Nothing could prepare me for the sight in front of me. Nope, the smile I had plastered on my face that I thought would never fade after my conversation with Tariq, is now dead flat.

Lips pressed in a thin line.

Nostrils flaring.

The right side of my nose twitching up.

It creaks and tosses in the harsh, bitter wind, and rattles when it hits the white vinyl post.

FOR SALE

But that's not the part that's making my nose twitch like I'm a bunny. It's the words stamped above it on a tinier sign.

I snatch my phone out of the cupholder of my car and stomp to MY house.

It had clearly been cleaned, seeing as how the white brick is actually, I don't know... white. The garage door is still the steel grey-blue that matches the siding above it and all the exterior doors. The bushes and trees that wrap around the corner lot house have been trimmed to perfection. The white bricks of the chimney between two floor-to-ceiling windows are blindingly white. The green crud I had tried to wash off many times with my own hands, is now gone. Even the basketball hoop has been replaced with a shiny new one.

My key thankfully still works, but when I open the door, I kind of wish it hadn't.

It's bare.

All of our stuff... gone.

My dad's ugly green Lazy Boy recliner.

The hospital bed he had slept in that I had put by his favorite window so he could see the apple tree bloom.

Our antique television stand where I had watched my first horror movie about a killer Leprechaun.

The dining room table with its puffy, outdated, yellow chairs has vanished. Not even leaving an imprint in the carpet because it had been ripped out and replaced with weird, cold-looking wood, but not wood crap.

Slipping off my shoes, I walk to the kitchen that has been remodeled with white cabinets, backsplash, and fancy new appliances. The old white fridge with all the things my dad had put up from pictures I drew to a picture of him and me after he had dropped me off for my first day in college, was now gone.

I rush to my bedroom and my daybed is gone, my dresser, and desk. My knees collide with the floor I had used to play hours of Calico Critters on.

I didn't need to look anywhere else.

Every inch of this space is new, our existence erased.

My thumb swipes until I find my step-sister's number and I hold the phone up to my ear as it rings.

"Elodie, I've been trying to call you for weeks," she says as soon as she answers.

My throat is closing up and I take a deep breath, allowing oxygen to open it up a little enough to get my question through. "What did you do, Laura?"

She sighs, "I'm sorry. I really am, but I had no choice. The market is at an all-time high. I had a crew come in to fix it up and it's going to be sold for a substantial profit."

"Where's all my stuff?" I cry out.

"Elodie, please calm down. I tried calling you but you never answered. I had everything moved to a storage unit for you."

"Why?" I interrupt. "Why would you do this? There's no place to sleep. Where am I going to go?"

"If you would have answered your phone, I would've told you to stay at your dorms. Look, I took care of everything for you. You should be grateful."

I pull my phone back, eyes wide and blinking back in disbelief, then I bring it back. "Grateful? You tore my home away from me and now you're leaving me homeless."

"Homeless?" she asks, shocked. "Elodie, you get half of the profit. You'll easily be able to afford a place to live as soon as it sells. I'm not taking anything from you, this is how this stuff works. You may not biologically be his daughter but you're treated as such because he adopted you. I'm just taking what I deserve too. Everything is split in half right down the middle between us."

My mind is whirling and I'm dizzy with heated anger. "You haven't been a part of his life for years. I've only met you once and yet here you come and decide half of his stuff belongs to you."

"I was his daughter too," she whispers. "Elodie, I know you're upset and I wish I didn't live far away so we could discuss this in person, but... the dad you know, isn't the one I knew."

"What do you mean?" I ask, tears falling down my eyes.

There's a pause and I hear her shushing one of her kids and then a door closing. "He was a drunk, okay. The worst kind too. Abusive, verbally, emotionally, and physically."

"You're lying!" I shout. There's no way the man I knew, who had protected me, taken me to church every Sunday, volunteered at the homeless shelter on his days off duty, would've been that kind of man. "My dad was a good man."

"Your dad was," she agrees. "Mine wasn't. By the time you came along and dad adopted you, he had changed, but I couldn't move past what happened between him and me. Even the thought of him doing to my children what he did to me, scared me."

My head is reeling and my temples throb, but what she's saying also makes sense. Whenever I had asked him about her and what had happened his eyes would dim, swim with regret and shame, and then he'd look away from me saying it was all his fault and that he'd probably die never seeing her again.

And he did.

"You could've come by yourself to see him."

She's quiet and when her voice breaks through the phone, she's crying. "I wish I had. I wish I hadn't been afraid and had moved forward, but I couldn't forgive him. I will carry that regret with me for the rest of my life. I didn't even know he had passed away." Laura takes a deep breath, trying to compose herself. "I'm glad he had you though and I plan on helping you find a place."

"What if I don't want your help?" I ask, my voice sharp and emotions all over the place.

"If you need to make me the bad guy, Elodie I get it, that's fine. But you have to learn not everything is black and white, especially people."

This time I'm quiet and only one thing matters to me right now and I hope Laura has the answer. "Do you know how he came to adopt me? Maybe there was documentation somewhere around here. Maybe I can reach out to my birth parents."

"He did a lot right by you, Elodie. I think it was good he never told you. He was being a good dad. Protecting you from pain you didn't need to know."

"You know, don't you."

"Yeah, I do."

"Please, tell me," I beg in a quiet voice.

She fiddles with something... an earring maybe? And then the hard truth hits me when she says, "He found you in a dumpster behind the high school during prom. You were lucky to have survived."

I can't say anything.

I knew I had been abandoned... but thrown in a dumpster?

"I'm sorry, Elodie."

My mind is in chaos and I quickly mutter out, "I have to go."

"Do you have a place to stay? Can I--" I hang up on her.

Leaving the house with a dull heart, I open my car door and fall into my seat. My palms press against my belly and I burst out crying. "I won't ever do that to you. I'll love you and take care of you and be the best mommy I can be, I promise. I promise."

It's Thanksgiving Day and I'm on my way to the homeless shelter to volunteer since I have nothing better to do. I'm jamming to Celine Dion, finally at a place of peace when that dinging noise breaks it.

"I know my gas tank is full," I mumble to myself.

My fingers grip the steering wheel and I lean into it shouting, "Ohmygoshohmygoshohmygosh!"

My car is revving.

It's high-pitched, almost like a veeeeeeewwwwwww sound, as if my car is whining. Burning rubber makes my nose cringe and my battery light is on, along with one in yellow saying ABS.

What the heck does that even mean?

My electronics are all failing on me and my car is starting to stall.

Cue full-on freakout.

I press on my brakes at a four-way stop and it goes ca...put.

Great.

My shaky fingers try to turn my car on, again and again... but nothing. I have no clue what to do. I'm, lucky? To be stuck in a place with zero traffic. Pro to that, I'm not holding anyone up... Con, no one is here to help me.

The con obviously outweighs the pro.

I pull up a number for a towing service and no one answers. I try a couple more but come up empty. It's Thanksgiving Day, everyone is celebrating. The back of my head hits the headrest and I take a deep breath.

"If Collin tries anything or you need help just call, okay?"

Crap.

There's only one option.

I have to call Tariq.

He's the closest to me and I'm guessing only two hours or so away. I'm about to ruin his Thanksgiving... go me.

Have I told him yet?

No, I want to do it face-to-face, not through text or over the phone. My fingers dig into my closed eyes and I rub my lids to the point they're sore. "Can anything go right?"

Having no other choice, I call him.

After two rings he picks up. "Please tell me you're calling to wish me a Happy Thanksgiving as a ruse so you could hear my sexy voice?"

The corner of my mouth twitches along with my nose. "I wish, unfortunately, I need your help and I hate to do this to you on Thanksgiving Day."

There's a loud cheer and I can hear some of the guys chanting something in the background. I feel even worse now. Tariq's parents host some members of the hockey team at their house for Thanksgiving every year since they live close and not all of them get the luxury of going home.

"I'm sorry, I know you're busy, but my car broke down and I can't get it to start. The towing service isn't answering and--"

"Where are you?"

"At the four-way stop on Elm and Ninth," I answer. "I was on my way to volunteer at the Shelter for a bit."

He's quiet and I know he has questions, especially since I've kept him in the dark about everything.

"I'm on my way. How's the battery life on your phone?"

I pull it away to check. "Good."

"Call me if something changes, mine isn't fully charged and I want to make sure you can contact me if you need to."

My eyes close and the conversations ahead of us are going to be tough. "Thank you."

"Be careful, okay. I'm coming for you."

My heart flutters at the seriousness lacing his rumbly voice. "Tell everyone I'm sorry."

"You have nothing to apologize for. I'm going to let my mom know and I'll head out. Hold tight."

Our call ends and I blow out a bitter laugh. "New low, Elodie. Homeless, pregnant with your car broken down at the side of the road."

Tariq is coming.

He'd be here.

I get to see him.

I'm exhausted and nausea has not been my friend today.

Morning sickness?

They should call it all-day sickness.

My hand grabs the bag of saltine crackers, the plastic crinkling under my grip as I push one up with my thumb and pick it out. I munch on it. It's been the only thing I can eat lately. Anything else, I vomit it up. I have been drinking a lot of water though, making sure I stayed hydrated. I also got gummy prenatal vitamins because the pills were huge and hard on my stomach.

Needing something to help my restlessness, I put Celine on my phone and start singing to myself as my mind drifts.

It's been a few days since my conversation with Laura and I've taken the time to digest everything. I've allowed myself to be angry, hurt, and then after letting all my emotions simmer out, I started to rationalize.

Maybe Laura isn't the bad guy as much as I'd like her to be. Do I like her and will we ever have a relationship? No. But, she is still his daughter and she isn't leaving me high and dry like I thought she would.

She texted me with the information on the storage unit and gave me access to it. She's also paying for it until I have a place to live and time to go through it all.

I really want to hate her.

But I can't.

She's helping me, and after everything, I need the help and I need to set my pride aside.

I can't do this on my own.

For my child's sake. The cold starts to seep into my car and cling to me. I reach in the back and grab Tarqi's jacket, wrapping it around me to keep the chill at bay.

One of my favorite songs comes on when I hit the two-hour mark and I join Celine for a duet.

"Cause it's not easy!" I take a deep breath because my vocal range can't even compete with my queen's. "When you're not with me!"

Tires crackling behind my car doesn't make me stop because this song is speaking to me more than it ever has before and I am angry belting it out. My vision blurs a little, everything spins from my lack of oxygen from trying to mimic Celine's vibrato. "And it's a train wreck, but I won't crash it! As long as your echo never fades out."

There's a knock and I legit hold up my finger to Tariq, needing to finish out the song. As I quietly sing the last line out, I gather myself and open the door. "Sorry I really needed that."

Holy mother Mary. I lick my lips. He looks exhausted yet so beautiful in low-riding black jeans, a white shirt, and an open light-washed jean button-down with his sleeves rolled up, revealing a new cross tattoo on the underside of his forearm. He has his hair styled and his beard trimmed down to a nice sexy scruff. His features are pulled into a stiff, serious expression, and frustration rolls off him.

My knots are replaced with tingles at how dangerous he looks.

I swallow, a bundle of nerves bursting in my stomach. I'm nervous. Super nervous. And as his eyes bore into me, I realize just how beautiful my future child is going to be.

"You've lost weight and you look exhausted," Tariq states a little harshly.

"It's been a rough couple of weeks," I say, a little peeved. "Look, I'm sorry. You can just take me back to my dorm."

"I thought you had gone home?" he questions darkly.

I gulp. Time for the truth. "Um, my house is being sold. It's a long story but I can't stay there right now so I'm at the dorms."

His brows furrow. "Where's the rest of your family?"

I bite down on my lip. "It's just me, Tariq. All I had was my dad, I have no one else, apart from a step-sister I met once. She's selling the house and we're splitting the profits."

My eyes dart down and he's quiet. "You were going to spend Thanksgiving volunteering then going back to the dorm all by yourself?"

I get prickly. "What else was I supposed to do?"

He digs his hand in his hair, ruining it yet making him sexier in the process. "You could've come to my place."

I laugh. "Invite myself over to my ex-boyfriend's house who I just started talking to again?"

His eyes widen and his face pulls down, appalled. "Ex?"

My emotions are all over the place, nothing is making sense and I'm rambling. "Yes, ex, if you can even call me that."

"Blue, I didn't break up with you."

"You're right we weren't even really a couple so I shouldn't call you an ex," I counter.

"Special Agent Mitchel!" Rasheed shouts, gaining my attention.

Tariq's hard eyes are on me as I wave to Rasheed as he's popped out of Tariq's jeep, waving like a little kid. My eyes find Tariq's. I push myself up and my legs are too weak, the world spins around me, blinding white dots obscuring my vision, and then everything goes black.

"No!"

Ah! Cliffhanger!!!! Who wants another update to see what's happened?

Thoughts on the step-sister and Elodie finding out a lot of truth? Sometimes people aren't as evil as we think they are and they're dealing with emotional or physical things we don't know or see.

Don't forget to hit that vote button to let me know if you all are enjoying the drama :) I promise comedy is going to be coming back soon!

Love you all!

LivingRed