Divine Blue [Book One]

Chapter Nineteen

Taylor heard the door downstairs open and then close. She heard Sandra move in the foyer and to the foot of the stairs.

"Taylor!" Sandra called.

Taylor could only keep crying, something she knew she had been doing a lot of within the past few months.

"Taylor, Honey, are you here?" She heard Sandra ascend the stairs and make the landing. Her footsteps were inching closer to her room. Taylor was trying to make some kind of noise, other than sobbing, but she felt like she was going to dry heave.

Taylor heard the door handle turn and click out of its latch as Sandra opened it.

"Tay..." Sandra paused for a moment. Taylor looked at Sandra out of the corner of her eyes, which were still watery and fuzzy. "Oh, Tay, honey..." Sandra rushed over to her side and sat beside her on the bed. "What's wrong?"

Taylor could only shake her head.

"Breathe, Sweetie. Just breathe, and tell me what's wrong." Sandra was rubbing Taylor's back in an effort to comfort her.

Taylor swallowed and tried breathing through her nose. She gathered as much composure as she could and sat up on her bed against the headboard. She sat for a while. Sandra waited patiently, stroking her hair and wiping tears from her face.

"We broke... up," Taylor said, breaking apart a little more as she said the words out loud.

"What?! You and Adrienne? What happened?" Sandra asked, concerned.

"I just don't think it's the right thing right now," Taylor said, attempting to pull herself back together. She could feel that her face was swollen and puffy.

"What made it the wrong thing to do right now? Look at how upset you are, Sweetie. This is obviously tearing you up inside."

Taylor shook her head. "I can't do it, Sandra. I just can't do it."

Sandra nodded her head trying to understand. "OK, honey. If you don't feel like it's the right thing, then there must be a good reason. I'm so sorry, Taylor." She brought Taylor close to her and hugged her tightly.

"Everything's wrong, Sandra. It's just wrong," Taylor told her, leaning back against her pillow again. She wished so much that she could reveal the secrets she kept about who she was. Maybe she could. She hadn't been directly forbidden from telling anyone. 

"Taylor, Sweetie... I know that you're a teenager, and that calls for vagueness and just in general hiding things from your mom, but I want to know what's going on. I want to know how I can help you through this. We have very open communication, you and I, and I want that to continue."

Taylor wiped her face, finally able to calm down. "You're going to think I'm absolutely crazy."

"Try me," Sandra told her. Sandra's face spoke of openness, ready for anything. Taylor didn't think she was ready for this.

"I'm serious, Sandra. You're going to think I'm crazy, and it's not something you can tell anyone."

"OK..."

"I'm different."

"Sweetheart, you're not any different than any other girl your age."

"No, I'm actually different. My biological parents are different."

"Your parents? I didn't think you knew anything about them?"

"I didn't. Not until a little over a month ago, pretty much when school started."

"Did you go searching for them, Honey?"

"No, quite the opposite. They, inadvertently, found me. Not really my parents, though. People who knew my parents."