Into The Stars

What's Done In The Dark - Part II

A/N: I had not intention of this part being this long but hey it's what my brain came up with.

Devale

To say I was stunned was an understatement, I should have put two and two together though. Near the end of the affair, Crystal began to distance herself from me. I know I definitely played a part in it when I told her that Khadeen and I were going to go to counseling. I never wanted to hurt Crystal but I did. And just a year later we wound up getting a divorce. As I sat there in the airport waiting for our ride I was deep in thought. There was so much on my mind. Crystal and Ellis were definitely number one on my mind. I wanted to know everything about my daughter. She looked so much like Kota it was crazy. Ellis was definitely my child and I guess that's another reason Crystal moved away. I wondered if she was living here in Seattle or wherever she was traveling too. Jackson took me out of my deep thoughts with a slight shove.

"Dad...hello...are you with us?" He called.

"I'm sorry son. I was in deep thought."

"Yeah and I know who about. Hey Dad, TT Crys's daughter reminded me a lot of Kota."

"Ummmm...yeah...about that...there's something we have to talk about. You're older now and I hope that you understand when we have this conversation."

"If it's about you and TT Crys. Dad, I've known since before you and mom broke up."

"How?"

"She was the only one who made you smile back then. One day we were all hanging out at her house and y'all thought we were watching a movie. You and her were in her kitchen kissing. I had gotten up to get some more juice and saw y'all."

"I'm sorry son. I broke our family."

"No you didn't do it by yourself Dad. Mom played her part too. I didn't understand when I was younger but when we all went to therapy to help us through the divorce, I talked about it with him."

"Jacks, I still owe you an apology though."

"Dad, was that little girl my sister?" He asked the hard question right out the gate. I couldn't do anything but answer him truthfully.

"Yes, I uhh umm...I didn't know about her until today."

"It's okay. Do you still love TT Crys?"

"With all my heart, Jacks, with all my heart." I truthfully admitted to my son.

"Go to her Dad. Say you had a family emergency or something, find her and bring her and my sister home."

I never thought that I'd be taking advice from my son but here I am. I am glad that Jackson understood that I never meant to break our family. But there was one thing he was right about and that is we were broken long before Crystal and I began our affair. I can admit that somewhere along the way in our friendship I fell in love with Crystal and I acted on those feelings without thinking about the consequences. In the end we both ended up hurt but she gave me the greatest gift. Don't get me wrong I love my sons but I've always wanted a daughter, which Crystal knew, so it's making me wonder why she didn't tell me. We have so much to talk about. I'm following my heart and this time I'm not going to let Crystal get away. At this point I'm really ready to say forget this promotional tour like Jacks said and go find my woman.

Crystal

As I got on the plane with Ellie, there was so much going through my mind. Why now? What does Devale think? One thing that's going through my mind is what happens now? Sitting on the plane it was like I was on autopilot with Ellie. She looked out the window as we took off and I put her headphones on to help with her ears. She was watching one of her shows on her tablet. I know keeping Devale's child from him was wrong but I did for a reason. At the time I truly thought that he and Khadeen would work through their issues and be back to who they were when I first met them. Though I no longer had social media, I knew they divorced. I still didn't feel like it was my place to go to him or tell him about his daughter. He always wanted a daughter but Khadeen gave him all boys. I gave him the one thing he desperately wanted and I took three years from him. For that I am truly sorry. When we touched down in Tennessee to see my family. I was still all over the place and my mind was elsewhere. My mother who picked us up from the airport was the first to notice my state of mind.