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⋘ ──── ∗ ⋅◈⋅ ∗ ──── ⋙ CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN WHO IS NEEDED ⋘ ──── ∗ ⋅◈⋅ ∗ ──── ⋙
"Hi, mommy!" Was the immediate greeting Tanya was welcomed by. Both her daughter's faces are on her screen with smiles pressed intently upon their faces. A beautiful sight that a digital screen wouldn't be able to do justice.
"Hey, you two." Tanya smiled. "How have you guys been? School been all right?"
"Yup," Samantha said. "Ana and I aced our math test yesterday. We both got 100's!"
"Wow," Tanya laughed. "That's amazing you two! I'm so proud of you guys."
It'd been so long since she'd heard their voices and longer their faces. The harsh and responsible inner saboteur tells her to just leave and be with them right now. Don't turn back to this endless cycle of work and putting her life on the line. No matter how hard Tanya tried and pleaded with herself, she couldn't. Something inside her kept her at work.
"Hey, Tanya!" Her eyes flickered away from the phone. Finding Brian making his way over with a hint of excitement in his eyes. The sight is so rare considering they don't see one another away from work.
Smiling, Tanya looked back at her phone. "You guys, I'd like you to meet your uncle Brian," she said. "He's not scary Ana so there's no need to hide."
The girl pointed out bit her bottom lip and forced herself to stay in the frame. Tanya tilted the phone, pointing it towards her brother who wore an eager smile. Having wished to talk to his little sister's kids just as much as she'd wanted to see Jack.
Their conversation and introduction were brief. Enough for Brian to see what Tanya held close and what she'd been forcing herself away from. Perhaps it was the idea that Luke would be there half the time if she tried to visit. Or it was the constant reminder of what she lost last year. The baby that had been growing inside her. Taken away from her so suddenly and ruthlessly.
That may have been all the reason to step away for a while. Hide from the fact that maybe she's not deserving of this chance of a normal life. Maybe she's destined to jump from battle to battle without any form of thinking. Maybe that's why she'll never have a child be brought into the world by her.
"When did you lose 'em?" Tanya turned to Dom who watched her carefully. His eyes held her gaze as he dove into the baby blues of her iris'. It didn't feel right for Dom to be able to access her thoughts and feelings so well. It also felt like the first time either of them had felt engaged with one another.
She closed the space and sat at the table. Bracing her arms and shook her head silently. "After Rio," Tanya confessed. "Died in my belly when I got to the hospital."
He nodded as he clasped his hands together in front of him. "Is that why you and Luke aren't together?"
Almost instinctively, Tanya looked down at the engagement ring cuffed around her right ring finger. Twisting it and missing the cold kiss it gave to her skin when she pulled it off at night. Nowaday's, she never let it go, even during sleep or in the shower. Something about that item had shown commitment to not just something, but someone. And showed her unmoving loyalty to Luke, despite their recent disagreements.
"Back when I met Brian, I had a girlfriend."
"Letty?"
Dom smile slightly as he grabbed a nearby file. Sliding it across the table to which Tanya grabbed it and opened it.
"Her name was, Ari-Lue, Han's sister," he stated. "She was mine and Letty's girlfriend."
Tanya smirked. "Who would've known Dom could score two beautiful women," she quipped as his smile slightly widened.
"She was pregnant with our kid," he continued. "When we were just stealing TVs and VCRs, she came with us. Street raced, helped with the store, helped with the tuning, everything"
His voice grew lower, sorrowful with his lips pursing thinly. "But when Brian revealed he was a cop, and Johnny Tran shot up our house," he paused, "she was caught in the crossfire."
He brushed his index and middle finger across the left side of his head. "A bullet nicked the side of her head, along with her sternum," he explained. "Killed the baby, Jackie."
"And the other?" Tanya whispered, looking up from the file.
Dom's lips parted, letting out a shaky exhale. Eyes lost into open space as he replayed over and over again the memory. Holding the pregnant girl's body in his arms as she lay there in shock. Tears brimmed in the edge of her eyes as she stared back at him. Unresponsive to his words with the silent plea leaving her lips, "Please, I don't want to lose him."
A quiet plea and the last thing she would ever say relating to her prior memories. Everything else after that was her new life and Dom had to hear all about it from the audiotapes leftover by Letty and Mia after he came back to avenge Letty. God, he hated himself for leaving as he did.
"It, uh..." He paused. "The bullet nicked so deep that it irritated the brain. Damaged it. I- I didn't stay long enough to see her, you know? I left because I wasn't willing to go back to prison. It was only when I came back after Letty died that I realized how much I missed. How much she and Letty had needed me."
For a brief second, Tanya quickly wiped away a rogue tear that slipped out. In so many ways, she related with Dom and his story. He knew what Ari felt like, at a certain standpoint, and she knew what that did to a person. How it tore the people around you apart and yourself included. Her entire life had fractured into shards and she had no way to pick them back up. Work was the closest thing to keeping her sane and away from the ones she was afraid to face.
Facing Luke after that night, after their fight the week after, it was a pain that stabbed her heart. Twisted until it left her breathless and withering on the floor. Pleading to whoever was able to free her from this feeling. Willing to do whatever it was to be allowed to breathe properly and continue about her business in peace.
But when she thought Dom was over, when he seemed to be too lost in his feelings to continued, she was proven wrong by that smile that formed on his lips.
"But when I came back and Mia told me everything, I learned something," he stated. "Ari had her entire life stripped away from her and practically lost everything. But she still found something to live for and that had been Letty and Mia."
He pointed at Tanya. "You are needed, Tanya," he said. "You may feel as if you are at your lowest, but you'll find a way. And if there is one thing I've learned about you, it's that you find a way to get back up. Even when you shouldn't."
His words hung on like chandeliers in Tanya's mind. Shining brightly with the glimmering diamonds surrounding them. And she focused on them even when Dom and Brian left to find the distributor to the bullet that had been fired from Letty's gun. She didn't say anything or spare to either Luke and Tej when they arrived with the vehicles.
You find a way to get back up, Tanya repeated that simple claim in her mind on repeat. She only hoped that she could find her footing sooner than later.
