"Rosie, my troubled niece," Tessa said as she reached out and hugged her. Aniyah, in her own way, was happy to see family.

"What are you doing here, Tessa?"

"Stop calling me by my first name as if I'm your friend. I've always been your Aunt Tessa. Today is no different. But, I guess it's a different time to you because you have everyone here thinking you're my daughter. How can you run away from home and take the life of your dead cousin?"

"Come in, Tess...Aunt Tessa, I can explain. This is all for us-the Sanchez family."

Tessa entered the house. She recognized that the odor in the house was nothing like the Houston Estate used to smell.

"Let's go into the kitchen," Aniyah suggested.

Tessa followed behind her. She watched Aniyah's rear. The dress fell just below her bottom and it clung to her hips. "Rosie, how can you wear such clothing? It doesn't suit a young lady."

"Hush!" Aniyah yelled as she placed her right index finger over her lips. "Stop calling me, Rosie. It's Aniyah to everyone here."

"You must take back your own name."

"It is my name. It's my middle name."

"You know what I mean. Use your first name, Rosie. My Aniyah would have never dressed in such a way if she had lived."

"This is the style I like. I'm not an old lady like you."

Tessa sat at the kitchen table. She recalled making many meals for the Houstons. She placed her purse on her lap.

"Please explain." She waited to hear her niece's side of the story.

"Aunt Tessa, Mr. Houston was a cruel man. I read your diary. He raped you. He got you pregnant and did away with you like you had a disease. It's his fault you lost your baby. Can't you see I'm doing this for you and the family? The Sanchezes can now live good like the Houstons."

"Nonsense! The Sanchezes may not have lots of money, but we have respect for the people that we are. Never would we take from others to suit our own needs. You must give this all back."

Aniyah poured a gla.s.s of water. "You want something to drink?"

Aniyah knew they needed cooling down.

"Not at all."

"Aunt Tessa, no way I'll give all this back. Everyone thinks I'm his daughter and let's keep it that way. You have to go along with it. We can bring my mother here from Mexico. She doesn't have to work at all."

Tessa stood up and went over to Aniyah at the sink. She yanked her by the arm. "Are you not a Sanchez? I can't take from others. Your mother would be heartbroken if she knew this. I won't allow you to do this to those girls. For G.o.d's sake, Rosie, they lost their parents. I know what it is to lose someone close to you. I lost my baby."

"You got over it, and so will them uppity broads."

"Please, have a heart. Give back what's rightfully theirs."

Aniyah jerked away. "I'm not giving up any of this." She walked to the other side of the kitchen near the pantry. "Maybe I'm my father's child-the man whose name my mama doesn't even know," she said. "I can't even begin to look for him because she doesn't have any idea how he looks. He was a stray cat who was hungry for milk. The milk satisfied him, and then he left me to be born with no father. All I had was a mama and an aunt who only showed me how to kiss up and be a slave for others. I never could be around boys because you and Mama were so protective of me. I wasn't happy with my life, so I ran away."

"We didn't want you to have to go through the same things we went through," Tessa said tearfully.

"It's too late. The man I left Mexico with treated me like trash. He made me what I am today."

Aniyah pulled her dress off. She stood nude in front of her aunt. "This is how I made my living-letting men touch me in places I didn't want to at first. But this is my tool for survival."

Tessa picked up her dress. "Put it back on. You don't have to be this way. You're a pretty girl. You can find the right man, settle down, and have a happy family."

Aniyah laughed as she slipped her dress back on. "I'm not being a housewife who sits at home and makes babies while my man goes out to wine and dine others. That's how Rupert was."

Tessa wondered about something. "You call him by his first name as if you know him well. How do you know so much about Mr. Houston?"

"I was introduced to him. I was his escort when he came to Georgia."

Tessa began to learn about how her niece lived. "Oh, Rosie," she said as she sat back down in the chair and shook her head in disbelief.

"I didn't know who he was at first. I did my job as a woman. He paid me well."

"How could you degrade yourself?"

Aniyah yelled in her aunt's ear, "I had to survive. I had to find money so that I could bring back to Mexico for you and Mama."

Her aunt jumped up and shook her. "We had jobs, Rosie Aniyah. All we wanted was for you to be a happy girl."

"Watching you guys struggle is not a happy life." Aniyah pulled away from her.

"How do you go from sleeping with Mr. Houston to being his daughter?"

"Once I found out who he was, I decided to make him pay. He moved me here. I lived where his uppity daughters live now. The Houston Villa was our love nest. I fed him his nightly meals and I got paid dearly until he decided to replace me with someone else. That's when revenge came into my heart. I told him that I was his daughter while we were in the sack. I also showed him a made-up picture of his cutie lawyer and daughter making out. I guess the man's heart couldn't take it. It sent him to his grave."

"You were with him when this happened?"

"No, I wasn't. The stress got to the b.a.s.t.a.r.d."

Tessa decided to ask about Baron while she was telling all. "Why would you be cruel to his lawyer?"

"I needed something on him to make sure I was taken care of." Aniyah laughed. "d.a.m.n, the man is good in bed."

Tessa wanted to agree with her, but she said nothing about her relationship with Baron.

Aniyah smirked. "He has a crush on you. I took care of him for you."

"Rosie, I pray for you."

"Aunt Tessa, I don't need your help. I live well now and so can you. We can live in this house. We can have the world."

"I beg you to do what's right. You can go to jail."

"I won't, if you keep your mouth shut."

As she got up to walk out, Tessa said, "Sorry, but I can't do that."

Aniyah walked over to a drawer and took out a switchblade. She wasn't about to let her aunt spoil her new life.

"You win, Aunt Tessa," she wept. "I'll give back everything and go home to see Mama. I do miss her."

Tessa looked back at her niece. "I'm happy that you have come to your senses. It's for the best."

"Aunt Tessa, please help me pack," she begged. "I'll leave with you."

Tessa started to go and hug her niece. But Aniyah thought quickly "Please, don't come near me. It will only make me cry more."

"All right, let's get your things."

Tessa led the way upstairs. "What room have you called your own?"

"I'm in the guest bedroom. But I want to show you something in Mr. Houston's office that he kept on you."

Tessa was anxious to see what souvenir Rupert cherished about her. She made her way into the office.

Aniyah held tight to the blade. Once her aunt stepped into the office, she rushed and grabbed her from behind.

Holding Tessa's left arm from behind her back, Aniyah flicked the blade to release the knife. She held the knife to her aunt's throat.

"Don't say a thing or I'll cut you," Aniyah threatened.

Tessa trembled as she kept her mouth shut. She realized that the person who held her wasn't the girl in Mexico who she helped raise.

Aniyah pulled her to a chair. She pushed her down in the seat. "Don't move," she ordered.

Tessa watched as she rummaged through drawers, but she didn't seem to find what she was looking for.

Tessa saw that her niece was somewhat concentrating on finding something in the closet. She jumped out of the seat and tried to make a run for it, but Aniyah caught up to her.

She s.n.a.t.c.hed her aunt by the hair until she fell on the floor. She dragged her back into the study near the entrance of the closet that she was previously looking in.

Tessa screamed from pain. Her head throbbed from the hair-pulling.

Aniyah spotted a roll of twine. "Sit up," she said, pointing the knife in her aunt's face. "Put your hands together in front of you."

"I'm your mother's sister. I beg you, please don't do this to family."

"How can you sit here and tell me about family when you want to destroy my future? You'd rather save your dead baby's daddy's family than your own. Forget you."

Aniyah tied her aunt's hands in a tight knot. "Put your d.a.m.n feet close together," she demanded as she wrapped the twine around her aunt's ankles and knotted it.

"You have disgraced the family." Tessa cried.

"Remember, I have no family, so shut the h.e.l.l up."

"Please, Rosie, don't do this."

Aniyah slapped her aunt across the face. "It's Aniyah to you."

"No, my beautiful Aniyah died a long time ago."

Her words didn't faze Aniyah. Her niece figured that no one would be looking for her aunt. Everyone would a.s.sume that she went back to Mexico.

Aniyah found some masking tape. Tessa gagged as she tried to cough while her mouth was being taped.

Aniyah opened another closet that had been emptied out by the Houstons. She put her arms under her aunt's underarms and dragged her across the room into the closet. Tessa shook her head as she mumbled, "No."

Then Aniyah went into the bedroom and cut open the seams of a pillowcase. She cut a long strip. Tessa watched her come back in the closet, praying that maybe she realized she made a mistake.

Aniyah tied the pillowcase strip around her aunt's mouth to add reinforcement. "There, that should do it."

Aniyah sat down in the office chair and closed the knife back into the blade. She wrote on a sheet of paper. "Do not enter this room or you'll be fired."

Aniyah looked over at her aunt sitting inside the closet. "See, all you had to do was enjoy all of this with me. We could be shopping and having fun, but no, you care more about the uppity broads than you do your own. You'll rot in that closet."

Aniyah got up and taped the note on the outside of the door.

Exhausted and in pain, Tessa prayed that Baron would not think that she decided to go back to Mexico.

Chapter 21.

The sweat ran down Milandra's face as she played a tennis match with Nolan. He had persuaded her to play a game of tennis with him in exchange for paying for the services he rendered on the property. It was down to the last point. Milandra served the ball. Nolan hit it back across the net. She ran down the court and hit the ball back to him. The ball landed on the opposite side from where Nolan stood. He tried to run and catch up to the ball as it bounced on the court, but he missed it.

"I won!" she celebrated with excitement.

"You're a pretty good player. I want a rematch."

"Do I sense that you hate losing?" She smiled.

"It's okay as long as it's to a pretty lady. I can't complain. I do think your long legs distracted me."

"Excuses, I see."

They walked off the court over to a cooler with ice-cold water in it. They hurried to satisfy their thirst. They took long swallows from their water bottles.

"This is so refreshing," Milandra said.

"Hits the spot," he said.