Searching for Anika

Chapter 4

2 weeks later...

It took me sometime after that last meeting with Diane before I finally reached out to both Marco and Sheena. I went back and forth with myself for days, deciding on if I should send them an email or just call one of them out of the blue. I was also having a mixture of emotions because I just couldn't figure out what to do. In the end, it was Xola who convinced me to send an email to them. In the email, I tried to make it as personable as possible. You know, I didn't want to sound like I was doing an interview or something. So, this is what I wrote:

'Hello, Marco and Sheena. My name is Elani. You may have heard a mention of me when P.I. Diane Colley reached out to you. I am Anika's first and only daughter. I'm not sure if you know anything about me but, from what Diane told me, you and my mother were in a relationship before she passed. She also said that you guys had a child together. I am aware of the fact that she is no longer living. That was the reason why I originally reached out to Ms. Colley for her help. I wanted to find my mother. But it seems like in the end, I lost her but gained a new family. If you don't mind, I would love to speak more. Maybe on a phone call or even meeting in person. I am a successful DJ/Emcee and I'm due to go on tour soon so, I would love to get the chance to meet you all, as well as, my little brother. Hope to hear from you soon!'

It took about a whole day for both Marco and Sheena to respond back. At first, I started to become doubtful. I started to think that maybe the contact info Diane had given me for them was old or fake or something. I was this close to actually calling her and putting her ass on blast, thinking that she was cap. But then Xola made me think about it and said, "Baby, you don't even know what they do for a living. They may be busy with work or something. Just give them some time." So, I did. That next morning, I was sitting at the dining table, checking my new emails. There were 3 new notifications to check.

There was an email from Woody, the manager for D. Cuzz, Nu Dawn and BK Kidd. It was an updated tour schedule that is set to start in May. I already knew that tour time was coming up soon, but it was only February. I decided to bookmark that email because I knew that I could always come back and read that later. Plus, there's a good chance that the tour schedule will get updated again before I'm due to leave. The next notification was a "heart reaction" from both Marco and Sheena on the email I sent them. My heartbeat started to pick up and I got excited. The final notification was an email from Marco, in which he CC'd Sheena in. The subject line said, 'Hello! Can't wait to meet you!' I smiled, clicked on the email and began to read the message.

'Hello, Elani! Yes, we did receive a call from Diane Colley about a couple of weeks ago. She informed my wife and I that she was attempting to locate your mother, Anika, for you. As you stated in the email you sent previously, you are aware that your mother is no longer with us, as well as the fact that you have a younger brother. His name is Juno and he is 19 years old. Anika passed away in 2010 from a drug overdose. Before your mother passed, we had been dating for about 3 years.

We met in the grocery store one day, exchanged numbers and before I knew it, I was in love. I had plans on proposing to your mother and I wanted to get married but she was always hesitant and never told me why. On Valentine's Day in 2007, that's when we both found out that she was pregnant with Juno. At first, she told me that she wanted to get an abortion or even give Juno up for adoption. We argued for days behind her telling me this because this was going to be my first child. I may have been scared because this was my first child, but I definitely didn't want to kill an innocent life, let alone give the baby up for adoption.

Finally, your mother told me the reason why she didn't want to have Juno. It was because she said she would feel like a hypocrite, having a new baby and starting a new family, when she had another child somewhere, that she didn't even know about. Anika told me that at that time, you had to have been about 9 or 10 years old and that one night, she left you in the care of your Auntie Vi and hadn't seen you since. I tried to convince her that maybe we could hire a P.I. ourselves to find you. Anika said she was scared to do that because she felt like you may have been better off where you were, after all these years had passed by. I told her that I understood this but, that doesn't mean that we couldn't have Juno. I begged Anika to keep Juno and for me, she did.