Chapter 2

5 years later

I had this feeling of impending doom as I drove to my parent's house. I don't know why I felt so overwhelmed about this visit. It might have been the fact that this was my first visit in such a long time, and almost everyone I was still in touch with was going to be there. Maybe, I was feeling this way because David had asked me no less the two dozen times if we were there yet. It might have been a lot of things. I couldn't wait to see everyone, but I had a very strong urge to just turn around and go back home

I couldn't do that of course, but it was a nice dream. I was anxious to be back because what really kept going though my mind was a very old saying, "If it isn't broke don't fix it". Things were just fine with everyone visiting me in Chicago. Did I really want to ruin all of this? I wasn't even really sure why I was here in the first place.

It hit me that I was supposed to be helping my sister out with her own newborn baby and I wanted to cry and the sheer cruelty of the world. If she just left her husband and moved her and the baby in with me and David we would not be in this situation. Damn my sister for her happiness.

"Mommy, are we there yet?" David asked once again.

I rolled my eyes. I loved my son, but if he asked me if we were there yet one more time I was going to turn around and go back home. I had enough stress to deal with, without my son unknowingly not helping the situation.

"Yes, star shine, we're almost there," I assured.

He wrinkled his nose at the nickname. He would pout for a good five minutes and I would pray to god that we got to my parents house before he started up again

"Mommy," he said two minutes later.

"No son. We are not there yet."

"Okay."

So much for that theory.

When we finally did turn into my old driveway ten minutes later I wanted to jump out of the car and run in the opposite direction. I felt so torn with my feelings. Was I really happy to be back or not? I got out of the car and went to get David out of the backseat and took him into my arms. As I was pulling him out I saw the curtains move from the inside of the house and knew that the family knew that I was home.

I walked up the driveway and the front door opened. It seemed like everyone I had ever met was there to meet me. Jessica, Angel, Tia, Mom, Dad, Steven, Sarah (Steven's wife), Megan, and Jeremy were all in the doorway to greet me. You would think a couple of them would have stayed in the kitchen. It felt like a sitcom moment. Why did they all have to greet me at once? The thought that there were more made me want to sit down. I couldn't stop the nagging feeling that my life was about to take a turn.

Jessica came up, took David from me and handed him to Jeremy and hugged the life out of me before I could even get through the door, "I missed you so much, Liz! You can't go back to Chicago. I don't like that I never get to see you," my sister whined.

"Her emotions have been all over the place. You've gotten more attention from her then I have since the baby was born two weeks ago," Jeremy teased.

I was sure that if I could see my sister's face I would see her glaring, but Jess still wouldn't let go. It was getting to the point were I couldn't breath.

"Mommy, why are do you look like that?" my son asked.

He must have noticed that my lips were tuning blue. Jeremy got his wife off me for that I was eternally grateful. The fun continued.

Tia came up to me and gave me a hug, only marginally looser then my sister's hug had been and informed me that her and Angel were going to have a baby. Angel looked like he wanted to explode with joy and Tia couldn't stand still with all her happiness. I envied them. When Angel had graduated from college he had made it perfectly clear to Tia, that he would love it if she would marry him. Tia wasted little time telling him that she would love to. It was the short version of a very long story concerning the two of them. The only thing that really matter to me was that she was happy.

I was having the time of my life catching up with family and cooing over baby pictures of my new nephew, Adam, who Jessica announced was the cutest little baby boy ever. I was asking myself why I ever doubted coming home. The one place wear I felt like I fit.

It wasn't until that I took a look at Megan that I started to feel nervous. She looked a little nervous to me.

"Megan, are you alright?" I asked.

Megan looked like she had been caught doing something, but smiled anyway, "Yeah. Sure. Perfect," she falsely reassured me and then…

She took a breath, "Well, actually no, not really. Um, how do I tell you this?"

I nodded for her to go on, "First off you have to stop off at mothers house later tonight because she wants to see David, but she wasn't feeling well and didn't want to deal with a crowd," she said nodding to everyone around her as if I didn't know that all the people that were crowded into the living room equaled to a mob of people.

It was then I noticed that all of them were silent and knew something I didn't. I had a feeling that I wasn't going to like what was going to come next.

"Secondly, Conner is coming in tomorrow on a four o'clock flight."

Of course my son was blissfully ignorant as soon as this was said, but I felt like my world had just fallen apart.