Chapter 3: "And as we make our vow"

Marissa stared into the face of the woman that she had longed to know her entire life. She was beautiful, aged since her photo but still beautiful.

"I didn't think that you were alive…" Kirsten said wiping her eyes as Marissa raised an eyebrow unsure of how to take her supposed death. "Come in please!" Kirsten said putting on a nervous smile and ushering the girl inside.

Rodrigo, Raul, Ryan and Summer, who were still in the car, exchanged glances as they watched Marissa enter the mansion and the huge door close behind her.

Marissa glanced around the living room when she entered. It was the size of her entire house back in Chino.

"Have a seat." Kirsten said patting the couch cushion next to her. Marissa sat but as far away from the woman as possible.

"I… I guess you're wondering why I'm here." Marissa began.

"It doesn't matter." Kirsten said. "I'm just trying to understand. My baby died." Kirsten said with her hand on her forehead.

Marissa wasn't sure how to take that news. She pulled the picture out of her pocket and handed it to Kirsten.

"This is me." She said handing a picture of the two of them taken long ago…

Kirsten studied the picture.

"This can't be. My baby died!" She insisted wiping her eyes

She looked Marissa up and down. The girl sat with her bruised scraped arms wrapped around her thin frail frame. She had deep set eyes, sullen looking… just like Kirsten's.

"Oh my god." Kirsten said placing her hands over her mouth. "You're my daughter." Kirsten began crying as she pulled Marissa into a tight hug. Marissa sat stiffly. She was not used to being hugged, even by Abuela. She looked Marissa in the eyes who in turn looked away. "You're beautiful honey."

Marissa felt her face flush.

"I don't understand. You thought that I was dead?" Marissa asked

Kirsten nodded trying to sort out her thoughts.

"I was sixteen when I got pregnant with you… seventeen when you were born. You were born at six months, 24 weeks… Oh god I remember, you were the size of my hand. The doctor held you in his palm." Kirsten began to sob again.

Marissa was unsure how to react to this emotional woman.

"I hid my pregnancy from my father. If he found out earlier… well you would not be sitting here in front of me. I named you Marissa Jade, Jade was my best friend at the time. I loved you more than I ever thought possible…I was so scared the first time that I touched you… put my hand through the incubator. I thought that I would break you. You weighed three pounds two ounces, you were beautiful."

Marissas face remained hard as she listened to her mother speak. She felt her eyes fill to the brim with tears.

"My dad found out about you because he had to release me from the hospital, I was a minor then. He had no idea I was pregnant. None of my friends knew about you, the pregnancy even, and I intended to keep it that way. People here are very judgmental." Kirsten explained. "My father allowed me to visit you once or twice a week. It depended on how my tennis lesson went… You were a very sick baby." She said "I never thought that you were going to survive." She added as an after thought You were a month and a half old when I met Sandy, my husband, Seth's father. We were both seventeen and stupid. I got pregnant with Seth and had him when I was nineteen… you were still in the hospital. You have to understand that we never thought that you would live, that is why when people found out that I was pregnant with Seth I didn't tell them that I had another child as well. Including Sandy." Kirsten spoke in a distant tone.

"So you're husband doesn't know that you had me?" Marissa asked

Kirsten shook her head no.

"I visited you regularly until Seth was born. But I can tell you that I regret to this day every moment that I was not by your side. I was not ashamed of you, I loved you and Seth more than life itself, it is just my father put an unbearable amount of pressure on me. I fought to be able to keep Seth, my father wanted me to give him up for adoption, but Sandy wasn't having that, neither was I. As far as my father was concerned I screwed up once and was not about to ruin the family name by doing it again. After Seth was born I admit I didn't visit as much… but when I did it seemed to me that you were feeling better. That picture you have was taken when you were one and a half. That was the last time that I saw you. The next thing I heard was two days later… my father called me, he told me that he had called the hospital and you had passed away. We held a funeral for you, my father and I. And then that was it…"

Marissa's tears spilled.

"How! How did someone tell you that I was dead? All of these years! There is something completely wrong with that." Marissa ranted. "What about my father?" Marissa asked "He know about me?"

"Your father…" Kirsten said thinking back to those teenage years. The hardest years of her life. "He and I were childhood sweethearts. I loved him very much. He is amazing. I never deserved him. My father refused to let us see one another after I got pregnant. He went to see you every day Marissa. He loved you more than life itself. He rushed me to the hospital, held my hair back when I had to … yanno." Kirsten explained. "The one day… that one day that he was not at the hospital with you, you passed away… or theoretically at least." Kirsten said with a smirk.

Marissa smirked as well.

"You look like him." Kirsten said.

"My father?" Marissa asked smiling. All of her life she had always wanted to know that she belonged to a family. To be looked at and told 'you have your mother's eyes, or your fathers chin.' "What is his name?"

"James… well Jimmy actually, Jimmy Cooper." Kirsten said smiling

"Marissa Jade Cooper…" She said saying the name aloud but feeling no ownership of it. "Marissa Matea De los Santos." She said quietly. That was her name, the name that she claimed. The one Abuela gave to her.

"How was your life?" Kirsten asked placing her hands on Marissas.

Marissa was taken by surprise at this question. Should she lie? Tell her she grew up with a nice family on the east coast with a puppy and white picket fence?

"I was placed in a foster home in Chino when I was two." Marissa said crossing her legs on the couch. She was wearing no shoes, she had kept her flip-flops in the car. Her jeans were worn. Now kids bought their jeans to looked rugged and torn, but Marissa had gotten the look the natural way. She wore a blue ribbed tank top. A cross necklace hung loosely around her neck, surrounded by her hair that hung loosely on her head.

"CHINO?" Kirsten said, slightly angered that her daughter had to grow up in such conditions.

"Yep. Chino." Marissa said looking around

"Did your family treat you well." Kirsten asked

Marissa shrugged.

"My foster mother is amazing." She confessed, "I love her. All in all they gave me what they had."

Kirsten nodded.

"I have to get down to how this mix up happened. I need to talk to my father."

"Go right ahead." Marissa said wanting to know the truth as much as Kirsten. She claimed to have come here for money to the guys… but maybe, just maybe it was about something else as well. Maybe it was about finding out who she really is.

"I will later. For now I want to get to know you." She said smiling. "How long are you going to be here?"

"I don't know. My friends and I drove up. I was trying to find you."

"Why? Is everything okay?" Kirsten asked

"Yeah, it was nothing." Marissa assured her, feeling guilty for not telling her about Abuelas condition.

"Where are your friends?"

"In the car." She responded simply.

"They must be burning up in this heat. Tell them to come in!" Kirsten insisted

"You sure?" Marissa asked raising her eye brow.

"Of course." Kirsten said wondering why Marissa was skeptical about introducing her to her friends.

Marissa nodded and went outside to the car and retrieved the boys, and Summer who was surprisingly still there. She had fallen asleep.

Kirsten watched as Marissa re-entered with Summer and three rough looking boys.

"Ms. Cohen, this is Raul, Rodrigo, and Ryan." She said introducing the boys that stood behind her.

Rodrigo, who was holding Marissas hand, was the tallest by far of the group. He wore long tan shorts and a black wife-beater. Raul stood on the other side of Ryan, taller than him, but shorter that Rodrigo. His hair was gelled, and he wore a big white t-shirt and jean shorts. Next was the Ryan kid. He had deep blue eyes, his blonde hair was a mess on his head. He wore a white wife-beater, and long blue jeans with a gray jacket over it all. Kirsten wondered how he didn't have heat stroke.

"Hi boys. And Marissa, you can call me Kirsten." She said smiling warmly.

Hey. I know that chapter was a little "what?" with Marissas supposed death and all, but it will be explained. I really want some reviews for this to let me know what you think, I don't beg... ALRIGHT, maybe I do... a little

xoxo Jules