My Little Secret

“Can you keep a secret?” Five little words that changed Liana’s life. She remembered the day her little sister Raquel showing up one day early in the morning. There were rushed words about how she was sorry and then a knew and unexpected addition was added to her life. She looked down in to the pink and white bassinet. She couldn’t believe one little secret could change their lives. For one her sister was no where to be found. It was almost as if she never existed. She only new her sister was alive because every now and then a mysterious paycheck would appear in the mail. Before her sister left, she had made her promise not to say that it was her baby and most importantly never to tell mom. Olivia Patel was a no-nonsense woman who would scoff at any one she knew having a baby out of wed lock. So, for now all her mom knew is that Patrice Remona Patel was her adopted baby. Liana never had expected she would have a daughter. It wasn’t as if she wasn’t fond of kids, but she was always busy doing something. Her job as a photographer made her travel quite frequently. For some reason Raquel believed this lifestyle would be perfect. Raquel never gave Liana all the information. Why did she vanish so quickly? Who was Patrice’s father? Liana turned away from her sleeping niece. She had found it quite easy to fall in love with the little baby. Sure, she spit up on all her clothes. Sure, her dirty diaper smelled like a weeks’ worth of garbage, but at the end of the day she loved seeing her niece smile. She loved looking at her niece sleep. She loved selecting little outfits to take pictures of her little bundle of joy. Liana clicked on the nanny cam and left the room. She entered her photo studio just down the hall. Ever since Patrice had entered her life Liana had to adapt. Instead of working outside most days she usually just worked in her home studio. In her studio she developed the pictures and then she would send them out to the different clients. She developed a bunch of the pictures she took last week. Some pictures were pictures of families for graduation ceremonies . She had done pictures for a wedding a few days ago. She also got to do a male modelling photo shoot yesterday . That honestly was the high light of her day. She was about to develop the last picture when she heard a cry from the nanny cam. She got up and saw that Patrice was awake. She quickly went to warm up her milk. While the milk was warming the crying got louder. She would always run to stop the crying, but she had just read something last week that said that crying helped develop the baby’s lungs. She made sure to test the temperature of the milk. It wasn’t to hot then she went back to her niece. “Hey baby girl who’s hungry?” She cooed softly. If someone would have told her she would have ever cooed she would have laughed in their faces. She scooped up her niece and propped her up in her arms. Then she started to feed her. “I hope you had a good nap,” She said as Patrice slurped down the milk. “ You’re such a good girl.” She said. Five minutes later the milk was done and so it was time to burp her. She was about to do just that when she heard the doorbell ring. “Who can that be?” She said still in a soft way. Then she cleared her throat. “Who is that?” She said normally. She placed her niece back in the bassinet . “Honey I’ll be right back.” Then she ran to get the door. She unlocked the door and swung the door open. There was no one there. Liana frowned. She was about to close the door when she noticed a small card. She remembered from watching cop shows that it could be some type of evidence. She honestly didn’t even know why she felt that way, but she did. Her mailbox was right in front of the door and so if it were her mail man, he would slip it right in, but he didn’t. If it were a packaging company, they would have waited so she could sign. Whoever it was Liana knew she had to take precautions . Liana closed the door double bolting the lock. Who could she tell? She knew know one. The one person she felt she could have asked was missing in action. Liana went to the linen closet where she kept her gloves. She pulled on one of her rubber gloves. Then she returned to the front door quickly unlocking the door she picked up the card. She closed the door and double bolted the lock. Next Liana read the card quickly. “What are you Hiding?” The words didn’t match up though She slipped the card in a zip lock bag that she was going to use originally to hold her niece’s pacifier . She would have to find a new bag now. She placed the bag with the card on the little table and she walked back to see her niece. Liana quickly burped her niece and started to clean her up. In the five minutes that she was gone Patrice had managed to spit up on herself and it smelled as if she left her a special surprise in her diaper. Liana quickly changed her and made sure Patrice smelled like a baby again. You know like vanilla and baby wipes. Liana nuzzled her with her nose. “Honey who are you that you can change the lives of many?” She asked not expecting an answer. Liana didn’t expect it when her niece smiled and blinked. It was almost as if she was talking. “You my little butterfly or anything but innocent.” Liana said. Butterfly that would be her nick name for her niece it was like Patrice caused a butterfly effect. No matter she would always keep her nieces secret.