Heartbreak Hotel: This Place Hotel

Chapter 19: Bones In The Closet

"Liyah?" Dr. J stopped short in her steps and eyed me. Her face was creased with confusion. I had been sitting on the brown bench in the waiting room that surrounded her office for hours. I wasn't sure how early it was or the exact amount of time I had been waiting for her to come in. I just knew that I needed to talk to her as soon as possible.

I could only give her a sheepish smile.

"What are you doing here?" She asked, as she approached me. "You're not supposed to come until next week."

I stood up and sighed. "I know, I just...really need to talk to you."

She studied my face for a moment. "Okay, what's wrong?"

"I..." I really didn't know how to come out and say it. Mainly because I promised myself that I wouldn't have to. I cleared my throat, "I...almost relapsed last night."

Her face became grave. "Liyah..." Her voice was filled heavily with disappointment.

I couldn't say anything.

"Come on," she sighed and grabbed my hand. Pulling me towards her office door where she unlocked it and flipped on the switch. "Sit down," she demanded.

I took a seat in the same chair I had marked as my own through out the years.

She took a seat behind her desk and shook her head at me, frowning. " Four years, Liyah." She said. Referring to my last relapse. "Four years."

Still, I had nothing to say. I was too ashamed of myself.

"What do you have to say for yourself?"

"Nothing," I shrugged. "There's honestly no excuse."

"Did you forget everything I've taught you?"

"No, I just..." I began to sigh. "I had a weak moment." As if that was a good excuse.

She leaned forward in her seat. "A weak moment?" She repeated. "A weak moment that almost took you back down that same road you worked so hard to get off of."

"I know..."

"A weak moment that almost cost you your life the last time you relapsed." Her voice was stern as she gave me hard stare. "Liyah, you have too much to lose."

"I know," I said. That's all I had been thinking about.

She shook her head. "What happened? The only time you do things like this is when you have something in your life going on that you can't handle!" Cocking her head to the side, she creased her eyebrows at me. "What is it this time? Marital problems? Problems with the group? What is it?"

I snickered at her questions. Those problems were minor compared to what the real problem was. "Neither," I swallowed hard and glanced up at her. "Danielle isn't my mother."

With that her hard, mother-like expression changed into a confused one. "What do you mean, child?"

"She wasn't my real mother," I clarified. "Sasha is."

"You aunt?"

I only nodded.

"God," she breathed. "That doesn't explain why you almost relapsed."

"She didn't want me, Sasha. She gave me to my father. And because he and Danielle had a thing going on while he was with Sasha, he would bring me around Danielle all the time after they broke up." I explained. "And Melvin found out about it, got pissed, and knocked Danielle out for sleeping with another man. And just so happens, that same day, my grandmother found my mother knocked out in her apartment - probably thinking she was past out from the drugs - took Aleena and I away from there. She thought that I was Danielle's because Sasha never told her she got pregnant."