I paused in mid-bite of my pepperoni and pineapple slice of pizza, my throat suddenly closing up. I felt nauseas and light-headed as my blood seemed to refuse to flow correctly. I honestly hoped that where I thought Mom was headed with this story would be wrong. Please Mom…I silently begged with my ice-blue eyes, not here! Not in front of Heidi!

"Oh! I love to read! What was the book about?!" Heidi exclaimed enthusiastically, crusts of wet pizza flying out of her mouth because she hadn't bothered to chew them up and swallow before speaking. That was Heidi for you.

"Gross, Heidi!" I cried out.

I happened to have a deathly fear of germs. And pizza that has already been chewed in a human mouth is an absolute breeding ground for germs and disease and infection…it's disgusting…I shuddered.

"Whoops, sorry," She apologized, "I'll chew first next time."

"Yeah, sure you will," I joked.

Heidi smiled, returning to the original topic that I was praying she'd forget about. (Heidi has a short attention span.)

"So…what was this fascinating book about?"

"Well," Mom said, "It began--"

"Mom, please, don't tell her. Why tell her when she could read it herself?" I interrupted desperately.

"But I want to know now! C'mon, Hollis spoils books for me all the time. I'm used to it. I thrive on it."

I think the pizza must not have been made correctly, because there was a golf ball in mine. It became stuck in the center of my throat at that very moment as anticipation (and suffocation from the golf ball) slowly killed me. I couldn't breathe, I was going to die! I tried to calm myself down…get a grip, Lilly…Mom won't tell THE story. Surely not. Not here. Not tonight. Not with Heidi here…

"Well," Mom began softly, "It began as a lovely story, but I must say, the ending shocked me. It was a definite twist, that's for sure. But anyways, there was a pregnant woman, whom was due to give birth to twin baby girls."

"Awe!!! How cute!" Heidi squealed.

Anyone who knows Heidi knows that she loves, loves, LOVES babies. She baby-sits nearly every weekend, sometimes for free. She claims that she wants four children—three girls and a boy. And get this; she has even picked out names for them. Skylar, Sierra, Samantha, and Shain.

"Yes, very cute." Mom smiled. Not a happy smile, but a sad smile. A sad smile that hid an enormous secret.

She was there again, I could tell. On that night. That horrible, disastrous night that she's kept secret for all of these years and now suddenly wanted to divulge to Heidi.

"Had she picked out names for them?" Typical Heidi question, of course.

"Of course, absolutely." Mom glanced over at me for a moment.

I shot pleading eyes her way as the golf ball magically transformed into a baseball. Please, Mom, don't be stupid enough to keep the exact same names! Please, Mom, at least change the names! Mom, please, please don't! She's already seen the package addressed to Rose! If you don't change the names, she's smart enough to piece everything together!!!

A moment of silence, pure agonizing silence, passed through the dining room, thickening the atmosphere. It was thick as if invisible smoke had drifted into the room from some invisible fire. My blood began to pound in my ears, and I swear that when I looked down, my t-shirt was occasionally moving up and down because my heart was pounding so incredibly hard.

"And?" Heidi anxiously pressed on, oblivious to the tension traveling around the room.