***PART 2****

Chapter 12

Faith: Mom and Rey had another fight.

Moses: Again? What about?

Faith: What do you think?

Moses: Adam? What did he do now?

Faith: Rey said I'm spending too much time with Adam. He doesn't like it. Thinks he's a bad influence.

Moses: You see him once or twice a week. How is that too much time?

Faith: For Rey, any time would be too much. He's insecure when it comes to my uncle.

Moses: What did your mom say?

Faith: She told him that Adam is my family and I can spend as much time with him as I want, as long as dad is okay with it.

Moses: How did Rey take that?

Faith: Not good. He stormed out. Mom's downstairs crying. She tried to hide it from me when I went down for a snack, but I could tell. I hate seeing her like this.

Moses: I know. But what can you do?

Faith: …

It had been six weeks since their talk on the flight home from Miami and things between her mom and Rey were going downhill fast. He was pissed when he found out Adam was in Miami and furious that mom flew home on the jet with Adam.

When they landed, Faith heard Sharon's phone blow up with notifications. When she snatched a glance at it in the car on the way home while her mom talked to the car service driver, she saw a text from her dad updating them on Kyle and asking if they were okay; one missed call and follow-up text from Mariah asking her mom "what the hell she was thinking"; and, at least ten texts from Rey grilling her about what was going on.

By the time they got home, it was nearly three in the morning, so Faith went straight to bed. Around ten, she was woken up by shouting from downstairs. Faith knew she shouldn't eavesdrop, but her curiosity got the better of her and she went to the top of the stairs to listen. She got there just in time to hear Rey interrogate her mom on what happened during the flight home. When all she would say is that Adam and the kids had a chance to talk, it made him even more mad. He accused her of keeping secrets from him again and questioned her commitment to their marriage. That sent her mom over the edge because she completely lost it and told him that if he wanted to leave, he should just do it. She didn't seek out Adam but she wasn't about to catch a commercial flight home to avoid being in the same room with him because Rey couldn't handle it. Either he trusted her or he didn't. His parting comment before leaving to go back to the station was, "Maybe I don't." Her mom threw something at the door after that and then spent the next hour rage cleaning.

Faith had never been a fan of Adam, but the difference in her mom's mood when she was with Adam versus her stepdad was stark. With Adam, her mom was relaxed and happy, but with Rey, she was always on edge. How could someone so bad make her mom feel so great while some so good make her so miserable?

Faith decided then and there that she'd get to know her uncle a little bit. Maybe she'd been wrong about him.

Adam had been surprised when she called and invited him to the house to play a game of chess that evening, but he happily accepted. Faith knew that her mom would probably be at the hospital with her dad most of the day and that Rey would be working on Harrison's kidnapping, so the coast would be clear.

What Faith hadn't counted on was Mariah. When Mariah stopped by to see Faith and found Adam there, she was angry. Even though Faith made it clear that she'd invited Adam, Mariah kept on making digs at him and refused to leave her alone with him. Instead of finishing the game, Adam made up an excuse about forgetting a business meeting and hightailed it out of there.

"Why do you hate him so much?" Faith asked after he was gone.

"Because he's no good for our mom, that's why. And since when are you his biggest fan?"

"I'm not. But I'm giving him a chance. Why can't you?"

At that, Mariah rolled her eyes. "If you knew what I know about him and mom, Faith, you wouldn't either."

"What do you know that I don't?"

"Nothing I can tell you. You're too young."

"Oh, you mean how they slept together and Adam proposed but mom turned him down because people would think she was off her meds if she accepted?"

Mariah's eyes went wide. "How do you know that?"

"I know a lot more that goes on in this house than you all think. The walls in my room aren't that thick."

Faith walked to the stairs, but stopped before going up them and turned back to her sister, "Remember how you came to town, Mariah, the next time you want to make digs on Adam. Nobody's perfect."