Trouble in Paradise.

29. Engine.

Chapter 29: Engine.

"Don't fucking touch me." I yell as I roll my suitcase to the front door.

"Where are you going?" Zachary asks, trailing behind me.

"My parent's house. Where I should have gone in the first place." I say before I open the front door.

"You can't be serious." He says and I glare at him.

"Oh, I am. You don't care about us, Zach. You pretended to in the beginning now you're just doing what you always do. Being too lazy to make a relationship work. I'm done with it. I'm going to grow our child in a home where love resides. Not this poisonous environment you have created." I tell him before I put my suitcase in the backseat of my car.

"Val, come on, let's talk about this." He says, walking up to me.

"We had enough time to talk, but you'd rather attend parties with strippers instead." I tell him, opening the door to the driver's side of the car.

"I already told you what happened. The guys invited me to a bar and I went. I didn't know there were strippers there." He tells me.

"It's one thing to claim ignorance about the strippers and it's another to have them give you a lap dance." I say, folding my arms as I wait for his reply.

"I-" He starts, but can't finish his sentence.

"Thought so." I quip before I enter my car.

I turn the engine on and I let the car warm up. I turn on some music to tune out the noise of Zachary banging on my window. I wave at him before I take the gear off park and drive out of the driveway. It's going to be a long drive to my parents house. So, I turn on some music. Lizzo's "Truth Hurts" plays through the car and I instantly get hyped. I sing the lyrics at the top of my lungs and shake my head. This is already off to a great start.

***

"Honey, we didn't know you were coming." My mother says with a smile on her face.

"I wanted to surprise you." I tell her, placing my suitcase in the foyer.

"Your dad's still at work. It's just me and the help." She tells me. "Miranda." She calls out.

"Yes ma'am." I hear a voice say from the kitchen.

A blonde woman comes out wearing a black apron and she smiles at me.

"Miss Valarie, you're here." She says before she gives me a hug.

"You know me?" I ask her in shock as she pulls away.

"Yes, your mother has told me so much about you." She says, smiling.

"You seem lovely. Nice to meet you." I tell her.

"Miranda, please take this bag to Valarie's room." She tells her and Miranda does as she is told.

"We're having spicy rice cakes and grilled asparagus for dinner. Just like grandma used to make them." My mother tells me when we enter the kitchen.

"Speaking of grandma, I was wondering if we could go see her or probably fly her in?" I ask my mother.

"Your grandmother isn't going to enter any plane and you know this." She says and I nod.

"But we can bribe her with the fact that I'm bringing her first great-grandchild into the world." I tell her.

"That might do the trick. I'll talk to her." She tells me and I clap my hands.

"What about Abuelita?" I ask her and she stares at me.