Shireen Rabb's apartment
Somewhere in Miami
0230 hours local
Shireen's POV
Something woke me up. I don't know what it is; I just know that I'm awake right now. I listen to the quietness of my apartment. Everything is still. There is nothing here that could've woken me up. Then why am I awake?
My life has been a roller coaster lately. A lot of things have happened in a small amount of time, and I'm still trying to cope with it. I'm teaching history now, at the local university, just a few blocks down the road. I have next to no contact with my family any more. My daughter has never seen my parents or my siblings. She's three years old and doesn't know I even have family. The last time I talked to either of my parents was six years ago. Gabriel tried to fix things between us, but to no avail. My big brother can't fix everything.
Truth is; everything Dad had tried to worn me for, and that I waved off, came true. All of it. He'd seen that Enrique would only cause me pain, but I was stupid and I followed my heart anyway. And at first, everything was fine. Things were great. For the first two and a half years, we were good together. I could live my life, and Enrique could live his and we would just be all right. But when Enrique found out that I was pregnant…
Everything went downhill from there. He didn't want the baby; he wanted the freedom that we'd had. He wasn't ready to really settle down. He wasn't ready for the commitment a baby brought with it. So he left. Left me while pregnant; moved and disappeared out of my life. He, too, has never seen his daughter. Our daughter.
Dad had warned me that that might happen. That Enrique was going to walk out on me at some point. But me being me, I didn't want to listen to him. I simply didn't want to hear his reasons. It took me about two and a half years to get over the fact that Enrique has left me. I started dating again only a few months ago. Fact is, that a part of me is still in love with him. That I can't seem to get over him, not really, no matter how hard I try.
I lean in the doorway to my daughter's room and look at her. She looks like her father. She has his eyes; she sometimes has his expression on her beautiful little face. Her name is Tally. Little Talitha Chavez. I wanted her to have her father's last name. He is listed on her birth certificate, too. Tally is a hand full, and sometimes I wonder why the hell I try to be a single parent, but then she does something that makes me laugh, or just simply makes my whole day better, and I figure that it is all worth it. The struggle, the pain, all of it.
Smiling, I close the door behind me and look at a picture on the wall. Her second birthday, last year. Tally is sitting on Harry's lap, wearing an improvised paper crown on her head, and smiling brightly at the camera. Harry is a close friend of mine; he's a co-worker at the university.
We've never been together, and we never will, although some people might have a different opinion about that. Mrs. Riley, who lives two apartments down the hall from me, is always prying about Harry and me. She really likes to stick her nose in other peoples business. I learned to deal with that years ago, so I just smile and let the lady believe what she wants to believe. Whatever she thinks is fine with me.
Sighing, I get back in bed. But my mind just won't stop spinning. It won't let go of the fact that I just know something is wrong. But I don't know what. I can't wrap my brain around it. Usually, when something is wrong, I feel it. But this feeling is different from what I always feel. And it really bothers me that I can't place it.
I try to close my eyes and get some sleep, because tomorrow morning, Nevaeh will wake up early because it's Friday, and on Fridays we always do something with the two of us, because I don't have to go to work. By the time I'm finally drifting off to sleep, the telephone starts to ring. Who for the love of God could possibly be calling me at 0315 in the morning?
"Hello?"
It stays quiet on the other end of the line. "Hello?" I ask again. "Who is this?"
"Shireen… I need you to come back home. Something's happened to your father…"
And all it takes for my world to get turned upside down are five words and my mother's voice.
"Something's happened to your father…"
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