Maya kept hearing her father's voice, saying something that involved responsibility and doing the writing, but the worst sound was the distance, like everything was happening in another room.
Pregnant
Daniel
Getting married
No one spoke for a moment; everyone was alert to know her next action as if they were expecting her to flame the champagne bottle at one of them right there on the table.
Her finger slowly tightened around the fork in her hand; the man let out a small breath.
"So," she said, her voice low.
"Daniel"
She called him out; the name was now heavy in her mouth.
Everyone turned to her on hearing her voice. Daniel lifted his head; his eyes looked like he was fighting back tears. His expression looked tired. Guilty.
"Is that true?"
He nodded before muttering a "yes." Maya stared at him for a few seconds. As she repeated after him, trying to sound sure that she had him correctly.
Then she looked at Kim. She looked calm, composing herself like she was in for a reaction that was bound to happen.
Who knows what's next? She was snatched away from her, maybe her life.
Maya placed her fork down carefully back on the plate. It made a small sound against the ceramic.
Back then, in her childhood, her mother would have scolded her to be careful so as not to break any plate.
But now she seemed absent from the room. Maya knew she was avoiding the chaos that could be unavoidable. Even currently, her mother still left her.
What was she expecting, for her to side with her and bash everyone at the table for betraying her? To ask her not to cry, that no one was worth her tears.
Maya pushed her share back slowly; she was not going to prove them right by disrupting their dinner.
Slowly she picks up her bag; her shirts felt tight, and the dining room seemed smaller and suffocating.
The feeling she had back then in the hospital room came back now, and she wished you had believed her intuition back then.
"I'm so sorry y'all" she said quietly.
For a moment, she asks herself what she was apologizing for when she had not done anything wrong.
Not just for what happened or the ones that had been happening. The betrayal that she received from the one she believed had shielded her and promised her undying love and comfort.
But for simply being Maya, everyone believed she was a pushover.
"Come back Maya" her father said firmly, trying to rope in the control he believed was still there. His young daughter, he had believed, would give you everything just for peace.
Maya was already familiar with the next word he was going to utter. For her to understand that Kim was that little sister, she would learn to give up things for her.
Since she was young and needed more love since she left her mother.
Maya had believed, in allowing Kim to tow with her shadow every given time.
But this time she didn't stop as she made her way to the door. She was used to leaving quietly through the hallway that led to the back of the house.
Since she had hated drawing attention to herself, this time she took the front door, her heels clicking, almost like each step was leaving a message behind.
No one followed her, maybe to comfort or plead with her.
Not her mother, who Maya has now believed was either her foster parent after what has been displayed tonight.
Or even her father, who was always quick to correct her.
Not even Kim, who sat there as if nothing unusual had just happened.
Maya walked out, leaving the door ajar, heaving a sound of relief now that she was out of there, prying eyes.
The night air hit her face, cool and steady, but it did nothing to calm the storm building inside her chest.
Behind her, the door closed with a quiet click.
Leaving her all alone in the dark. She made her way to the gate, not minding to hail a cab as she walked down the bus station.
And just like that, Maya realized something she had been avoiding for years.
She had never really belonged in that house.