“What are you doing in my house?” Dustin’s eyes bore holes into Sin. His house? This couldn’t be his house? She wondered what she had done all her life for this cruel fate to be hers. Dustin was the spitting image of his father, so it made sense that Sin hadn’t yet put two and two together. But how could she have not noticed him in many of the family photos that were in the living room and the hall. She chalked it up to the fact that he was different now. His face more angled, his long loose curls cut into a buzz cut. He was nothing like that man she gave her heart to years ago.

It must have been taking her a while to answer because now all eyes in the room were on her. Sin turned to Damien trying to find words to explain that wouldn’t make the situation worse than it already was. She felt it was safe to say she wouldn’t be getting in good with his family, but she didn’t want to imagine her life without him in it. He saved her from starting the conversation and simply asked how she knew Dustin. With her head hung she responded with the truth, “We met at College Park. He’s the reason I left Maryland.” Realization dawned in Damien’s eyes followed by hurt and anger. She wasn’t sure if the anger was for her, Dustin, or the situation but she didn’t feel it was an appropriate time to ask. Damien wanted nothing more than to leave the room, knowing that whatever was about to happen was going to be filled with drama and definitely upset him. But he wouldn’t leave Sin on an island by herself. He knew his brother could be crass and vulgar and he would not let Sin be subjected to his wrath. 

“But there is something I’m not understanding,” Damien declared, “how did the two of you get together at Maryland, if Dustin went to college at NYU.” Dustin’s eyes grew wide with the guilt of being discovered before they turned into slits directed at Sin. Gloria and David both seemed shocked and Sin guessed that Dustin had lied to them about what college he was attending.

“That’s inconsequential right now, why is my lying, cheating, ex-girlfriend sitting at our dining room table?” Dustin turned looking at everyone in the room but no one seemed willing to answer. 

Knowing that this was her drama, and her issue to deal with she subdued her expression and addressed Dustin as softly as possible.

“Damien and I have been dating for two years.”

His response was not so soft, “fuck no, you’re not dating my brother. You don’t get to be a whore and then date my brother.”

Sin was undeniably pissed off. She had never let a man call her out of her name and she wasn’t about to start for a piece of shit that left her when she was pregnant. But before she could retort to cuss him out Gloria stepped in.

“Dustin Andres García, you have seemed to have forgotten where you are and who you are with. You will fix your language or I will fix you,” she said with a stern look and he clammed up. Leave it to a black mother to scare you with a sentence that didn’t even make sense, Sin thought. 

“Look Ma, in any other circumstance I agree, but not with her.” He pointed a finger at Sin so hard and all she wanted to do was break it in half.

“Look,” Sin told him, “One, I don’t know who you calling a whore. And two I don’t get why you’re so upset that I’m here Dustin. You left me.”

“I left you because you cheated on me when I was gone for the weekend! It was our first time apart and you couldn’t even keep your legs closed.” He nearly screamed at Sin.

“Dustin nobody cheated on you!” Sin replied louder than him. “I literally spent the whole weekend sick in my room throwing up anything I ate!” She was tired of him lying in front of his whole family. He would not make her seem like a villain when she was the one that he left with a child, even if he hadn’t known about Lex. 

“I HEARD YOU ON THE PHONE! I CAME BACK EARLY AND HEARD YOU TELLING SOMEONE YOU WERE SCARED TO TELL ME BECAUSE YOU THOUGHT I WOULD LEAVE YOU!” Dustin had begun yelling at her and Sin would not be outdone. She was ready to rip into him because she knew the one thing he didn’t. 

“I DIDN’T CHEAT ON YOU DUMBASS, I WAS PREGNANT!”

A small groan sounded but Sin paid it no mind. She stood there smug looking at Dustin’s dropped jaw, happy to have proved him wrong. But the groaning continued and Sin soon realized it was coming from behind her. She turned around, guilt already surfacing because she knew what she had done. Lex’s small frame sat in a ball groaning, crying, and rocking back and forth. Damien rushed to her side, having been the only other person that knew how to help Lex when he was triggered. The tears began to well in Sin’s eyes, while disappointment and self-loathing sat at the gates of her heart waiting for her to let them in. But she sucked her tears back and picked her son up instead. She could hate herself for this later, but now she had to take care of him. Damien took her hand and pulled her with him, leaving his family, his anger, and their issues in the room.

Going through the kitchen, he took Sin up two staircases to a small blue door. The door opened to not just a room, but what looked like an apartment, that had everything except a kitchen. Had Sin not been in her current situation she would have made a wise crack at him but she was too worried about Lex. She placed him in Damien’s hands and she went to look for the speaker in her suitcase since their bags had made it to the room. Damien carried the child who was still crying, groaning, and holding his ears. He did their normal routine and went to the bed, laying Lex in the middle next to him, rubbing his back. Sin found the speaker and began to put on their nature playlist turning up just enough to softly touch Lex’s ears. She got in the bed on the other side of Lex and closed the other half of the cocoon her body made with Damien’s. She refused to look in Damien’s eyes, instead electing to look at Lex’s hair and she brushed her fingers through it. 

By the third song Lex had stopped crying and he laid sleeping between Sin and Damien. Sin’s silent tears began to fall as she finally dealt with what she had done. When Lex was born she swore she would never hurt him. She would never be selfish enough to put her needs before his. Lex was the most amazing child and had helped her grow in so many ways. She hated that she had let Dustin take her back to how she used to be. A person Damien and her son had never seen because she swore she would be better when Dustin left her. She never knew why he left until today, but she always thought it had something to do with her bad qualities, not because he was a stupid insecure eavesdropper. 

Damien’s hand lifted her face and wiped away her tears. The surprise was shown on her face and he gave a light chuckle reading her mind almost in an instant.

“I don’t care what happened with you and my brother. I love you.” Sin gave him a smile and ran her fingers through his hair. Damien meant the words but there was a small part of his heart that was still confused and upset about the situation, and possibly jealous.

“I love you too,” Sin said sweetly as a weight was lifted off her shoulders. She knew these next coming days would be difficult, but she also knew Damien would be there and on her side.