He agreed and we took a seat out in the quad and I decided to level with him.“Dude, there's something you need to know, and it has to be kept on the...down-low. It’s nothing bad or anything, but not everybody will understand.”“What ya mean dude? Like, what’s the problem?”“Well, ya know I told ya Linda went to another school. Well, that’s true, she doesn’t go to Van Nuys Senior. She is a freshman, and goes to Van Nuys Junior.”He leaned back and looked at me closely for a minute, then said “Man,. You girls text me after your big birthday party with your friends ... I’ll pick you up and take you out.”“You still haven’t told us where we’re going,” Emma pouted.“And I’m not GOING to tell you where we’re going. That’s why they call it a ‘surprise’.”Emma crossed her arms over her chest and huffed at me like a tween.“You can surprise us all you want tomorrow,” Eden said reasonably. “We promised we would let you do this your way, whatever made you comfortable, and we’re not going to interfere.. Removing his standard issued military visor hat to reveal a clean-shaven head that gave the already intimidating man a look of authority. He clearly wasn't used to being contradicted. But I had to, it simply wasn't in my mind to refuse a request. Not anymore, not after what was done to me."All of it?" I hated how squeaky and fragile my voice sounded just then, but it wasn't a task I relished by any means, my life was in ruins and all I could think of was getting home as soon as possible. He had. Then the kids grew up and suddenly I was looking at an empty nest. For the first month I was in Heaven. No pressure and lots of free time for myself and then I ran out of things to do around the house. I quickly found that nothing but a steady diet of daytime soaps would turn your brain to mush so I got off my buns and went out looking for a job.It did not take long at all to realize those twenty-one years of being a stay at home wife and mother did not arm me with the skills that would.