Not everything is what it seems.
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When Camellia De León receives a scholarship for the prestigious Lunacrest Girls Academy, she can't help but be over the moon. She expects to live out her final two years of high school in full bliss, meetin...
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My head spun around the room and I couldn't conjure up a thought.
"W-What?" Was the only thing I could manage to get out of my dry throat.
"I don't know if this is my place to say this," she looked up to the ceiling and shook her head, "no, this is definitely not my place to say this, but if he was willing to let you come to this type of event then surely I can inform you about it."
I was scared to know what she was talking about. Wasn't I such a hypocrite? Just a moment ago I wanted to know everything there was to know about Angel, but now I was afraid of what monster could possibly abuse him. I had known he was hiding something, never would I have ever thought that this was it.
It didn't matter what I felt. At the end of the day, what only mattered was what he was feeling. Inhaling and exhaling deeply, I gave her my full attention.
Oleander's eyes wandered as she tried to find the right way to begin. "Angel's mother," she finally started, "had been suffering from mental illness when she was pregnant with him. No one knew the gender of the baby at that time. It wasn't until Angel was born that she denied him completely. His aunt, my mother, was there to witness her breakdown in the hospital. She continually repeated that she wanted a girl and not a boy."
Something had clicked. It felt as though the missing pieces to the puzzle were finally found.
She continued, "Angel's father definitely saw this as a red flag, so he enrolled her into therapy. After some time had passed, his mother had tricked his father into believing that she was doing better. When they finally brought Angel home, his mother began to dress him in girl clothes behind his father's back. As Angel got older, he found it strange that other boys didn't have to wear such things. It's obviously a choice, and his choice was that he didn't want to wear what his mother forced him to. But this made her furious. She would often yell at him and say that he was her daughter. The yelling became acts of violence as time progressed. She wouldn't let anyone see him, not even his own family."
"Angel's father found out what she was doing to him one day and confronted his wife. It wasn't until he filed for divorce that Angel got a taste of freedom. The deal was that his mother would get complete ownership of both schools, since his mother's parents were the original owners, and his father would receive custody of Angel. It was here where I met him for the first time. A sweet boy, who wanted nothing more than to be himself. We grew very close, to a point where he relied on me more than he did with anyone else."
I knew where this was headed. I vividly remembered Angel telling me that his father had passed away not too long ago. But this was not what I expected at all.
"Unfortunately, his father grew very ill. He was diagnosed with leukemia and died only three years after Angel had gone to live with him. It was a terrible day for him—not only because the person who loved him for who he was passed away, but also because it meant that he would have to live with his mother. At that time, I did everything I could to gain custody of him but the court continually shot me down. They said, 'Until I am able to provide sufficient evidence of Angel's abuse, he will live with his legal parent.' So there was nothing I could do."
