Not to sound like a spoil sport, since everyone else was enjoying the road trip and discussing how perfect the flight to Ohio was. She needed to puke her guts out,at least that's how it felt like.
"What's wrong baby??" Sean Moore, her father asked her.
"It's nothing, probably jet lag or something" She forced a smile,suppressing the urge to tell her brother to pull over.
"Are you sure ,love?" He looked genuinely worried, Rosaline could tell.
"Ay,Sean ,let her be...she's not a kid anymore" Her mom, Beatrice Diaz said.
One look at her family would make a person wonder how any of them were related or how her parents even met in the first place.
As a family of eight, growing up was a real ,life impacting experience for her. Also adding the fact that each and every one of the Moore siblings , except herself,were strong willed ,opinionated, self serving , obnoxious humans.
That was probably the dislike for some of her siblings in her talking but it didn't matter because she was right and as a middle child ...somewhat...it was expected.
Unlike her siblings, Rosaline was a short, freckled face red headed Moore.According to her Pappie... Bless his soul.. {Her maternal grandfather},she resembled his mother.
"Of all the people I could look like,I picked your dead mother?"... That was her response to him when he told her,everyone laughed it off as she was only 7 at the time. But she meant it.
Her Eldest brother, her step brother from her mother,Kenneth Moore, was a tall African-American ,with chiseled features and red hair. He was 37, the owner of a weird men's wear store he named KenKurdy. And,as expected of a once playboy, he was not married but he has been in a relationship for 2 years with his secretary, Jessie Flores,who for some weird reasons was here with them on their supposed FAMILY! trip. Rosaline eyes went to Jessie's round
buttock,then she snorted. Her round butt was the only nice feature she had as far as she was concerned.
Beatrice, obviously liked Jessie, because she was from Costa Rica ,like herself.
The second child of the family, Rudy Moore, was a "Writer", he had written several books that never sold, despite his ultimate failure, he was still steady on his writer path ,but it was only a side hustle or more of a disguise for his actual profession. He was 36 and the most successful of the Moore siblings,none of them knew what he was doing to make so much money and he didn't bother explaining himself. His wife,Jordan Cooper, defended him any time the discussion of his job came up with "Oh,it's nothing illegal" and a nervous chuckle. And they were expecting their first child.
Just like me... Rosaline thought.
"You good?" Her sister,Renee asked
"Yeah I'm a-okay"Rosaline said making the Ok sign with her fingers
"For real life?"Renee asked with a skeptical look on her face
"Butts off my business ,Ren"Rosaline laughed
Renee chuckled.
Coming down to the Twins ,the third children of the family, Renee and Keisha Moore.
Two years older than Rosaline,and they were doing well for themselves.
Renee was the first twin and she was the shadow of her twin sister, she owned a gym and was a fitness coach also a licensed scuba diving coach,just anything fitness , athletic or anything that requred strength and weight loss,Renee was the go-to. She was the closest to Rosaline as they were the ugly duckling and black sheep combo.
Keisha was the luckiest of the Moore siblings,she was an influencer, got married to a wealthy guy she met in Qatar on one of her unnecessary trips around the world in the name of being a free spirit,Jamari Bakir, which came as a total shock to the family .Jamari came from an old money type of family, "he was a second-gen money man" as Keisha would say. Rosaline glanced at Keisha who was retouching her make-up as Jamari held up a portable fan device close to her face....
Keisha had always felt entitled to luxury , right from their childhood days,not to mention she was their Mother's pride and Joy.
She recently started a weird YouTube channel for women "My Oasis" which brought her a lot of sponsors and investors. She was now a freelance ambassador for different brands.
Beautiful and Successful.
"What fine luck" Rosaline mumbled to herself.
And then there she came,the only child that didn't look like daddy Moore or Mommy Diaz Moore but came to the world as Great granmama Moore....
She was a Curator and a conservation program manager in a zoo under AZA.
It wasn't a surprise to her parents since she had always loved animals.
The Last Lamb of the family was Richie,Richard Moore. He was 28,a model, married to his make up artist. A full blooded African ,Zoe Adetunji. Rosaline was so much in love with Zoe,she was a pack of sassiness, positivity and so much Yoruba energy.
Anyone that can stand up to her mom, and Keisha was her favorite and Zoe was the one.
Rosaline looked at Zoe as she was breastfeeding her son ,David,with so much love in her eyes. It made her wonder if she'd ever be a good mother to the baby she was carrying in her womb...
If the baby had come a lil later ,she might have been open to learning about motherhood....now was just not a good time for her.
With the debt Toby left her ,the house lease and everything.The debt wasn't un-payable or overwhelming,but a baby would mean she had to quit her job for a while, it would mean her body would not be the same and it might even cost her life.
She wasn't ready and she didn't have the heart to give up her own child.
She didn't believe in wet nurses either, that was one of the reasons she loved Zoe so much....even with her mom's nagging to give her grandson baby formula,Zoe was adamant on breastfeeding the baby.
Rosaline knew she couldn't be like that,Zoe had her husband and her family plus her husband's family to help raise David.
But she....she was a mess.
She was not even close to quarter of what an expecting mother would feel.... except the morning sickness that reminded her that her pregnancy was real.
Finally they arrived at the Campbell's estate.
The Campbell's had been long time family friends of the Moore's. They went way back to the time of her paternal great grandfather.
Beatrice wasn't really a fan of the Campbell's especially Mr Campbell's wife ,Gina.She couldn't do anything about it since they'd always been invited every summer to spend time with them. Family bonding....Gina would say.
"Such beautiful hellhole...too bad it had to partially belong to a cynical witch" Beatrice said as they came down from the car.
"Bea, let's not do this " Sean said with a laughing tone.
Even ,he wasn't part of Gina's support team but he wasn't on her Hater's team either.
He couldn't hate her ,cause he didn't think much of her and he couldn't like her because his wife didn't like her.
Rosaline has never seen her father openly rebuke her mother, and she so much wanted a marriage like her parent's....so when she saw something she thought was similar in Toby, she quickly grabbed it and that was one of the biggest mistakes she'd made.
And her very first mistake was related to this "hellhole". The Campbell's Home.
"Rosa" His voice came to her ear like the worst music with the finest tunes.
Rosaline sighed(ب_ب)
This is going to be a fun ,relaxing vacation....She turned to face the direction of the voice.
"Nolan" She smiled sweetly.