But Baby Jasmine needed a father. Antonio had agreed to fill that role and Sasha wanted him but now he was gone.
Sasha wondered should she contact Steve, should she tell him that wonderful Antonio had died or should she remain quiet and let things remain as they are?
These are the questions that Sasha wrestled with and she would take the next few months to decide. There was no need to rush answers would come in time.
For now she would spend time getting to know her baby and relishing the apple pie and ice cream that was left over from her special celebration night with Antonio.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN One Year Later
It has taken some time for Sasha to get to this point but she is now feeling like she is ready to take on new responsibilities and to give back to the world.
She has been very blessed with her little girl but she still misses her Dear Antonio, desperately. Although his business was left to her, she decided not to keep control of it and turned it over to his parents.
They were grateful for her gesture. She also returned any money that he had left to her and suggested that they contribute it to a charity that had a large focus in helping to cure cancer or at least charities that work closely with cancer patients to help them lead better lives.
Steve had contacted her a while back to find out how Baby Jasmine was doing so Sasha had decided to tell him the entire truth.
He came out one weekend to offer his support but Sasha is not looking for a new relationship. She simply wants to spend as much time as she possible rebuilding her life with her baby.
However, she has not lost her desire to help others so she has made a decision to go back to the school that she operated in Montclair.
The school has done quite well without her at the helm of it but Sasha was able to bring a better perspective to the school and the girls.
She had lived the life that most of the girls were going through so she understood what made them tick and they loved her for it.
Yes, she had made a lot of mistakes but she was not going to let that keep her from giving back so she packed up everything she had and moved back home.
Everyone welcomed her with open arms. She had been through a lot much of it due to her own vulnerability and her willingness to live life without expectations.
But now she was ready to jump back into life and give it one more try. To her surprise Tyler, Tony’s daughter was now volunteering as a teen coach for troubled girls.
She immediately came up to Sasha and hugged her so tightly that Sasha thought the air would be squeezed right out of her!
She started crying and babbling about the mistake that her father had made in letting her go and Sasha told her that she didn’t hold any grudges or regrets!
Tyler had heard about Sasha’s new baby and she was very excited about meeting her and she was secretly holding on to hope that maybe Sasha and her father would have a chance to rekindle their relationship.
However, Sasha didn’t want anything to do with Tony in that way. She has lost her best love and no one and that is no one could take his place.
For now, she was content to be back home and surrounded by people who love her.
But the next day, Tony showed up at the school to see Sasha. He had a whole lot that he wanted to apologize to her for and he wanted to do it in person because he knew that she was still angry about seeing him with another woman.
However, Sasha had long forgiven him for everything that he had done to her. It was no longer an issue because she no longer was in love with him.
But seeing Tony was very freeing for her because she was able to completely let go of her past with Tony.
She also knew that for now she didn’t want to date anyone, she had been down that road and she wanted to concentrate on working with the teens to provide them with the guidance they need so that they don’t end up the way she did, looking for love in the wrong people, and too caught up in the roses and champagne that she couldn’t see the forest for the trees.
It wasn’t until she met Antonio that she realized that expensive cars, roses and champagne mean nothing if the relationship is not built on honesty and a willingness to let your partner see your vulnerability without fear of losing the relationship.
It is then and only then that you will know that you have a true loving relationship.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR Beverly Montgomery has always wanted to write so in her early forties, she began writing children's books and followed that up with several works of fiction, selfhelp booklets, poetry and a historical novel.
She has travelled extensively abroad and in the United States. She enjoys meeting people and challenging herself to do things that she has never done before.
But mostly, she enjoys writing and living vicariously through the characters she writes about.
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