. We stopped at a restaurant just outside of the airport for dinner and were pulling into my driveway by ten at night. I need to feed her some milk then put her to bed knowing she’ll be up at midnight for another feeding. “Babe, did you leave a light on?” Bryson asks as he shuts the engine off. “That’s the television,” I comment looking at the lights moving across the window. “Stay in here, I’m going to go check it out,” Bryson said getting out of the truck. I unbuckle wondering who the hell is in my house, when the front door opens, and Jake comes rushing out with a bat. “Jake, no!” I shout opening the door, trying to get out of the truck. He swings the bat at Bryson, which he thankfully dodged. I rush over and stand between Jake and Bryson before Jake can swing again. “What the hel

Bryson Sara comes back inside just as my dad comes in from the backyard satisfied that all the eggs are hidden for Bobby’s egg hunt. “Josie, you already started without us?” My dad coos as he enters the parlor and we all see that Josie is holding a plastic egg that he hid. “It’s shiny, Grampy of course she found it already,” my mom replies from her chair. “Dadda,” Josie calls before babbling at him in her baby talk. I look at Sara, who just shakes her head, and it looks like she was crying. I get off the couch and walk over to her, wrap her in a hug and feel her just melt into me. “I didn’t even give him a chance to speak. My anger just came out. I’m tired of feeling like I’m alone when it comes to my family. There’s no true love there anymore, I see it now. There hasn’t been since Jake and Ace left home, because they got in trouble defending my honor that I didn’t even know about until after the fact,” she says softl

Jake I drove all night to make it in time to celebrate Easter with my little sister and my niece. I know Sara’s going to be fighting mad at me, but I can calm her down. I’ve always been able to calm her down. I use the spare key that I hid on her porch, and let myself in. The house is eerily quiet for ten in the morning. “Sara?!” I call walking through the house. I search every room but find no one here. My heart begins to race as I try to think about where they could be. I dial her number knowing if she doesn’t answer, I’ll be calling in favors to locate them. “Hello?” Saraphina answers. “Where are you? Your car’s here, but you and Josie are not here,” I ask. She starts laughing. Not her usual casual laugh. This laugh sounds almost hysterical. “You have missed a lot big brother. Josie and I are visiting her father’s family.” “That’s not funny. I know for a fact you wouldn’t have her at Zander’s