At last | Editing

Chapter 20

Damn.

The more I think I've completely gotten away from my past, the more somebody else shows up and reminds me of how far I've not run.

Nobody in this room knows about my past except Kayleigh and Amarillo. I glare at both of them, immediately assuming that they told other people about my past.

Their eyes catch mines.They both shake their heads in confusion.

So, if they haven't confided in others about my past life, who the fuck is this woman? And why is she speaking up a name that has honestly been dead to me since I let Christian dig his claws deep into me!

"Who's Charisma?" Mrs. Marshall finally breaks the ice from dead silence.

"Her." she smiles full of excitement. "Thats's Charisma Michaels." She turns all the way around, you can see her eyes start to water as she studies me from head toe.

"No. Her name is Naomi Satchel." Natasha assures her. "You must have her confused with the wrong person."

"No. I-I know that voice when I hear it. And I that face when I see it." She takes a deep breath in and out. "I can see. I know my niece." she sobs and takes a few steps towards me.

"Niece?" No. No way. She can't be my aunt I never once saw this lady a day in my life. If she was my aunt I would love remembered her the second I heard her voice right?

"You were too young to remember me, my love." she cries. "You were only eight years old when I left, now look at you. So, beautiful. So strong. " she smiles as the tears continue to run down her cheeks.

I feel this familiar indescribable burning pain in the middle of my chest. I've ever only felt this pain once before now but this was once back when I was in Texas. I knew I shouldn't have told Christian, the boy who I was crushing on them, but he wasn't like the others. What I've felt for him was surreal. I trusted him with my heart, my body, my soul, MY EVERYTHING.

I trusted him enough...enough to tell him that my name wasn't really Charisma Michaels, it was London Hampton. And then before that, it was Yolanda Cruz. And then before that, Zaylynn Rain. Out of all the lives I had to live, Charisma Michaels is the one that affected me the most. Everything about my life in Texas meant so much to me way more than any of the other lives I've ever live. I think me staying with them for the longest has a lot to do with that. I've been with them since I were 8 years old.

My mother, Kelenna Satchel, who's my mother to Virginia Beach, she was actually the wife to my father, Kelvin Michaels back in Alpine Texas. But when I was 10, we were staying in Oklahoma at the time, the two split and then it was just me and Kelvin. They're the closest thing I've had to parents.

This nurse, who's name tag reads, "Michaels". Okay. So what?! She is a Michaels, but there's a lot of last people with the last name Michaels who are no kin to me. And my father never mentioned to me that I'd have an Auntie out here looking out for me.

Even if this...imposter is my aunt, Why would she leave me? Where did she go? Why did she show up now? Is she spying on me for my parents? Trying to make sure that I haven't gone off course and fell in love with yet another "black boy". Would she tell them that I am friends with the colored people they despise so much? If she does, I will not play nice. I'm supposed to live a normal life until the people from that agency come looking for me again, I may add, trying to kill and then I take off again with a whole new identity and family waiting for me. I'm sick of doing it and I wish they would all leave me alone and I can just have the chance do something I never could, be a kid. I grasp a hold to my chain around my neck that has praying hands as a locket.

"That locket around your neck? Do you remember what was told to you when it was given to you?" She ask. This locket will forever be a part of me even if the person who gave it to me isn't my real aunt.

"Of course I remember. Do you?" I snap back.

"Of course. How can I forget?" she laughs. I cross my arms around my chest studying her, waiting for her to tell me.

"I'm waiting." I say as I glared at her.

"That locket was given to you the day your aunt was leaving to go to the military, this is when you were nine years old. You two were like the best of friends, inseparable. Your parents were always upset with her because they thought that she was trying to run off with their daughter like in some crazy lifetime movie." she laughs. And I join in before I remember that I don't know this woman. So, I immediately stop laughing.

"Anyway, you were so scared for her to leave that you latch onto her legs and wouldn't let her move, you were pretty strong for a nine-year-old." she smiles.

"I--I mean she kept asking you to release the hold you had on her legs because she had to go. You kept your face buried into her legs as you said, "No. I will never let you go. So, don't ever count it." I..she..she looked down at you and said "Why? I have to go. I can't be late. You're going to make me late." She chuckles softly, as tears appear in her eyes, as do mine. I don't know how she remembers this or knows this but she does and I feel the exact same pain I felt that day as she continues.

"Because if I let you go you will die. I had a dream that I was at a funeral and I looked down and seen a tombstone with your name and face on it. I can't sit and allow that to come true especially when I can stop it."

Okay. I can't hold my tears back anymore.

"And do you want to know what I did?" she asks through her tears which are now running down her face.

"What?" I sob.

"I lifted your head up by your chin and I said, 'I'm not going to die. I'm going to fight in a war for us. For this country.' " The glare in my eyes softens.

"You were such a smart, resilient, brave little girl." she sniffs.

"If you're going to fight with us, why can't income fight with you. This is a two-man job, not one." I look into your eyes and I saw the fight and the pain in you, so I pulled the locket with a praying hands charm from my pocket and snapped around your neck as I then said, 'Where this locket around your neck at all times when you become hopeless, because I will always be there to lift you up. And Seeing death as the end of life is like seeing the horizon as the end of the ocean. And it's not. It's so much more than you think.' we then said our final goodbyes and gave our final hugs and kisses and that was that." she cries some more.

My heart has been ripped away from my body and left nothing but a hole in my chest. This is my Auntie Nicole. This is really my Auntie Nicole. I am so glad that she's not dead because I thought she was dead. Although I am so excited, my reaction to follow was the total opposite. I just couldn't help but think about why she was here. And why now?

She walks to me with open arms, attempting to pull into a hug and hold me and tell me how much I've grown or whatever, but I wasn't up for hugs.

"Don't!" I put my hand on her chest my eyes focus at the floor. "Don't Touch me, please." I say as I run out of the room in tears.

(Sorry for the late upload. Vote and comment!!! I would love to know how you guys feel about this story so far. This is also one of the longest chapters I wrote for this book... I think. Sorry, I could bring myself to stop just yet. Lol but serious.)