Chapter 1

ANASTASIA

"Mommy, don't kill roach!" It's too late. I already did. I smashed it with my rubber slippers and the 'splat!' was too loud to be ignored by my daughter.

"Well, it's dead, hon," I tell her faking my regrets.

"B-but . . . but . . ." her lips quiver.

"But?"

"You're a killer, Mom," my four year old accuses.

I smile tenderly at her, "No, Georgia, Mommy's not a killer. Sometimes, we just need to kill cockroaches, okay?" How do I explain this to my daughter? I can't really say that sometimes we just have to kill things that are bad, right? All I have to say is that we need to kill cockroaches because they are dirty.

"Poor Roachy," tears are about to come out of her grey eyes so I hurriedly get the flower crown from the top of the wooden shelf.

"Look, Princess! I got your crown!" I place it on top of her head and the issue with the cockroach is long forgotten. She turns very happy as she feels like a princess with a flower crown I made for her. Roses and sunflowers blend together in a wheel shape, leaves adding a glorious accent. Of course, Georgia made it pretty, not the other way around.

While she spins like a ballerina, I sweep the cockroach away.

"Ready to go?" Or else she's going to be late for school.

"Yes, Mommy!" She grabs her purple backpack while I grab my black coat.

Hand in hand, we walk together as her school is only a few blocks away.

We talk about a lot of things. We talk about things a four year old regularly thinks of. She dreams of flying with Peter Pan in Neverland. She talks about having mice as pets just like Cinderella. I give her "oooh's" and "aaaah's" and exhausted my imagination too. My daughter is so beautiful and full of life. I wish it will stay this way forever.

"Mommy, why do my classmates have Daddies while I don't?"

I pause on my track, stopping the pain from throbbing in my chest. I don't care if people ask me about him. I don't care at all. But when it comes to Georgia, my heart is never bulletproof. My little girl just asked me the most heart-breaking question and I don't know what to say.

Kneeling down, we see each other vis-à-vis. Her grey eyes locked with my brown ones remind me of the time I fell so in love with him. That was the stupidest time of my life.

"Georgia, someday Mommy's going to tell you, okay? Just not now."

"Okay Mommy," she takes my answer despite obviously being unsatisfied.

I kiss her forehead before gathering the strength to walk her to school.

As I am about to open a topic that could distract her, somebody calls out my name and I feel chills down to my spine. It's like the whole world stopped for a second. I pray to God hoping that this isn't right. I pray that I am wrong. I pray that it isn't one of the people from my past. I want absolutely nothing do with them anymore.

I was shattered. I was bruised. I was used. But I got back up again and made life for me and my mother. I don't want to fall back down again.

But it's his brother, Elliott.

He looks violently shocked as he stares at my daughter's face. I know that he knows already. He's known his brother too long enough to see him in the face of another-in this case, a beautiful angel. Elliott's not breathing at all. The steady state of his chest makes me worried. It's like he's forgotten that he has lungs.

I clear my throat, "Uhm . . . Elliott?"

He transfers his gaze at me and this time, it's stabbing me with judgment. Well, screw him! I won't let him judge me. Even if he won't know the whole story, I will never ever let him think that I am the bad one here. I am not the girl he knew. I am not that bestfriend anymore. I am not that weak person at all. Never again.

The silence breaks off when Georgia hopefully asks, "Are you my Daddy?"

Elliott has a resemblance with him but I don't want to feed my daughter with lies. In fact, I don't want her to hope for her father anymore.

"No, he's not, hon. Let's just go to school, okay?"

I try to drag her with me but her eyes are transfixed on Elliott.

Knowing him, he's very impulsive. I've been his sidekick our whole high school life and I've known him long enough that the next thing he'll do is inform Christian that he has a daughter he never knew about.

"Meet me at Georgia's Flower Shop," I instructed.

He nodded, completely understanding that I have my own flower shop and that's the place where I'll explain everything to him.

But first, let me get my daughter to school.

=LOVE AND OTHER ALIBIS=

Work is a place I usually enjoy. People come to buy the flowers of their choice. I do the attractive arrangements and they would gladly compliment and buy them. The smell is celestial as it just takes you to a floral paradise. While customers come and greet me, Hannah, my employee entertains them. I am in no mood to of service today.

The walls are made out of transparent glass so I could see Elliott coming. Before he even gets the chance to enter, I go out and grab him by the wrist. I pull him to the back door and push him hard that his back hits the bricked wall.

"Ouch!" He exclaims.

"Don't you dare tell Christian about this!"

His eyes go wide, "Why wouldn't I tell him? Ana, he has a daughter! He has freaking daughter! Oh goodness, I have a niece! What the hell, Ana? Why didn't you tell him?!"

"Look, this is none of your business, okay?"

His voice rises this time, "NONE OF MY BUSINESS?! THAT GIRL IS MY NIECE!"

"I want nothing to do with any of you, okay? Nothing!"

This time, Elliott's temper tones down. He purses his lips and crosses his arms. He looks at me with incredulous eyes. He states, "This isn't you."

I snort, "Five years, Elliott. Five years passed. Do you expect that I will be the same Ana?"

He snorts too, "Five years. You didn't even speak to me. You ignored my text messages and phone calls. You acted like I was a stranger."

There's thing pang of guilt but I quickly ignore it.

"Elliott, things aren't the same anymore. I am not the same old weak gullible Ana that you knew. The moment I gave birth to Georgia, I became a whole new person. Apparently, motherhood does that to you."

He takes one step closer to me and asks with a voice full of concern, "What happened, Ana? Tell me what happened. How did this happen?"

"I had an affair with your brother," I tell him straightforwardly.

He looks frustrated, "Yes but how? What so you were a minor?"

I shake my head, "It was a short affair. We were seeing each other for three months. I was already eighteen when he was twenty eight. It was wrong but it was exciting. I was in legal age and I admit that it started out dishonestly. He was still in a relationship with Leila at that time, his girlfriend back in med school. It was intense. We hid it because I was young and he was in a relationship. He broke things off with her a week before you left. I was hopeful but yeah, I was stupid."

Elliott pushes further, "And then?"

"He ended things with me instead. He told me that I was a distraction for med school and that he wanted to just . . . concentrate. That he could never sacrifice his ambition for me."

"So he chose his boring career over you and your daughter?"

"Well, he never knew about Georgia. I found out I was pregnant three months later. I called him up and Leila was the one who answered. She said they got back together and that a child shouldn't be calling him."

Then, there it goes. The pain I've pretended to disregard for the past five years. The funny thing about this is that I've rebuilt myself for years but just one second of remembering causes everything to crash one more time. It still hurts. It still does.

"I'm so sorry," Elliott wraps his arms around me so protectively. I didn't even know that I was already crying. He holds me too tightly as I start bawling out. This is like five years ago. When somebody picks on me, Elliott fights them off and he would hug me afterwards.

"You are so strong, Ana, so strong."

"Promise you won't tell Christian?" I plead in between my cries.

"I promise," Elliott replies.

I'll count on that.

Thank you for reading this chapter. Elliott just made a promise. But, will he keep it? The next chapter will consist of Christian's point of view. Flashbacks of his relationship with Ana will be shown too.