Chapter 30 – Nalia
Thirty
NALIA
Hanging up with my therapist, I look out the window in my office.
It’s been a few weeks since I started talking to the woman my mom recommended, and each time I end a session with her, I feel emotionally drained.
As I watch the dark clouds move slowly across the sky, the words she said before she ended our call come back to me.
You had every reason not to go back, Nalia.
You could have just lived your life without thinking about your siblings after you found out about them, but you didn’t, and I don’t think you realize how admirable that is.
Was it admirable? I don’t know, but there is something about that statement that I can’t seem to shake, like I needed to hear from someone outside my circle that I had done the right thing, despite always feeling like it was wrong.
Glancing down at my cell phone when my reminder alarm starts to beep, I turn it off then grab a few gummy worms from the bag on the desk before I get up from my chair and go to my bedroom.
I change into jeans and a sweater then put on my boots and add my vest, knowing I’m going to need the extra layers.
Over the last few weeks, the temperature has started to drop, and the leaves have begun to change color signaling fall is here to stay.
After I’m dressed, I send a message to the clients I’m meeting, reminding them that I will be at their property at noon, then I text Logan to let him know that I’m headed twenty minutes south to meet a client for a walk-through of their property.
He messages back a second later to drive safe and that he’ll see me in a few hours.
Without much discussion, we have fallen into a routine of having dinner at his house each evening, regardless of what the kids have going on after school.
And since Aaron asked Kristy to marry him a few weeks ago, Zuri and I have spent the night every Saturday, which is something the kids seem to look forward to because it includes pizza, a movie, and lots and lots of candy or a dessert if the girls have decided to make a cake or cookies.
It’s also one night a week I look forward to because I get to fall asleep with Logan and wake up with him in the morning.
A little more than twenty minutes later, I arrive for my meeting, and Dr. Birney and his wife are waiting in the driveway next to their car.
I met the couple from New York when I first took the job working for my brothers, back when I wasn’t really sure if working for them would work out.
It feels like that was a hundred years ago, even though it’s been less than a year.
“Hey,” I greet the two of them while I get out of my car with my bag and the folder containing all the information they will need for their new home.
“It looks like it might rain,” Dr. Birney tells me as I approach, and I look up at the sky that is getting darker by the minute.
“It’s that time of the year.” I smile at him, accepting a kiss to my cheek before giving his wife a hug and asking, “How are you?”
“Ready to move in.” She smiles. “The kids are tired of bouncing from rental to rental, and I can admit it’s wearing on me, too.”
“Just a couple more days and you’ll be all settled in.
” I lead them towards the double front door of their seven-thousand-square-foot mini mansion.
When I unlock the door, I open it and step aside so that they can enter before me.
The house is beautiful and fully custom with all the fancy tech upgrades my brothers are known for.
“How about we start in the kitchen?” I begin turning on the lights while they poke their heads into the rooms we pass.
“Sounds good.” Dr Birney says, putting down his stuff on the island in the kitchen while I unpack what I’ll need, including their new iPad that I will program all their smart devices into, while they put all the apps into their phones.
As we are upstairs in the main bedroom programming the blinds, my cell phone starts to ring from my back pocket. Taking it out I frown at the screen.
“Sorry, I need to take this, it’s my...” I hesitate. “Daughter’s school.”
“Sure,” Mrs. Birney says before I walk away with my phone. Going into the hallway, I answer the call.
“Hello, Miss Mayson this is Lisa, the school nurse, at Smyreville Elementary. I’m calling to let you know that Zuri had an accident at recess.”
“What kind of accident?” I ask as a knot forms in the pit of my stomach.
“She tumbled down the slide and landed pretty hard in the mulch. She has a few scrapes, but nothing is broken, and she seems to be okay.”
“I’m sorry, she tumbled down the slide?” How does that even happen?
“Yes, she said that she and some friends were playing tag, and she was pushed a little too hard, and she ended up falling down the slide.”
“Can I speak with her?”
“Sure, one second,” she says, and the line goes quiet, then Zuri comes on the line.
“Hello.”
“Hey, are you okay?”
“Yes,” she whispers, and I frown. I’m not sure if she sounds scared or upset. I do know she doesn’t sound right.
“Are you sure? Do we need to go to the doctor?”
“I’m okay,” she repeats in that same quiet whisper.
“Zuri.”
“I’m okay, Namalama.”
“Who pushed you?”
“I… I don’t know.” I don’t know why, but something about the way she hesitated tells me that she's lying.
“Zuri, did someone push you on purpose?”
“Can I go back to class?” she asks instead of answering my question, which does nothing to lessen the worry I’m already feeling.
“Let me talk to the nurse.”
“Miss Mayson.”
“Hey, I’m going to come pick her up and take her to the doctor just to make sure that she’s okay.”
“I’ve checked her ov…”
“I’ll be there in thirty minutes,” I cut her off.
“Of course,” she says, and I say goodbye before hanging up.
“Is everything alright?” Mrs. Birney asks when I walk back into the bedroom.
“I’m sorry, no, I need to get over to the school.”
“That’s okay.” Dr. Birney tells me. “I think we were just about done anyway, and I’m sure that with the help of your notes, we can figure everything else out when we move in.”
“Thank you.” I let out a sigh of relief; some clients would not be as nice or as understanding as they are.
After we all gather our things from the kitchen, they follow me outside, and I lock up the house, keeping the key to give to the closing officer along with the iPad.
The closing is officially happening tomorrow, so that’s when everything will be handed over to them.
“Monday, when you’re all moved in, I’ll come over and check on you guys and help with anything that you haven’t been able to figure out. ”
“Thank you, Nalia, and I hope your daughter is okay.”
“Thanks,” I call over my shoulder as I jog to my Bronco.
As I’m backing out of the driveway, I hit call on Logan’s number.
“Hey, baby, how did…”
“I’m on my way to pick up Zuri.” I cut him off then explain about the call from the school and that I’m worried about her because she sounded off.
“I’ll call the principal to see if she can check the video footage from the playground to see exactly what happened,” he tells me, rather than making me feel like I’m overreacting.
“Thank you.”
“Let me know when you got her.”
“I will.”
“Love you.”
“Love you, too.” While I’m hanging up with him my phone starts to ring again. I half expect it to be the school but instead it’s a call from Colorado.
I don’t want to answer, but guilt and fear has me accepting the call.
“Hello, this is a call from…” An animated voice comes on, then it goes to Sharon’s voice. “Sharon Herbert, an inmate from Colorado correctional facility, would you like to accept?”
“Yes.” I hold my breath while my stomach twists. It’s been a few weeks since my attorney began gathering everything that she would need to terminate Sharon’s parental and visitation rights, and I totally forgot that she would be sending the information to Sharon this week, until this moment.
“Nalia.”
“Hi, Sharon.”
“Hi, Sharon? Are you serious? I just got a letter from an attorney telling me that you are trying to terminate my rights.”
“Sharon.”
“She’s my daughter, you moved with her across the country, so I have no way to see her and now you don’t want me to talk to her.”
“Of course she can talk to you, but you told me that you were having second thoughts about the fact that you signed over custody to me, and that scared the shit out of me.”
“So, you’re punishing me.”
“No, I’m protecting Zuri.”
“How is this protecting her?”
“With this in place, you can’t just decide that because you’re pissed at her for not e-mailing you back that she would be better off with some random person or tossed into a group home.”
“She’s been ignoring my e-mails.”
“All of your e-mails have centered around you asking her to ask me for money so you can get a lawyer. Not once have you asked how school is going, how she likes soccer, if she’s making friends, or if she is even just doing okay.
” And I know this to be true because I’ve been checking her e-mail since everything happened.
“I want a lawyer so I can get out of this place and be with her again,” she bites out, missing everything I just said.
“Well, I’m sorry, I don’t have the money to pay for your lawyer.”
“But you found the money to get a lawyer for yourself.” My jaw clenches.
“Yes, to protect Zuri and make sure she is safe, I got a lawyer. And I will bleed myself dry, Sharon, so that she never has to worry about being taken from me because you are too fucking selfish to realize that she is in a good place.”
“She should be with me.”
“Well, then maybe you shouldn’t have been doing the stupid crap that you were doing, and maybe you should have focused on being a mo…” I’m cut off when that same animated voice comes on and asks if Sharon is willing to pay for more time.
“I’ve tried to be a good mother,” Sharon says, surprising me. I figured she’d hang up. “And despite what you might think, I have loved my kids, all of my kids, even you.”
“Sometimes saying you love someone isn’t enough,” I tell her, and the line goes quiet, so quiet I wonder if she hung up. Still, I add softly, “Sharon, it’s not my intention to keep Zuri from you. I would never do that.”
“I miss her.”
“I know, because if I were in your shoes and Zuri was separated from me, I’d feel like part of me was missing.” My throat gets tight, and once more the line goes quiet.
“Will you tell her I miss her?”
“You can tell her that yourself.”
“Okay.” She sounds choked up. “Please tell her that I’m e-mailing her today and that it has nothing to do with asking for money.”
“I will.” I let out a breath when she says goodbye and ends the call. I’m not sure that conversation went well, but I do know it could have gone worse. I just really fricking hope that I got through to her; otherwise, she’s going to lose Zuri and it will be no one’s fault but her own.
When I arrive at the school a few minutes later, I tell the woman at the desk that I’m there to pick up Zuri early and she calls up to the teacher to have her sent down to meet me.
When she walks into the office with her backpack, I notice that the pink zip up hoodie and jeans she wore to school are stained with dirt from her fall.
“Hey.” I give her a hug. “Ready?” Nodding, she follows me out the front doors and gets into the backseat of the Bronco with her bag. “You okay?” I meet her gaze in the rearview mirror before even putting the key in the ignition.
“Yes.”
“Do you want to tell me what happened?”
“I was playing with my friends and someone pushed me off the top of the spiderweb.”
“The spiderweb?”
“The thing with the slide and stuff, we all call it the spiderweb.”
“Was it one of your friends who pushed you?”
“I don’t know, there were lots of people around and we were all playing tag.”
“You really don’t know who shoved you?” I press, and she looks out the window. “Zuri, if someone did that on purpose, if someone tried to hurt you, I need to know.”
“What does it matter?” She crosses her arms over her chest. “Some kids never get into trouble, no matter how bad they are.”
“What kids?”
“Nevermind.”
“Zuri.” I turn in my seat to face her. “Please talk to me.”
“Matthew and some of his friends. They sometimes pick on people or say things and never get in trouble.”
“Do the teachers know? Do you guys tell on them?”
“The teachers don’t see it, and if we tell them they…” She shakes her head. “I just don’t think that they care.”
“I’m sure they care.”
“It doesn’t seem like it.”
“They do, but sometimes teachers aren’t able to do anything if they don’t see the incident happen,” I tell her softly then whisper. “I’m sorry.”
“It doesn’t matter; he’s a jerk, and normally we all just avoid him.”
“You shouldn’t have to do that; I’m going to talk to the principal and your teacher to make sure they know what’s going on.”
“Okay,” she mutters, then asks, “Do I really need to go to the doctor?”
“Are you hurt?”
“My elbow hurts a little, but I’m fine.”
“How about we just go and make sure that everything is okay,” I say and she sighs.
“Fine.”
“I love you.”
“I know,” she mumbles as I turn in my seat. Picking up my cell I go to the text thread between Logan and me, finding a message from him.
Logan
I spoke with the vice principal she’s going to check the cameras and get back to me or you.
Thank goodness.
I message him back, thank you, then let him know that we are headed to the doctors and tell him that since we don’t have an appointment, I’m not sure what time we will be at his house after school.