I look around at my family. The reactions I see are exactly what I had expected. My mom looks shocked, my dad looks like he wants to strangle someone, and Max looks confused. I look over at Harper and Justin, who are both waiting for me to say something. I have no words. For this first time in my life, I'm speechless. I bet nobody ever thought that would happen. Luckily for me, my little girl breaks the silence yet again.

"What's upstairs?" she asks curiously, pointing to the spiral staircase. Despite of what's going on, everyone smiles.

"That's where we live," my dad tells her softly, his eyes glancing back from her to me as he talks. Lexi nods and then gives him another questioning look.

"And who are you?" she questions gently, her eyes staring right into his. I know my dad notices that my daughter has my eyes. He could never lie to me while looking me in the eyes.

"Your grandpa," my dad answers calmly, his eyes on me the entire time. Lexi lights up and gives him a bear hug.

"Yay! Now I have a grandpa too! I thought I was lucky enough to get an uncle," she tells her grandpa excitedly, her mouth running a thousand miles a minute.

"And a grandma, cousin, another uncle, and another aunt," my mom adds, stepping in and taking a good look at my baby girl. "I'm your grandma." Lexi gave her a big hug as well. Soon Max, Liza, and Isabelle introduced themselves to my daughter. No matter how bad the argument after this moment is, I am glad that I came back. Seeing the joy on Lexi's face is worth it.

Still, none of my family members have said a word to me since I told them I have a daughter. After a few minutes of coddling Lexi, my mom turns to me and says, "We need to talk. Upstairs." I nod and go over to Lexi.

She grins big when she sees me. "Mommy, Mommy! They like me, just like you said they would!" Lexi shouts happily, practically bouncing up and down.

"I know, sweetheart. Mommies are always right," I say while tickiling her. Lexi giggles. "I'm going upstairs to talk to your grandparents and uncle. Can you be a good girl for an hour and play with your cousin and aunt?" I ask her sweetly.

Lexi nods her head energetically. "If I'm good, will you finish the story?" she asks hopefully.

"Yes," I tell her with an exaggerated sigh that makes her laugh again. I kiss my little girl on the forehead and tell her, "Be good." I leave her with Liza and go upstairs to fill in the blanks for my family. Justin and Harper come with me because they can tell some parts of the story better than I can. Of course, I'm not telling them about all the things Trent did to me, or why I stayed away as long as I did. Justin and Harper are the only people here right now that know about that, and I intend to keep it that way.

We go upstairs, and I notice how nothing has changed since I left. It's like time is frozen; I almost expect one of my high school boyfriends to be knocking on the door to pick me up. I sit down on the chair opposing the chair. Harper sits down on the chair besides me, and everyone else is on the couch. I take a deep breath and get ready to answer the questions I know I'm going to be bombarded with.

Max is the first one to speak. "Alex, what in the hell is going on?" he asks, his tone somewhat angry but mostly shocked.

Before I can answer the question, my dad asks, "What happened to Trent? Did he run out on you guys? Cuz if he did, I'll kill him with a baseball bat!" I smile at the protectiveness my dad still has for me even though I'm a grown woman.

"No, I left him," I state, no emotion in my voice. That shuts everyone up for a bit. "Look, a few weeks after Trent and I settled into our new apartment, I started to get violently sick in the mornings. I didn't think it was a big deal since I'd been feeling lousy for a while, but my neighbor caught on and bought me a bunch of pregnancy tests. I took them, and they all came out positive." I stop for a moment before continuing. "Trent wasn't thrilled to say the least. It was a difficult pregnancy."

Harper interrupts me before I continued. "Difficult pregnancy?" she repeats disgustedly, glaring at me. "Alex, you nearly lost Lexi twice!" Now it's my turn to glare at her. I hadn't planned on repeating that little piece of information. "You could've died!"

"How do you know this?" my mom asks carefully, glancing at the both of us.

Harper gives me an apologetic look before answering. "I was there most of the time."

This sets Max off on a rampage. "And you never bothered to tell us?" he screams, his face turning red.

"She threatened to stop talking to me all together, and I couldn't let her do that. She needed me." Harper defends hotly. And I'm glad she didn't let me do that. I don't know what I would've done without her all these years.

My mom nods before giving me a sympathetic look. "Alex, continue," she commands.

I start talking again. "As I was saying, I had a difficult pregnancy, but by some miracle Lexi was born healthy. After she was born, Trent and I started to have more problems." I look over at Harper and Justin. I know how hard this is for Harper. She is the one who would sit there and help me ice the really bad bruises. She is the one who showed up in my Chicago apartment the day after I left Trent to help me fix it up. Harper's face betrays nothing, but she is gripping the strap of her purse so tightly that her knuckles are turning white. Justin's anger is more evident. He looks like someone just burned his doll collection and then taunted him about it. "After nine months, I decided that I'd had enough. I grabbed Lexi, packed our stuff, and hopped on a bus. I haven't seen or heard from Trent since."

"Where have you been since?" my mom asks curiously.

"Chicago," I answer honestly. "I got off the bus on the first stop because I didn't want to be on that bus anymore. I grabbed a paper, got a taxi, and went to rent out an apartment. It was a shoebox and crap for what I had to pay for it, but it was worth it. I found a job in a small diner nearby. My boss became like another mother to me, and my coworkers are still my best friends. On the days I didn't bring Lexi in with me, my neighbor would watch her."

"Do you still work there?" my dad asks worriedly. Harper laughs.

"Mr. Russo, your daughter has come a long way since then. She has her own gallery now," she proudly reveals to my family. I feel myself blush.

"How did you pay for it?" Max questions bluntly, getting straight to the point.

"Well, the neighbor who used to watch Lexi was a kind old lady with no family or friends to speak of," I start to explain. "She adored Lexi and me, and Lexi called her Grandma." I held my tears back. "One day, she died in her sleep. Turns out she used to be a socialite and had left me a good chunk of money in her will. I took the money, found a better apartment, the one we live in now, put money away for Lexi's education, and spent the rest on the gallery."

Surprisingly, no one is asking me why I came back now or why I never told them. I figure they're going to save those questions for later. Instead, my mom asks, "What's Lexi like?"

I smile. Quinn likes to joke that I could talk about two things all day: art and Lexi. I start to tell them about her, my eyes lighting up as I do. And as everyone listens intently, I feel like maybe we'll all be okay. Maybe they won't be mad at me too long. I'll admit that I've done some stupid things, but I'm proud of the life I've made for my daughter and myself. I'm sure my family is, too.