Read Online Everything is Everything Book 2 by Pepper Pace - Free Book Online Page A

silky black hair more like Dante’s than like her reddish brown tresses. He looked like Dante—as if a clone machine had created a little replica of the man.
    Another tear dripped from her eyes and splashed the blanket, which swaddled her newborn.
    Dante hadn’t come.
    She’d called him yet again, leaving the message that the baby had been born. It had been weeks since she’d talked to him. She’d left him a few messages but when it seemed that he had dismissed her she had stubbornly stopped phoning him. If he wanted to have cold feet and play games than she was going to be too far above it to let it bother her.
    But deep down his lack of response had left her feeling deeply wounded. Despite her proclamations that having a boyfriend was jive, she’d connected to Dante and had opened up to him, had allowed him to fill in some missing parts that neither her mother nor Vanessa could ever reach.
    She’d dared to dream that she, Dante and their baby could be a family.
    She’d allowed him to have his cold feet. She knew that he was making plans, had been talking about ways to make money because he had a ‘crumb snatcher’ to take care of. Only he sounded proud and she thought she could tell that he wanted her in the equation.
    How could she have been so wrong about so many things?
    She kissed her sleeping son’s head again. The ache in her heart ran so deep that this day that she had looked forward to for so long was shadowed in bitter regrets. She had never felt so alone. No one was here to share this with her, not even her mother who had sent her to the hospital in a taxicab claiming that she’d be up there once she got some things together.
    She still hadn’t arrived.
    Jalissa had called the gang and while each was excited none had made any indication that they intended to come to the hospital to share this moment with her.
    Jalissa squeezed her eyes closed. Vanessa was supposed to be here with her exclaiming about how beautiful the baby was. She was supposed to be making plans about how they would make sure her son didn’t turn out to be like so many other kids that raised themselves because their parents were disinterested or too busy making ends meet. On some level she even thought that she’d probably co-parent with Vanessa in the event that Dante bailed on her (the way he evidently had).
    She recalled the way Vanessa had stormed into the apartment. Her posture, her expression was like some foreign entity—almost like that movie The Exorcist where the devil had taken over the body of a little girl. Only Jalissa knew that it wasn’t something bad that guided Vanessa.
    It was the truth.
    Jalissa could barely consider Vanessa’s accusations—accusations that had to be true. No, Jalissa had never doubted them. She had always known that her mother was capable of the worse treachery.
    But what was she supposed to do?! She had gotten pregnant at the age of sixteen, knew nothing about raising a baby, had dropped out of school because she couldn’t get to classes on days when she was too sleepy, too sick or too swollen.
    Was she supposed to cast her lot with Vanessa and then walk out the door and move in with the two of them? She was stuck with her mother because the girl knew nothing else. For all her tough talk she relied on her mother to take care of her.
    There it was.
    Jalissa had tried to steer clear of her mother’s wrath even at times that her own rage and disappointment had caused her to lash out and show her contempt. But in the end her mother was all she had—and that was never made more clear than when Vanessa’s grandmother had taken her away.
    Jalissa lowered her eyes. But no, she had not spoken up for Vanessa, had not protected her from her mother’s jealousies. Her mother had barely concealed her dislike for Vanessa—had at least pretended to love Aunt Leelah. Jalissa had begun to think that her mother was incapable of experiencing any type of love that wasn’t half filled with dislike. And