Duplicity

Chapter Eight

8.  The Ghosts of My Past 

There was more people than I expected there to be when I arrived at the burial sight. Not to make Caleb out to be a bad guy, but from what I remembered he never really brought people to the house or went out much. As far as I knew my uncle went to work and came back home. I must have been really observant throughout the years because this was quite the turnout; I could only imagine what the wake was like. Now that I think more about it Caleb was a doctor and a damn good one at that. He helped save so many people throughout his life. It's too bad no one could save him I thought bitterly to myself as I brushed past people in the crowd. That same surge of electricity shot through my body and I could faintly feel the burning sensation of Annabella's Song in my bag and on my thigh.

I didn't get too close to the front in fear of getting recognized by anyone. With all of the flimsy white plastic folding chairs being occupied I opted to stay in the shoulders of the trees. The priest had begun his speech as my uncle's coffin was being lowered into the ground, "And it's on the solemn day that we give our beloved friend, father, and husband to the good lord." Wait, what? Husband? Caleb wasn't married, what the fuck. Father was too far fetch because after all, legally, he was my father. I had frantically looked around the front rows before I saw her. A small woman, around 5'2 or 5'3, was dressed in a long back dress, her red hair pulled back in a tight bun, and fat tears pouring from brown eyes. She hand her hands, on her left sat a diamond ring, clutching a younger boy, around five or six, that looked like a cross between the mourning widow and my uncle.

Five or six! Oh, I see how it is. Throw away your emotionally unstable niece to some power hungry people to be tortured for a year all just to get hitched to some skank and knock her up. Why wasn't I good enough for him? What was so wrong with me that he had to get a whole new fucking family? Why wasn't I enough? I continued to watch Mrs. Navas and her son continued to grieve over her husband and his father while fire continued to ignite my body. In that moment I wanted nothing more than a scene, to cause some chaos. I wanted to scream until I was red in the face and my mouth went dry. I wanted to do something bad.

"I was wondering if I was going to see you here today." A deep gruff voice stated through the ringing of my ears. Snapping my head to the side I came face to face to a strangely familiar face. Shaddy dark brown hair was tousled on his head as if he didn't care to brush it, he had a slightly crooked nose and his teeth were also slightly discolored, judging from the smell on his leather jacket he was a smoker. For a man probably in his early forties he defiantly was in shape, but from the cane he used, I knew that he wasn't in his best health. Still, when he stood over me he made me small and intimidated. Probably because of the way his hazel eyes had never left my own. "It's good to see you, Athena." He smiled at me with chapped red lips.

"I wish I could say the same, David." I spat. My father was standing no less than two feet away from me and in that moment I wanted nothing more than to punch him in his smug face. He wasn't helping much with the burning sensation that was running through my body. In fact, he made me see red. "Aw don't be that way," He cooed throwing an arm over me that I immediately took off me in disgust and took a step back, " I haven't seen you in what? Twenty years?"

" Twenty one." I corrected with a sneer," And yeah that tends to happen when abandon your child."

"Is that what Caleb told you?" He laughed, "Oh darling, I assure you that anything that man told you was a lie."

"Must run in the family," I hissed.

Nothing would satisfy me more than to ram my fist into his crooked nose and turn his eye black, but there was no way I was going to cause a scene right here. I didn't know how my father was able to recognize me, especially when he's never seen me a day in his life, but if he was able to recognize me then there's a big chance that other people were going to too. I content with those being the last words to my father and so I began to walk away. Walk away from the father that never wanted me, the family that abandoned me, and from the uncle that, even in death, betrayed me. "Hate to break it you, sweetheart," David informed with a smirk covering his lips, "But you're a Navas no matter how many times you change your name."