Chapter 1 - Backed into a corner.

A funeral had never been this empty, a symbolism of the lack of friends and family, how sad her life was. Birds are the only ones to be heard in th graveyard, their cheery songs seem to celebrate her passing. And the bright sun that gazes upon us doesn’t seem to want to tuck its warmness away.

Maybe it is good that it is warm, this way I will not wallow in the cold, hoping for the warm hug my mother would have given me. My mother had always seen my father as her only family and only friend. A burning fire love of an immigrant couple who trusted each other for life.

But mother was a fool, she was a fool to trust a that man blindly, that man that abandoned her when she got sick. That man who had already legally married another woman in order to get permeant residence a year after they had arrived.

“Everything will be okay Leah; I will come back in the morning. Call James to come help you with the child.” Cyan had always been an amazing friend; I had never been in a situation where she didn’t wholeheartedly support me, she had taken both my mother and her baby to the hospital after my father had left her on the side of the road during labor. I had hoped mother would survive, she would confront father of his actions, but she had died before even reaching the hospital.

“James will not come.”

“What? Why, you cannot take care of a new born alone.” Cyan scolded, “I get you do not want to burden him, but he is your boyfriend, and he should help.”

“He… he broke up with me yesterday.”

Fate, destiny or whatever it is, that had been choosing the struggles in my life sure was cruel, the devil himself wasn’t this cruel. Losing a job and a mother who left a new born child behind, having my father run to his legal wife the same day of her death, my boyfriend had to break up with me in the same wavelength.

“What? Why would he do such a thing?”

“He is getting married.” I replied in under my breath, hypocritical of me to scold my mother for not being smart enough to see through father’s façade, I was naïve myself, enough to not realize that my boyfriend’s cousin was actually his other girlfriend, the one he stands to marry in two weeks.

“My friend” Cyan’s warm arms had always made things feel better, but nothing could numb the pain I felt today, I was close to being deported. My mother had stayed for 16 years in this country and not once did she think of applying for permanent residency.

“How am I going to take care of the baby? How will I survive getting deported Cyan?” along with the cries of a child, a mother at 24 was not a problem to most, but I had only just began getting money through commissions to my artwork, and I didn’t have a stable job “I will be so lonely, I know no one there, I don’t even speak the language.”

The funeral preparations had gone well, my mother had made sure she had enough money for the funeral and the after care, smart thing to do, I should set up a plan myself. Only Cyan and I attended, “so, have you found a way to not get deported?”

“No, I am still learning how to take care of Zoey, she is a bit handful.”

“You finally chosen a name?”

My mother never had a chance to name her, she was busy crying and screaming at my father to not leave after giving birth at the side of the road. Pitiful, pathetic, whatever word she was.

“Yeah, it means life, I want her to have a long and happy life.” The words choke me as I say them, how am I going to provide this happy life when I do not even have a plan, “She is so precious, it is so unbelievable she shares the same blood as that man.”

“Hey, please don’t cry.” “We will fight through this; I already have a plan on how you can avert being deported.”

“Huh, is it a legitimate plan?”

Cyan’s planning skills are impeccable, but they all had one thing in common. We were always in trouble. I still remember almost getting expelled because of one of her plans.

“Yes, I was watching this show about immigrant getting married to get permanent residence. I think we should do it.”

“Cyan are you out of your mind?” of course she would produce a crazy plan “as far as I know my boyfriend of 5 years is marrying the girl, he said was his cousin in two weeks in the same chapel I said I wanted to marry at. Who in their right mind would marry an immigrant without a second thought?”

“Ugh, could you stop being negative. You are Kaleah Huxley before anything, and amazing girl who any man would be insane to pass of as a wife. Aside from some dumb guy names James that should be killed.”

“You are insane, I am going to look for a job and apply for a work permit. Not that crazy idea of yours.”

A month later.

Back then I had really thought that plan was insane, but as the deadline approaches and no company accepting my applications, artists have it hard anyway. The path to hell became the easiest path to travel.

“Um…. So”

“Did you go to that James wedding; the answer better be no because I would beat your dumb *ss up if you went to that jerk’s wedding.”

“I did not, okay. Ugh, I just called, and you are already scolding me. How was I supposed to go with Zoey?” I sigh, “remember that marriage plan to keep me from getting deported?”

With the silence that follows I became anxious; she thinks I am insane, doesn’t she? I boasted about finding a job a month ago. Now I am coming back with a tucked tail asking for help.

“Finally, you came around, I already have a few candidates ready, we will do it in a blind date type of thing.”

“What? How did you know I was going to consider it?”

“I didn’t, I just wanted to keep my options open, there is no way my friend is leaving me here all alone.”

“Huh, fine. When will the dates start?”

I sigh to listen to Cyan’s plan. Maybe this plan would blow up in our faces like most of her plans do.