There was a long, still moment after Emily stepped into the room. The silence dragged and took its time to imprison the atmosphere until it seemed that Alethia and Ethan had forgotten how to breathe.Emily couldn't have missed the giggling that preceded her arrival, but now the duo in front of her were holding stunned faces that seemed they had never learned to smile. She took in a deep breath and stepped into more spaces in the room so that her presence dominated the space, and Alethia and Ethan could literally feel her in the air they tried to breathe in, and it suffocated them. "What's going on here?" She said. Emily looked at both of them consecutively and swallowed. It was obvious that they were hiding something from her--she could feel the suspicion in just about everything--the way they smiled at each other but pretended they hadn't, just when she joined them, the way they looked at each other briefly, but the brief moments seeming enforced with stories that would take them fo

Alethia watched her mom like a hawk at the dinner table. She couldn't understand what was going on in her mom's head and whatever resolution she had made with her discovery. One minute she was going on about how heartbroken she felt with Ethan's betrayal, the next she was kissing him, and now smothering his hand and flushing over his touch as if whoever it was that Ethan was cheating on her with, if she was in the room she should see and get it into her thick skull that Ethan could never be with any other woman but herself.Alethia tried to swallow the stir-fried beef her mom had made for dinner, it tasted awful, but that wasn't the problem. Each time Emily's hand moved over Ethan's, something in Alethia lurched. She dropped her cutleries for a brief moment and sighed in exasperation, and while Ethan could barely look at her, obviously because of guilt--and Alethia understood that he had no choice in such a situation, her mom looked at her with a kind of face that intend to hold Aleth

"But first, is Alethia okay?" Segun chuckled. "Of course, that's what you're more concerned about.""She's my friend.""And she created this mess.""No! She didn't," Olivia said and sat right, facing Segun. "She didn't ask for this, okay? Ethan should have handled this better."Ethan scoffed. "Excuse me, I'm here.""No," Segun defended. "Ethan here is the victim. Do you know how hard it is to navigate your feelings for two women?"Olivia laughed. "Who asked him to fall in love with two women? A mother and daughter at that. This wouldn't have happened if he had just stuck to the mother alone."Segun chuckled in disbelief. He drank from his coffee and cleared his throat. "How about the fact that Aleth was in love with him and wanted him for herself as well?"Olivia looked sharply at Ethan. He looked back at Segun and scoffed. "That was supposed to be a secret."Segun shrugged. "You left me with no choice.""Of course, I didn't," she said and reclined in the chair, then sighed in resigna

"Alethia, stop!" Olivia appealed, halting immediately as she got to the last step of the stairs. Apart from the obvious, that the situation was escalating beyond what Alethia might be able to handle afterward, Olivia could feel it in her bones that the danger that loomed above was only hanging loosely and waiting for either Alethia or her mom to cut the tiny rope which was barely holding it in place. But Alethia was too annoyed to stop, and her legs were too ahead of her as if their purpose at that moment was to get her out of the house, away from her mom so that she wouldn't consider going back to do what the evil voice in her head whispered the moment she felt the torrent of her mom's hand on her face. Her hair had bristled when the disaster landed on her face. She would have treated her mom like any other woman, had reality not put them in the same house. And had she not called her 'mom' even in the heat of the dissension? She jerked the door to herself and thundered out of the h

Alethia was staring blankly at the TV. She could barely make out what the presenter was saying, and what relevance the game show was supposed to have with her state of mind. But Olivia had promised that it was necessary, at least to distract Alethia's mind for a while. She looked at Olivia who was sitting opposite. Olivia eyes were fixed on the TV, and she was grinning as if she was the one who needed the moment the most. At a point, she laughed, and then she instinctively turned to look at Alethia, only to raise a brow at Alethia's indifference."Are you okay?" she asked. Alethia shrugged. "Isn't it obvious that I just about exist?""You can live a little as well."She dragged a breath. "You know I find no interest in anything these days. But I'll be fine, okay?"Olivia glimpsed at the TV and sighed wearily. Then she got to her feet and came over to sit beside Alethia. "Should we go out?" Alethia chuckled. "I don't think my mom would love that. She brought you here to babysit me,