BATTLE OF DESIRE

for the day, the conversation Marcia had wit

eing in Miami and facing off agai

r to remember moments from her past t

parents' fight loomed p

se, her thoughts would drift back to that time, years ago,

ear her mother's vo

again?! They've given us the prescription! Why do you insist that she sta

credulously. "That's your daught

the accusation so thick in her voice that even the se

your mistress even!" her mother continued

voice! Marcia's upstairs!" Raym

t even deny it!" Tracy said,

? It's her daughter who is sick! One would think a mother would be more caring toward her

fe and mistress but old enough to know that tension had somethin

er mother's sad, distant voice from the kitchen downstairs say t

der the weight of the words she didn't fully understand but somehow felt in her heart. It was because she was sick, be

and saw her elder sister, Annett

ith tears, and her big sister ha

the eleven-year-old Annette said, shouldering more responsibilit

arcia is at home? Don't they usually have these talks w

s gripping her big sister tightly. "But...if I wasn't

d at Marcia's small face. She shook her head at Marcia, smiling

acy! The kids are upstairs! Stop this!" The gir

" Tracy said, her voice

wide. Their father walked in with a small smile on his face, coffee in one hand a

hort sip. That was the moment everything changed for me, she reflecte

thoughts away, heading to her office

picking it up and putting down her coffee. She an

ingly repeating itself. Mar

she replied,

Conway. We spoke

t that would bring in serious revenue for her business. "Have you had a chance to go ove

followed by the sound of papers rust

that..." the ma

he leaned back in her chair, her fingers abse

llian, the man at the center

inisced about how those eyes had made her feel seen back then. Now

st man she had e

the man she had thought she understood better than anyone else – and who

k again to her

guilt she felt about her parents' fights and estrang

parents' polite, pretend relationship grow more formal, more

, were simply pla