twisted ✔️ (being edited)

30| Never Really Over

four years later

Another sunday day in L.A.

Although I wouldn't know it because I've been stuck inside all day, eating, ready, and catching up on schoolwork before the weekend starts. Kal and I were able to buy the loft from his older brother, Kayden, and we've been living here for the past four years. I've been working as a part-time babysitter and waitress to put myself through college and I'm a few months away from graduating with a degree in childhood education. I'm in the bathroom now fixing my hair and makeup and as I'm putting on the final touches—beautiful emerald earrings gifted by Stephanie for National Friendship Day—I hear the front door open and close.

Kal's home from work. He works with his brother as a part-time editor and film director. They've been working with rich college students and even some small celebrities to make short films and produce music videos. Maybe one day they'll even direct a classic Taylor Swift music video. I walk out to greet him as he tosses the pile of mail on the table by the door. He holds a bouquet of daisies and we meet halfway in the foyer. "These are for you."

"They're beautiful." I take and smell them. "And they smell amazing."

Kal kneels down and gently rubs my bloated stomach. "How are my favorite girls?"

"Your daughter has been kicking her mother all morning," I tell him with a laugh. I'm five months along now, and while we didn't plan on having kids for a couple more years, happy accidents are still a great thing, especially since we're in a better place now and can afford a surprise baby.

He kisses my bellybutton. "She has your athletic genes."

"Let's hope she doesn't get the crazy ones, too," I half-joke.

Kal stands up and cups my face. "You look beautiful, babe." He kisses me.

I shake my head and say, "More like a rock, skip, and a jump above decent. This is me rushing after your last minute call with a change of plans and a surprise dinner." I take the flowers in the kitchen and grab an empty vase from under the sink. I fill it with water before I set the daises in, adjusting them. I smell them again with a smile. "Damn, these flowers smell amazing. I wonder if there's a way I can copy the scent and turn it into a perfume or something."

I wait for Kal to make a sarcastic comment, but he doesn't, and I turn around to see if he's still in the room. When I look back, Kal's down on one knee, holding a red box in his hand, a beautiful gold engagement ring with an oval-shaped diamond. My eyes widen and my heart races fast, pounding hard against my ribcage. I can't believe this is happening. I tear up and whisper, "Kal, are you—"

"Codi, I have been in love with you from the moment I first met you. Sooner even, if possible. I knew it with all my heart when I saw you running around the playground, your smile bright and contagious as you laughed and played. I'd never been more sure of myself when you ran head-first into that light post and stood back up like nothing happened, like you hadn't just lost one of your baby teeth. You're brave, confident, courageous, smart, funny, sexy, beautiful, and I haven't been able to get you out of my head since. Strangers to best friends to lovers. I am finally with the one I love most in this world and I am the luckiest man alive to have met someone as amazing and strong and brilliant as you are. I wake up beside you every morning and every morning I am grateful for you."

I'm crying now and I look down at Kal with the biggest smile on my face. I've wanted this since I was eighteen.

"Codi Amelia Cameron, will you marry me?"

I nod fast. "Yes! Yes! I do! I do!"

Kal slips the ring on my left hand and stands up to kiss me. I jump on him, wrapping my arms around his neck as I kiss him hard, and he spins me in the kitchen.

As he sets me down, I grab his face and pull him closer. "A thousand, hundred, million times yes."

"That's a lot of yeses."

I hug him tighter and a sudden wave of fear passes through me. Leaning back, I run a finger along his jawline and ask, "Are you still happy... with me?"

Kal tucks a stand of loose hair behind my ear. He's used to my insecurities by now and just smiles. "I wouldn't have asked you to marry me if I wasn't. Of course I'm happy. We're getting married and having a baby. I'm not usually the smartest guy, and I make a lot of stupid choices, but you are the smartest decision I've ever made."

I break into a smile as the reassurance sets it. I glance behind him at the clock on the wall. "I hate to cut a beautiful moment short, but if we don't leave now we're going to miss our reservation."

"The way you look right now, I should bring you upstairs and screw our reservation," Kal whispers in my ear, smirking, as he runs his hands down my back and around my waist. "Aside from other things..."

"Usually I'd be a step ahead of you, but I am starving, and we didn't go grocery shopping yesterday."

He nods. "Good point. Let's go." He grabs my hand and we start to leave the loft.

As we're walking out, I glance at the pile of mail and see my mother's name on an envelope. I stop dead in my tracks and grab it. How the hell did she get our address? "Holy shit."

"What is it?" Kal asks.

"A letter... from my mother."

His eyes widen. "What? How the hell did she get our address?"

Shrugging, I whisper, "I don't know. I..." I hesitate on opening it. My therapy sessions with Doctor Harper have been going great—with the occasion breakdown every now and then—but I'd finally been able to live without thinking about my mother. What could be so important four years later she had to suddenly say to me?

"Are you going to open it?"

"Should I? I feel like I shouldn't, but part of me feels the opposite. What if this is the apology letter I wanted years ago?"

Kal nods at it. "Then open it. What's the harm in it?"

I rip the envelope open and pulls out a stock card. Not an apology, but a wedding invitation. For Tami Cameron and Paulter Evans. The wedding's in five months. Mom wants me to RSVP. The nerve and audacity she has to finally reach out all these years only to invite me to a wedding that's the cause of my family problems. On the bottom of the invitation, there's a handwritten note she wrote: PLEASE COME!

Mom can't hurt and destroy me, then wait four years to try and make things right again. This is the first time she's had contact with me and she won't even apologize for anything, but invite me to a wedding off all things? I don't even know how she found out address. That pisses me off the most. I'm never going back to that toxic life. Finding out everything ruined me. I had no idea who I was anymore. The Secret my mother kept stole my identity. I've just gotten it back and she will not take it again. Angry now, I rip the wedding invitation and throw it in the trash can beside the door. No. She can't do this to me. I look back at the pile of mail and find a letter addressed to me from some law firm I've never heard it. I open and read it. It's from my father's attorney—whom I never knew he had—and I've been summoned to his will reading in two weeks.

I sigh and show Kal the letter. "Guess we're going back home."