She gives me a tight smile and steps into my bedroom, closing the distance between us.
“You know who I am,” Alya says when she comes to a stop in front of me. “I’m sorry for barging in on you. I just wanted to meet my namesake.”
I give the woman who has held my dad’s heart for so many years a soft smile, letting her know it’s okay and she’s welcome here.
Silence stretches between us as we both stare outside. There’s nothing awkward about it. It’s weird, considering this is the first time I’ve met her, to feel like I’ve known her my whole life. But I guess that has to do with how much my dad loved her.
In my periphery, I catch her looking at me, and I meet her gaze.
Alya clears her throat. “Sorry, you look exactly like him.”
I’ve always been thankful for that, but I keep that to myself.
“I hope that’s a good thing,” I say instead.
She laughs. “It’s a very good thing. Can I ask how you know of me?”
“Aside from the fact I was named after you,” I tease lightly with a shrug, and she smiles back. “My dad loved you, Alya, of course, I know who you are.”
She nods at me, but I can see the emotion tightening her features.
“I have a picture of the both of you,” I admit, not really sure why.
“May I see it?”
I nod, stepping away to walk to my nightstand, where I keep the picture of her and my dad. I’ve always loved it, because it was the first time I’d seen my father truly happy, even if it was a frozen moment printed on paper.
I walk back to her, holding it out to her. She takes it, and I watch her full lips pull into a wide smile.
“Has he ever told you the story behind it?”
I shake my head.
I never openly told him I stole it from his office when I was a child. The man tore the house apart looking for it when he realized it was missing.
“Do you want to know?” she asks me.
I nod. I’ve always been curious about the time in my dad’s life before it was poisoned by my mother.
“Nate had just gotten his driver’s license,” she tells me. “He wanted to take me away on a trip, just the two of us. We both loved the ocean, so we drove down to Virginia Beach that night.” She pauses to smile at the memory. “We skipped a few days of school for that trip. It was the first time we’d been alone together for that long. We were sixteen here and it was the night of our two-year anniversary.
“After we took this picture, your dad dropped to one knee, and I thought he was about to propose. He told me not to run away screaming as he pulled a ring from his pocket.” She chuckles to herself and I can’t help but smile back as I get lost in the memory with her. “It was a promise ring. I remember the words he spoke to me so vividly.A promise you have my heart forever. A promise that I will always be right next to you. A promise that I will love you for the rest of my life.He slipped it on my finger and pulled me into him as he danced with me under the moonlight of the beach.”
I snort.
“I’m sorry I just struggle seeing the man I know as a romantic.”
Alya laughs. “We were young,” she says. “Malia, I still have that ring and I brought it with me to see if you wanted it.”
I frown. “Are you sure?”
She nods and pulls the ring that hangs on a silver chain from her pocketbook.
“I could never part with it, but I know it will be safe with you. I can see how much you love your father. May I?”
Tears build in my eyes and I nod, facing away from her as she steps into me to place the chain around my neck. I look down at it as it sits on my chest; it’s beautiful.
A large princess-cut diamond sits in the center of a thin white-gold band. I finger the simple jewelry that holds so much love and meaning.