Why didn’t he live here? Why were her sister and her family living in his house? And why didn’t anybody bother to tell her what was going on?
Lauren never explained anything about her private life in their occasional snail-mail correspondences. She’d merely sent pictures of the family with short notes to explain them, but at the end of each letter, she expressed her wish that the two of them would have a chance to meet again, get to know each other, and talk about their father. It was the last part that always got to Kaya. Back then, she had no desire to talk to Lauren about the father who’d chosen Lauren and her mother over her. Today, she’d give anything to sit down with her sister and learn about the man she’d once loved with all her little heart and soul.
“Auntie Kaya, you’re home. You’re home.”
Kaya looked up at the sound of the cheerful voice and the pitter-pattering of feet on the landing linking the two sprawling staircases to the second floor. She smiled as Alyssa, with Snoopy clutched under one arm, raced down a flight of steps as quickly as her little legs would carry her.
All of Kaya’s doubts vanished at the glee on the little girl’s face. She couldn’t remember anyone ever being this excited to see her, but she could remember being just as excited to see her father when she was a little girl. She dropped her purse on a nearby table and opened her arms as Alyssa ran to her.
“Hey, baby.” She hugged the dark-brown, curly-headed child and kissed her relentlessly. How could she have forgotten she had Alyssa on her side? This darling little child had accepted her without question. She was Kaya’s glimmer of hope, her assurance that all would work out for the best.
Alyssa was still too young to understand the sudden void in her life, and last night at bedtime when she’d asked where her mommy and daddy were, Kaya had simply told her that they had gone to heaven.
“Did they go for a vacation? Can I go to heaven to see them, Auntie Kaya?” she’d asked.
“One day, honey. One day,” Kaya had replied on a sob.
“You didn’t kiss Snoopy,” Alyssa said, holding up her favorite stuffed animal that was once white and fluffy, but was now a tattered dull grey from four years of heavy loving.
Kaya gave Snoopy a tight-lipped peck on his scruffy black nose. She refused to think of the plethora of germs crawling all over that dog. Snoopy went everywhere with Alyssa, even to the bathroom.
“Did you bring me a present, Auntie Kaya?” Alyssa fiddled with the locket around Kaya’s neck.
“Not this time, sweetie.” Kaya gazed into her sparkling eyes—Eli Brehna’s eyes, eyes that she’d also inherited, eyes that Nadine cursed each time she looked at her daughter.
“Why didn’t you bring me a present, Auntie Kaya?”
“Because when Little Brownie Locks was climbing up the snowy mountain,” she began while tickling Alyssa’s tummy, “she met a big bad bear who scared her so much…” Kaya growled for emphasis. “Little Brownie Locks was so frightened, she forgot all the important things she had to do, and she ran all the way home, screaming, ‘Mommy, Mommy, the big bad bear is after me. Mommy, Mommy, help me.’”
As Alyssa screamed in delight, the parallelism of that tale to her encounter with Bryce made Kaya’s heart race. She’d been so preoccupied with his threats, she’d forgotten to stop at the quilt shop in town to pick up a new dress for one of Alyssa’s many dolls. She’d learned last night that Alyssa was a doll collector, and never said no to a new one, not even duplicates.
“Tickle me some more, Auntie Kaya,” Alyssa yelled, wriggling around in her arms.