dear devonne

[11]

I spent the rest of the night lounging around in the guest room with Lola attatched to my hip. I decided to try to keep her away from everybody for the remainder of the time that we had to spend in the house, which was kind of hard to do when there were people knocking on the door every two minutes.

"Devonne, the reunion is tommorow and you're going home straight afterwards. You're going to have to suck it up and speak to us sometime, you know," Dallas' voice rang through the room. I shifted in the bed slightly, letting Lola curl up into my side even more.

"Why can't I go play with Maddie, Momma? I'm bored."

"Hello bored, I'm Momma."

I watched as a small pout slowly began to form on her lips and rolled my eyes.

"You don't have to come out but at least let your daughter. I'd like the chance to spend time with my niece before I never see her again."

Lola looked at me with wide, pleading eyes, and I knew that if I made her stay in the room any longer she would go into diva mode. I sat up and leaned against the headboard, glancing over at the digital clock beside the bed that read 8:05pm.

"Fine, whatever, but I want you back in this room for bed by nine, do you understand?"

"I will be, I promise!" she grinned, planting a wet kiss directly on my cheek. I smiled slightly as she jumped off of the bed and ran to the door before unlocking it and running into Dallas' arms.

"Hey, sweetheart. Everyone is in the kitchen helping cook for tommorow, why don't you run and see if they need any help while I talk to your mommy, okay?"

"Okay, Aunt Dally."

Lola skipped down the hallway with a wide smile, leaving Dallas and I alone.

"She's already attached. Keeping her from us isn't going to change that."

I scoffed and watched as she turned on her heel and left without another word. Seconds later my mother came into the room with her hands crossed behind her back and sat at the foot of the bed, a small frown etched on her face.

"Do you really have to go so soon, sweetheart? I feel like we haven't made any progress since you came back and I'd really like it if I could have a relationship with my only grand daughter."

"Why didn't you think about that six
years ago, then?"

"Dev-"

"No, Mom. You can't do that. You're not the victim here."

"So what, you're just going to hold one little mistake against all of us for the rest of your life? That's not fair to anyone and you know that."

"What I do isn't any of your business. Call it whatever the hell you want but I will never forgive you for what you did. And I was willing to try to move past everything but after everything that's happened I'm not so sure that I want that anymore."

"You can't just change your mind like that. You're not a child anymore, Devonne, and you're not going to keep Lola away from me," she whispered harshly before slamming a stack of papers down onto my thigh and leaving the room. Once she was out of sight I slowly picked them up, examining them carefully.

Rereading the first paragraph over for a second time, I felt my face heat up in fury and resisted the urge to throw my fist into the wall.

They filed for custody of Lola.

They had all of the money in the world, and they were going to win it.