Eden was too emotional to speak. She only had enough strength to nod. But Eve had questions. There was something that she just couldn’t understand.

“Ma why did you even accept responsibility for Envy’s demonic ass? She has always made our lives Hell, but what she did to Eden definitely takes the cake. All the drama involving her could have been avoided if y’all just let her grandmother throw her out with the fucking trash. Why did she have to come here?” Eve asked angrily.

She was furious. Envy had always been a backstabbing bitch, but this new betrayal was a new low even for her. Marie could see the fire in her daughter’s eyes and knew it was time she gave her girls the whole truth, because from where she sat it was obvious to her that neither of her children understood her actions.

“I’m not surprised that you two haven’t caught on yet. I raised you girls to be good upstanding women. I raised you girls to have manners and told you to treat people the way that you’d like to be treated. So let me fill in the blanks.

Even though I believe all children need a strong motherly figure in their life, being Envy’s mother was the furthest thing from my mind. I wasn’t interested in raising another woman’s child. I was interested in revenge,” Marie said nonchalantly.

Eve and Eden sat with their jaw on the floor as they stared at their mother in disbelief.

“Revenge?!” They asked as they looked at Marie as if she had lost her mind. The word sounded foreign to them coming from their mother’s mouth.

“That’s right. Good old fashion RE-fucking-VENGE! I was a good woman to Everett’s dog ass, and he took advantage of me. I stuck by that man through a lot, but there is but so much a woman can take before she’s had enough. There was no way I could honor a man that brought an outside child into my home.

So, like any fed-up woman, I met someone else. When your father found out he lost it. When he asked me, “Why would you do this?’ I’d point at Envy’s little ass and smile. I brought Envy here to remind Everett that he was the reason things were the way they were. There are consequences to disobedience,” Marie laughed.

Since she was talking to her and Everett’s daughters, she left out the devious parts of the past. There was no need to tell them how she set it up for their father to walk in on his business partner performing oral sex on her, walking in on his best friend signing his name on her cervix, or her having unprotected sex with his rival.