“I asked you a question, Ayana! Who is that jerk you are calling on the phone? Whom did you trap in your wicked seduction now?” Cynthia demands, cocking her eyes as if she has any right to question me. Ooh, well, ever since I turned out to be the black sheep of the family, that is how she feels. I stopped being her older sister. She dropped all the respect she once had for me. She hated me, and she still hates me so much. One would think I killed someone with the way I am being treated for something as simple as falling in love with the wrong person. Love is blind, you know! Anyone can find themselves in a pit such as mine when it comes to matters of the heart. But only I have the sense to decipher that in this godforsaken family. And did she call me wicked? A wicked seduction? Whom did I ever seduce? “I never seduced anyone in my life—you sick, jealous, bitter bitch? It is not my fault, either, that no man has looked your way. You might be the wicked one, and your open wickedness is

I heaved out a huge breath that I had been holding since the sense of blackmail from my sister and her dear threats slapped me. And I take another one to calm myself. To stabilize my nerves and cool down the steam that is flaring in me.She is all cold, raw, and bold, thinking that she has won. She must be feeling like number one. She hit the right spot. I am sure triumphant and mocking laughter is mounting up in her. She is just waiting for me to bow so that she can rapture up and take her crown of victory.But, can I give her that satisfaction? Do I give a fuck about how her accusations will portray me to my parents? What change will it bring, to start with? They have already painted me black, so whether black as charcoal, representing the most stinking sinner in the world, or white as snow, representing the purest soul in the world, which I know is a wonder that can never happen, how they will see me after this means nothing. Absolutely nothing!“Try again some other time. And nex

I usher Robby inside the cage, and I sigh in relief when I find my daughter still tucked under the duvet and fast asleep. My heart is filled with hunger—hunger to know what is happening to Robby and what exactly he wants us to talk about. And what he is asking me not to do. I don’t remember sharing any of my plans with him, so of course, I am baffled because of this.Like the norm, he casts a glance at his little buddy but decides not to disrupt her irenic sleep. Their affection is mutual. Anyone can see that. Maybe he feels so much pity for the poor little girl. For us. Just like anyone with a sense of humanity would. That is why he is getting so attached.“Please sit,” I say as I slam on the seat across him in the painting area, or simply, where we normally hold our lessons.But today we are not doing the painting lessons. Today we are not playing with the colors and drawings. Today, my student is not even shedding the aura of a student. No. He is percolating something else so diffe

Bent on shedding light on the kind of man that my family wants to marry me off to, Robby seems to have gone out of his way and gathered enough info about the De’Leon son just to open my eyes.He hands me his phone, which seems too expensive for a student like him. Anyway, I dive into the matter at hand and start scrolling through the screenshots that he has saved from Adam De’Leon’s various social media accounts.And guess what? It seems like I am living in a different world. An underground perhaps, where all this news could have not reached me.Talk of women eaters, and jerkwhores who can’t keep their tails in their pants, and Adam Stone De’Leon is the real beast! The legacy he has left so far stinks! Women are his life! He changes them more than he changes his boxers! Love? That is nowhere close to him. He is merely a sexual type! Pure sex! He does not fuck one woman twice and can’t stay a day without exercising his tool. No strings are attached. If you get attached, you deal with y

I shake my head in disagreement with his words: “You are confused, and you..."“I can clear up the misunderstanding so that..."“There is nothing to clear up, Robby!” I squeal. It seems like my voice is too soft for him to understand that this discussion is heading nowhere. “You are my student, and that is that. Forget any other ideas that are developing in your head. I wouldn’t want us to hate each other because of this.”“But…”“Mommy? Uncle Robby?” We snap in the direction of Lyana. Damn! “Are you two fighting?” She asks as she peels the blanket off her.I start walking to the bed, and Robby, as the annoying man he has decided to be, strolls behind me. Actually, that was for a second before I saw him bypassing me with his long strides as he opened his arms for my daughter, who was all smiles for him. “How is the most beautiful princess doing this morning?” Robby asks as they embrace in a hug that does not sit well with me. His confusion is the reason for this feeling. How can he sa