TALIA'S SECRET: Sold To Sin

☆Reality kicks in☆

Beep.

Beep

The alarm went off. Talia got off the bed still half asleep. She made her way to the Triplet’s various room to wake up them and ask them to get ready for school.

“Jace.” she knocked at his room door but there was no response. She opened the door and found out he wasn't in his room.

Typical Jace he must have snuck into Jamal or Jackie’s room at night. She thought.

“Jamal.” She moved to his door.

“I'm already awake, Lia. I'm about to take my shower,” he said.

She smiled. She knew she could always count on Jamal when it comes to getting things done at home.

She finally went to Jackie’s room. “Jackie, you need to wake up and get ready for school,” She said. “While you are it, wake Jace up. He is sleeping besides you.”

Jackie who didn't know when Jace entered was surprised to see him lying besides him.

“Jace!”

“What? Why are you yelling so early in the morning?” Jace drawled.

“What are you doing in my bed?” Jackie asked.

“I don't know how it happened. I just found myself in your room,” Jace said.

“Yeah right,” Jackie hissed. “Take your sleepy ass back to your room and get yourself ready for school.”

“Jackie, language!” Talia cautioned. “No use of foul language in this house, and Jace go back to your room.”

Talia subconsciously went to their dad's room, forgetting that he is still in the hospital.

“Dad!” she called. “You need to get ready so you can drop the triplets off at school.”

Jamal saw Talia at their dad's room and dashed to meet her.

“Talia, what are you doing?” He asked surprised.

“Nothing, I'm just trying to wake Dad up so he can—” She remembered all that happened in the past few hours. “Oh no. How can I be so stupid?” She smacked her forehead.

“It's okay, Talia. Anyone can make such mistake.” Jamal consoled her.

“Why are you here? You are supposed to be getting ready for school.”

“I was, when I saw you walking towards Dad’s room. I had to follow you and make sure you were in your right state of mind,” Jamal said.

“Hold on, are you indirectly saying I may be losing my mind?” Talia playfully frowned and feed her arms.

“I didn't say that. You did,” Jamal giggled and dashed back into his room.

☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

“Talia took a shower put on her clothes and went downstairs to make breakfast. Getting here, she met their housekeeper who wasn't supposed to be there until 10am.

“Lily, you are here early,” Talia said.

“I had to be here, Talia. I heard what happened to Mr Dempsey on the news, so I thought the triplets would be home alone. I didn't know you were already here. I thought we are like family, why didn't you notify me when you arrived? I feel so bad for not being there with you and the Triplets yesterday,” Lily’s face was extremely sad.

“Oh I'm sorry, Lily. I took the next available flight down to Chicago when I got the news. I'm sorry I didn't notify you and you had to hear it from the news. It really wasn't intentional, a lot happened yesterday so my mind was all over the place,” Talia moved close to Lily and held her hands.

“It's okay, Talia,” She squeezed her hands. “I'm glad you are back home, even though the circumstances behind it isn't something to be happy about. I hope Mr Dempsey recovers quickly.”

“I hope so too.” Talia answered

“Breakfast is almost ready.”

“Thank you. I will go get the kids down,” Talia said and went back upstairs. She stood at the entrance leading to their various rooms. “Jace, Jamal and Jackie, come down for breakfast! Miss Lily made mum's favorite,” She said and went back to the kitchen.

Jace and Jackie came running down the stairs, competing for who would get to the kitchen first.

“The both of you! What did I say about running in the house? You are going to injure yourselves,” She yelled, already stressed out.

“It's his fault,” Jackie and Jace said simultaneously, pointing at each other.

“I don't care whose fault it is. No running around the house, please,” She cautioned.

“Okay,” They answered grumpily.

“Now eat your breakfast,” Talia said. “Jamal, what's keeping you up there? It's almost time for school, you don't want to miss the bus!” She called.

“I'm coming.” Jamal skipped down the stairs.

“They are taking the bus?” Lily asked, placing plates of eggs for the boys.

“Yes, they have to. Dad isn't here and I need to drive down to the hospital.”

“Don't worry. I'm going to take them.”

“Oh, thank you very much Lily. I’m really grateful,” Talia smiled.

“I'm here now. Good morning Miss Lily,” Jamal said, taking his seat besides his brothers.

“Morning, Master Jamal,” she answered with a smile.

“Miss Lily, you didn't smile at Jackie and I when we walked into the kitchen,” Jace pouted.

“Well, you both didn't share pleasantries with me, Master Jace sir,” she said sarcastically.

“Oh, we are sorry for our manners. It was Talia who distracted us with her nagging,” Jackie passed the blame yet again. Talia frowned

Once they were done eating, the Triplets kissed Talia goodbye on her cheek and followed Lily to her car. Talia picked up her car key and was about leaving for the hospital when her phone rang. Another unknown caller.

“Hello. Talia Dempsey here,” She answered.

“Hello, miss Talia. I'm calling from the bank in respect of a loan your father took.”

“What . . . what loan? I'm not aware of any loan,” Talia said confused.

“Well, your father— Mr Dempsey took a loan from our bank and used his house as a collateral.”

“Collateral?” Talia’s heart raced. “Let me . . . let me call you back.” She hung up. Her feet gave up on her and she fell to the floor. Loan, collateral. These two words kept replaying in her head and she wondered what she would do. Her father was still in critical condition and so she couldn’t ask him anything. She picked herself up and staggered into her father’s study. She moved straight to his shelf of important files and brought down boxes. They all had different tags for his different businesses. She opened each box and went through the files, littering the floor with paper.

She opened a box tagged ‘To be paid’. With shaky fingers, she emptied the box and picked out a file. Her father had boldly written bank loan on that file. Her heart sank. She looked through the papers and saw the signed documents. He had taken a loan to put into the business he had with Clifford. She got up and went to her father’s desk. Opening his phone book, she traced her father’s lawyer’s phone number and dialed it.

“Attorney Dwayne’s office. How may we help you?” His secretary spoke.

“This is Talia Dempsey. Attorney Dwayne is my father’s lawyer. Tell him I’m coming to his office right now.”

“His schedule is fully booked today. Could you check in tomorrow?”

Too late. Talia had hung up and was already driving out of the building. She had to do something, anything to solve her problems, right now, her hands were tied, and the only way out was her speaking with the Attorney, maybe he might find a way out of this very situation she had found her and her brothers have found themselves in.