The lives of Olivia and Rayden Reed are about to take a captivating turn when a figure from their past reemerges, igniting a whirlwind of emotions and buried secrets. Malia, a woman they once loved and lost, returns after eight long years with a dar...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
"I see a...big re...red ball," Meylin reads from the flashcards in her hand.
"Good job, Baby. Try this one," Olivia encourages, sitting next to her in the back seat. The twins are in their car seats behind them sleeping, while Ray drives the 7-seater SUV with me in the front seat next to her.
"My dad hel... helps me with math," Meylin continues, chuckling with her hand over her mouth.
"Now, Olivia, why are you lying to your child? I do not help anybody with math. I barely know what one plus one is. My ass done always ended up with three," Rayden says, shaking her head, which causes Meylin to burst out laughing.
Mey is starting school next week, and we've been diligently working on her reading skills to make sure she's well-prepared. She'll be attending the same school as Zoey, as well as the rest of Reed's children, whose parents have been going there for generations.
Olivia took some time off to help tutor her. They started with flashcards and repetition, then moved on to more engaging and effective learning strategies.
"My mom... cooks yummy... f... ood," Meylin reads aloud.
"You can say that again," Ray calls out to the back of the car, giving me a mischievous look. She wiggles her eyebrows with a teasing smirk, and I chuckle, pushing her face away to focus on the road.
She intertwines her palm with mine, bringing it to her lips, and placing a kiss on it. Then she returns her attention to steering the car with one hand, effortlessly maneuvering while keeping our connection alive.
I guess you could say that I've been indulging them quite a bit with my cooking. It's been a month since we started this rendezvous between us, and I spend the time I'm not at work with them, enjoying our moments as a family. In the past month, I haven't actually slept at their house since the night Liv and I were together.
For some reason, they always drive me back to Ray's parents' house, and we all sleep in the guest room. I don't really question it; a part of me thinks it's because they are still working through the aftermath of the cheating incident. It's a topic that's come up a few times in therapy, and it's clear that Rayden was deeply hurt by it.
Therapy has been eye-opening for all of us. Rayden has been holding onto a lot of resentment, not only towards Olivia and me but also towards her own family. I completely understand where she's coming from. Nobody ever bothered to ask if she was okay, and she would just put on a facade of a smile while struggling internally. Her biting remarks were a way to deflect from the turmoil she was experiencing inside.
During therapy, I discovered that Rayden cheated on her ex, Chelsea, with Olivia. A part of her feels that Olivia cheating on her with me was the universe's way of balancing the scales for what she did to someone else. She loved Olivia enough to hurt another person, and Olivia loved me just as deeply to do the same to Rayden. It's a complex web of emotions that we're all trying to untangle.
