FREDDY PRINCE

chapter ten

The minute Kalani checked Dahlia's voice message, she was on her way to Dunes Town. Dahlia didn't even have to say much about why she was calling, just the sound of her voice made Kalani eager to hear her out.

Her Uber ride was filled with thoughts and questions. Why was Dahlia ready to talk all of a sudden? What did she want to talk about? Did she know something all that time and still shoo her away? So many things ran through Kalani's mind on her way to Dahlia, it almost made her sick.

"You must be Kalani."

A blonde woman, who wasn't Dahlia, answered the door. She was tall and slender, dressed as a rich white woman would dress, and had the attitude to match.

"Yes. I'm here to speak with Dahlia."

For a moment, Judy stared at Kalani with worry in her eyes. She was fearful that reopening the old can of worms would ruin her relationship with Dahlia or get her killed, but there was nothing she could do. Dahlia had already agreed to talk.

"Step right in," Judy said. "She's up the hall in the kitchen."

Instead of showing Kalani where to find the kitchen, Judy walked away with a drink in her hand. Kalani left it up to her sense of smell to find her destination and when she got there, it surprised her to see how beautiful it was.

"Dahlia?"

she called out to the woman standing near the stove, relieved to see that it was Dahlia.

"Ok. Whew," she chuckled. "This is a gorgeous house. I love this kitchen."

"Thank you."

Dahlia spoke kindly, but her face wasn't kind at all.

"Come in and have a seat. I'm making my world's famous pasta sauce for dinner tonight."

Kalani took a seat at Dahlia's large round table. The air was uncomfortable for her, but there was no turning back. Dahlia stimulated her curiosity, so she had to know what it was she wanted to say.

"Did you know my mother?"

Dahlia seemed frozen in time after the question. She knew Naomi like the back of her hand. She knew her better than her husband knew her. There wasn't a single thing Dahlia didn't know about her mother. Except who killed her.

"Yeah."

She finally spoke, her head hanging low with her back still turned.

"We met through my brother, Mack."

"Mack's your brother!? I didn't know Mack had any family."

"There's a lot about him you don't know. The same goes for everyone."

They hadn't even begun discussing the details of her mother and Kalani learned something new. Mack had family outside of her dad. She even questioned the possibility of him having kids that he kept hidden from the world.

A few times she questioned whether he and her mother were having an affair because she respected him more than she did her father, but nothing ever came of it. Before Kalani left Virginia, she figured out Mack wasn't her mother's type.

"I knew your mother very well," Dahlia continued. "I was in love with her. I can look back and laugh at myself now, but living in the moment was something completely different. I thought she might grow to love me the same way I loved her one day. But we never saw that day. Everything got ripped right from under us before there was ever a chance."

Kalani's wheels spun. After finding out her mother had a same-sex love interest, she wondered if that was the reason her father killed her. She thought maybe he was jealous and didn't want to lose what he had already lost to a woman.