"Why were you not at the engagement party?" a man in his late fifties asked Maya as he sat on the couch, clearly waiting for her to come home.
"Because I will not marry Oliver Wright, Dad," Maya was exhausted, she didn't have the energy to even argue with her father.
"Maya, your father only has your best interests at heart—" her mother tried to reason with her, but Maya glared at her, making her back down.
Maya continued to walk through their living room, ignoring her father and mother's looks of worry.
"Maya," her mother said in a gentle tone, making Maya stop in her steps.
She turned and looked at her mother's gray eyes, the older woman's worry was seeping through.
"Mom…" Maya groaned.
"Maya, come, sit, let's talk about this," her father, Edmond Miller said in a tender tone as he patted the space next to him on the couch.
Maya sighed and looked around, their house was visibly empty.
None of her siblings were around, there was no house help around either. It was clear that her parents wanted to speak with her alone.
"Fine," She exasperated, marching back to the living room and dropping herself on the seat.
Edmond took a deep breath as he reached out and held her hand.
She had taken after her father, both in looks and in personality.
They shared the same brown hair that when struck by light turned copper, she also got her deep-set brown eyes from him.
"Maya, we are just worried about you," her father said in a much calmer tone than when she had arrived.
"Marrying me off is not the way to show your concern, Dad," She groaned.
"We aren't marrying you off, we told you it was always your choice," Her mother, Caroline Miller said as she gave her daughter a worried look. "We didn't plan that party, we weren't even invited."
Maya sighed.
She knew her family would never truly force her to do something she didn't want.
"Our friends told us about what happened," Edmond explained to his daughter. "Maya, Oliver loves you, he can give you the future you deserve. He's waited years for you to reciprocate his love. He has never done anything to prove that he means you ill."
"Aside from announcing to the world that we are dating, we are engaged, what's next dad, he will tell everyone that we are married?" Maya asked.
Edmond frowned and nodded.
He wasn't an unreasonable man, he knew that Oliver had his flaws.
"Are you sure you can stand what everyone else says about you?" Edmond asked his daughter.
"I've lived with it for five years, Dad," She sighed as she held her father's hand and squeezed it.
"I worry about you," he said.
"I know," Maya answered as she stood up and left her parents alone in the living room.
She finally found solace in her room, closing the door firmly behind her.
It was a mess, she had left in a rush when she had heard about what Oliver had done and that Jay was there.
She knew that Oliver would take it out on Jay, he always did.
Jay's only crime was that he was best friends with Nate Rue.
She quickly got to work picking up a stray plushie that had found its way to the floor, fixing her bed, and putting aside her dirty clothes.
"Maya?" she heard her mother's soft voice call out from the other side of the door. "Can we talk?"
Maya frowned but still walked over to the door to let her mother in.
Caroline had a relieved look on her face when Maya opened the door, she was worried that her daughter would choose not to listen to her.
"Come in, close the door behind you," Maya said as she walked back in and continued to tidy her room.
In all honesty, she could have stopped and just spoken to her mom, but she knew that the topic at hand would be a difficult one.
"What Oliver did was wrong," Caroline said definitively. "Even your father thinks it's wrong, but Maya, how long will you keep waiting for a man that vanished in the middle of the night?"
"You liked Nate when he was around," Maya hissed.
Her family had adored Nate from the moment she introduced him to them.
"That was before he left you," her mother pointed out as a matter-of-factly.
"Just because he left doesn't mean he is a horrible person," Maya argued.
She didn't deny that speaking to him had made her anger waiver. She began to consider that he did leave for a valid reason and that he didn't have a choice.
"Maya don't you remember how heartbroken you were?" her mother said as pain radiated from her mother's eyes.
No mother wanted to see her child in pain, especially not Caroline.
"You barely left your room, you barely ate, and you were in such a depressing state that our hearts ached for you," Caroline reminded her daughter. "Why wait for a man that had caused you nothing but pain."
"He also brought me joy Mom, and I love him," she told her mother.
"You love him?" Caroline asked, stunned by the way her daughter had worded her statement. "You love him again?"
"Mom—" Maya tried to defend herself but her mother cut her off mid-sentence.
"Maya Gabrielle Miller! What are you hiding from us?" She demanded to know.
Maya blushed as she looked away.
Just the memory of Nate sitting next to her confused her. All the anger that had built up in her heart seemed to pale in comparison to how she still felt for him.
"Maya," Her mother insisted.
"He's back. He was Primus Hotel when I went to confront Oliver," Maya admitted.
"Oh," Caroline gasped.
"I know, it's not exactly the best news," Maya sighed as she sat down next to her mother.
Caroline reached out and placed a hand on her daughter's back to comfort her.
They sat in silence as Caroline kept Maya company.
"I know you're all grown up now and you can make decisions for yourself," Caroline told her daughter. "But always remember, we will always be here for you."