Red_Roses_and_Black_Dahlias_-_Macy_T

I could see how the news about Valentina and I being half-sisters
surprised him. You wouldn’t guess, because we both looked exactly like our
mother, black hair, brown eyes, light brown skin. Just like mama.
“She was fifteen, heavily pregnant and in a country whose language she
didn't speak and hardly even understood. Papa was only three years older
than her, spoke Spanish fluently and when he saw her, it was love at first
sight. At least for him. At first, she rejected him, because she was scared of
getting hurt again. But my dad was persistent and eventually, they got
together. Dad’s family was heavily against their union. She was pregnant
with somebody else’s child, and that was a hard no for his very much
catholic family.”
I gulped, looking down, wrenching my hands together.
“So they ran away together. They went all the way up to Canada, where
they were sure no one would find them, and started a new life there. Dad
worked at a car shop, he loved cars, loved building them back from scratch.”
I smiled at the memory of the man that never treated me like I was anything
but his, no matter what my DNA stated. "Mom worked part-time at a small
flower shop in town. It wasn’t much, but it paid the bills. She loved
flowers.” I remember our house always being full of plants, she had them all
over the patio, the kitchen, the living room, even had some in our bedrooms.
“When Rosa came along, I was over the moon. Getting to be a big sister was
everything I ever wanted, it meant the world to me. I took it very seriously,
from a young age.”
“What happened then?” I bit my lip while Maddox’ eyes dug into me.
Taking a deep breath, I resumed my story.
“Oracio found her. My mom.” My chin was shaking so much from trying
to hold tears in, and I couldn’t even do it properly since a lot of it escaped
and ran down my cheeks.
“He came one night, with some of his men. One minute we were all
asleep after a night of playing board games, the next we were awoken by the