The headlights cut through the quiet street. A silver car pulled up beside the curb with a soft screech of tires. Valerie rose slowly, the suitcase handle clenched in her white-knuckled grip.
The passenger door flung open before she could take a step.
Tamara stepped out, barefoot, her oversized hoodie barely covering her pajama shorts. Her eyes went wide the moment she saw Valerie. This wasn't the cousin she grew up with. Valerie's bubbling personality was now shadowed by gloomy eyes.
"Val.." Tamara whispered, rushing forward.
Valerie tried to speak but her throat didn't help. It was hoarse.
Tamara just wrapped her hands around her tightly "Come on," Tamara said. "Let's get out of here."
****
Tamara's home was nothing like the Smith estate. Tamara was a Smith too but her family was different. Tamara's dad and Valerie's dad were brothers, hence their closeness. It smelled like warm vanilla and cinnamon and had the sound of sitcom playing in the background. It looked like real people lived there, almost like how her home was when her mother was around.
"Oh, sweetheart…" her aunty Mary whispered when she saw Valerie.
Valerie lowered her gaze. "I can go somewhere else. I don't want to cause trouble…"
"Nonsense," Mary said gently but firmly, pulling her in for a hug. "You're family. You'll always have a place here."
Valerie exhaled slowly, and for the first time in days, her shoulders began to loosen.
Valerie spent the next few weeks mostly indoors, in Tamara's room. She barely touched her phone, afraid of what she'd see. But Tamara's house was calm, it was healing. She helped with the dishes, went on walks, she laughed rarely but genuinely. She couldn't lie to herself that the betrayal from her family, especially her father, wasn't dealing with her internally. Still, she felt things changing.
It started with fatigue, she was sleeping more and her appetite was off. She thought she was just tired and sad about how her life was going. Then, the early morning nausea came in. She thought it was the trauma or maybe her body was reacting to the anxiety. But it didn't stop.
One morning, Tamara found her bent over the bathroom sink, pale and shaking.
"Val… have you eaten something weird?"
Valerie rinsed her mouth. "I don't think so. It's just stress."
Tamara studied her carefully, then sat on the edge of the bathtub.
"Valerie, you're late too, aren't you?"
Valerie froze. She had not even realized it. Her cycle was never this late, sometimes irregular but never this late.
She didn't answer.
Tamara stood up and opened the bathroom cabinet. "I'm getting a test."
Later that evening.
They both stared at the small white stick that sat on the edge of the sink. Its tiny screen was fluttering. The room was silent, only their breathing could be heard.
Two lines.
Positive.
Valerie's hands trembled as she sat on the closed toilet lid, staring at it. She could feel her whole world crumbling down.
Tamara stood nearby, arms crossed tightly, like she was trying to hold herself together for both of them.
"Do you… want to talk?" she asked softly.
Valerie's voice was barely a whisper. "I don't even remember that night. I just remember waking up… and he was there. I didn't even know what we did. I didn't know if we actually.."
"You're sure it's his?" Tamara asked gently.
She nodded. "There was no one else. Not in that way. I haven't had sex in months, well not until then."
A long silence followed.
Valerie looked up at her cousin, eyes glassy. "What do I do now?"
Tamara knelt in front of her and held her hands. "First, we breathe. Then we figure it out. One step at a time. You'll be fine".
The next day, the kitchen smelled like rosemary and roasted garlic. Valerie sat at the table, hands folded tightly in her lap, eyes fixed on a small crack in the wooden surface. Tamara sat beside her, equally tense but resolute.
Aunty Mary stirred the soup on the stove, humming to herself while her hair was in a loose bun.
Tamara cleared her throat, "Mum, can we talk to you for a second?"
Mary didn't turn around. "Of course, sweetheart. Just let me finish this stir…"
"It's important" Valerie's voice was quiet but strained.
Mary sensed the tone in Valerie's voice instantly. She turned off the stove and wiped her hands on a piece of towel. Facing the two girls now, she said nothing, she just waited.
"I'm pregnant" she whispered "I took a test and it was positive"
There was silence. Valerie looked at her and expected the same look of disgust and annoyance her father had a few weeks ago.
But instead, Mary had an unexplainable expression, "It's okay, you've been sleeping more, eating less. I suspected".
Valerie felt a lump form in her throat. "You're not… angry?"
"Angry?" Mary laughed under her breath. "No, sweetheart. Why would I be angry?"
"Because I'm nineteen. I'm not married. I don't even remember how it happened. My dad kicked me out. And now I'm… I'm bringing a baby into this mess."
Mary reached across the table and took her hands, gently but firmly. "I'm not going to pretend this will be easy. But you're not alone. You have me. You have Tamara. You have a home here. Whatever you decide to do, we'll stand beside you."
Valerie blinked rapidly, her throat tight. "I don't even know where to begin."
"You begin," Mary said, squeezing her hands, "by forgiving yourself. Then you figure out what you want. And then you take it one day at a time."
The week went by with Mary and Tamara helping Valerie with her pregnancy. She eventually decided she would keep the pregnancy since she had so much love and care from her aunt.
She lay in bed that night finding it hard to sleep. Her mind drifted to her mother and how much she missed that woman. She sat up quickly remembering the box that her mother had given her. She had given her when she was ten years old, just a few days before she died. Her mother said to open it when she had nowhere to turn to, if not she could open it when she was eighteen. But a lot has happened since she was eighteen, she just hadn't brought herself to open her dead mother's present.
She got off the bed and dived into the bag she had kept the box in. She examined it and rubbed her fingers on the embroidery on the top. The turned the side knob and inside of the black box was revealed to her.
She moved her hands through the contents of the black box and brought out a piece of folded paper. She opened the paper, skimming through the words as her mouth opened slightly. The paper was a deed of agreement of share transfer that stated she had fifty percent share in her mother and father's company assets. She looked into the box again and found a couple of bank cards, each with numbers taped to them and a USB flash drive.
Still feeling in shock, she shoved the paper and the bank cards back into the box and left out the flash drive. She lay in bed and waited till the next morning to figure out what was in the flash drive.
The next morning, barely getting enough sleep, she got up early and found a desktop she could use. She plugged in the flash drive and prepared herself for what it held.
On the screen, Valerie's mother appeared. Her dark brown hair stopped just below her shoulders.
"Hi Valerie" she started, "I believe you have found a reason to finally watch this video. I'm so sorry I couldn't be with you forever."
Valerie stifled a sob.
"First of all, there are a few things you should know and they are all meant to be confidential.
My real name is Jane Lancester, yeah the real Lancaster!. I am the only daughter and heir to the powerful Lancester family in the east of the country.
I ran away from home, because I wanted to escape an arranged marriage. I left everything I had and started a new life where I met your father, Charles and fell in love."
Valerie cringed at the admission of love.
"Get a pen and write the number you see on the screen as well as every other information".
Valeri paused the video and went in search of a paper and pen. She finally got one and settled and began scribbling away on the paper. Satisfied, she continued to play the video.
"You will get every help you need from there and you'll have nothing to worry about. Lastly, Valerie, In the bank. I have a safe deposit box there. Passport, proof of identity, and everything else you need to know" And with that, the video came to an end.