FLASHBACK – SEVEN YEARS AGO“You invited my parents to dinner without asking me,” Malcolm suddenly blurted out. This was hours after he and his girlfriend, Yvette had had dinner with his parents; after she dropped the bomb about her being pregnant; and after his parents began to bombard him with questions about marriage. He was currently lying on the bed dressed in a pair of shorts while looking at his girlfriend – nope, pregnant girlfriend – pulling off her earrings in front of the dressing mirror.From her reflection in the mirror, he could see her lips splitting into a wide grin. “Yeah,” she said. “Fun right?”“Fun? Maybe.” Definitely not.“I wanted them to be there when I announced my pregnancy. I knew they would be so happy.”“You couldn’t have told me first?” he wondered.A frown appeared on her face as she slowly turned around to face him. “I thought it would be nice to, um, give the whole family the news.”“Nice? Oh, yeah, definitely. You should have also invite my uncles and

Natasha rolled around on the bed, unable to sleep. It had been hours after she had left Diane in the living room, yet she hadn’t slept a wink. She hated nights like these – nights when she couldn’t sleep; nights she was plagued with thoughts of her ex-boyfriend whom she still very much loved; plagued with thoughts of her daughter who was just in the room across hers; plagued with thoughts of her irresponsibility.She tossed about on the bed, rising and falling. She tried to close her eyes, to get rid of those thoughts, but each time she did, images of Paul’s face kept flashing in her head. She kept seeing him everywhere – in her head, in Mirabella’s face. Natasha let out a loud groan, forcing her eyes open and sitting up on the bed.She hated herself. She hated that she was still in love with her ex-boyfriend. She hated that she couldn’t complete her education because she just had to be stupid enough to get pregnant. She hated that she couldn’t get a proper job in her office. She hate

FLASHBACK – SEVEN YEARS AGONatasha turned the key and pulled her locker open. She packed her books slowly, her head bent over and her face covered with her long hair to hide her face from the people around her. She wasn’t exactly what you would call popular, but she was quite known. In fact, people knew her because they knew her sister was currently the C.E.O of a company. Of course, none of them knew her sister was married to a famous person – that was a secret and the only person who knew was Alyssa.Speaking of Alyssa……“Hey, you know I can still see your face right?” Alyssa said in an amused tone behind her.Natasha jerked up, hitting the back of her head on the door of the locker. She turned to face her best friend, a frown on her face as she rubbed the back of her head. “Did you have to scare me?” she asked Alyssa who simply shrugged. “How long have you been standing there?”“Quite a while.”“Creep,” Natasha muttered and Alyssa smirked.“That’s me,” she answered and Natasha rol

Natasha sat on the couch in the living room, bored out if her mind and waiting for the kids to return from school. She busied herself going through their schedule so many times that she could swear she had committed it to memory. On Mondays, after lunch, Alex had piano lessons and Alexa had singing class, which meant Alex would stay at home while she took Alexa for her classes. Tuesday and Thursdays were free days for the both of them. On Wednesday, they both had swimming lessons. On Fridays, Alex had her dancing class while Alex had his football practice.Natasha thought about what Evelyn said. Was she really going to have to be living here? While that didn’t seem like a terrible idea, it wasn’t something Natasha was sure she wanted to do. She wanted to be close to her daughter and she didn’t think bringing Mirabella over would be such a good idea. She was going to hash this out with Mr. Grayson. She wasn’t going to be a live in nanny.The door was pushed open and Alex and Alexa walk

FLASHBACK – SEVEN YEARS AGOMalcolm sat in the waiting room with his girlfriend, her hands enclosed in his. He tried to look okay, to look normal, but he could feel the beads of sweat breaking out on his forehead. He glanced at Yvette and he could se the wide smile on her lips. She was really excited to be pregnant. She kept glancing at him with bright smiles and he had to force himself to smile back at her.She leaned closer to him. “Hey,” she said, “You excited?”“Yeah…. I…. I am.” He hoped she couldn’t feel how sweaty his palm was. He hoped she couldn’t hear how loud his heart was beating against his chest. Was he really ready for this? Was he ready to have children? He still had his whole career going on for him. He needed to concentrate on that. Bu what could he do now? Yvette was excited at the prospects of having a baby and so were his parents. he couldn’t ask her to get rid of it now.“We are going to be amazing parents,” Yvette whispered to him. “Right?”“Right.” He choked ou