The Right One

Thirty two

Hope was exhausted. Empty. Drained. There were many words she could try to use to describe how she felt, but none could accurately capture all that was going on inside her. It was much like she'd feared and even worse. She'd wanted answers and now that she had them, she wanted nothing more to go back to the time she was oblivious and clueless.

Over the course of a few hours, everything she'd thought to be the truth about her life had completely come shattering down. It was as if she'd been living another's life the whole time and now that the bubble had burst, she had no idea how to deal with her new reality.

Finding out after twenty two years that she had two siblings she knew nothing about, and worse, ones that resented her enough to torture her for years and that her parents were not who she'd thought them to be . . .The whole thing was just too much to handle and she couldn't deal with it so Hope did what she did best when she was under pressure; she detached herself. She curled back into that safe space where it'd seemed like she was watching her life through a screen and it wasn't really her; her go-to coping mechanism.

Hope had pleaded with Alex and Raymond that she wasn't in the right mind to face her family just yet. She was grateful her discharge had been processed before she left the hospital. She just couldn't face her mum or Sophie in the state of mind she was in. She couldn't guarantee that she wouldn't breakdown or worse, say something she wouldn't say in her normal state of mind.  It was bad enough she was still trying to shut the whole ordeal out of her mind but to actually face her mum? To watch her mum fawn and cry over her after knowing she'd selfishly had a part in ruining a woman's life would just be too impossible for her. She just couldn't.

She'd been more than grateful when Alex had immediately understood and asked her to go home with Raymond instead. He'd deal with Sophie and her mum. Hope was certain she could never have asked for a better brother in-law.

"Hope!"

Hope jumped, her heart racing for reasons unclear to her. "What?"

"I didn't mean to scare you like that, sorry," Alex apologized. "I said we're here."

"What?" She repeated dumbly before her consciousness returned and she really took in her surrounding. "Oh. Okay."

Hope hadn't realized she'd zoned out throughout the entire ride.

"Are you sure you're going to be okay?" Alex asked, concerned.

Both Alex and Raymond were staring intensely at her and although Raymond hadn't said anything, his gaze unquestionably mirrored Alex's question.

"I'm fine. I just need to take time out to rest and process everything," she lied. She was nowhere near being fine.

They kept staring at her and when couldn't bear it anymore, she turned her gaze away from them and stared out the window.

Alex sighed, resigned. Turning to his brother, he said, "Take care of her."

Raymond nodded, his eyes still fixed on Hope who was determinedly staring out the window. To say he was worried was an understatement. After her breakdown at the police station, she'd gone quiet. Too quiet. Almost as if she'd locked herself somewhere far away from the world . . . If that was even possible, that is.

"Everything's going to be fine, Hope. Really."

She nodded, sparing Alex a tired smile before opening the door and stepping out of the car, a cue for Alex to leave already. There was nothing she wanted more than to be alone. She needed to be alone.

Raymond followed suit, alighting from the car. He waved a brief goodbye to his brother which Alex returned. Alex's gaze lingered on Hope for a bit more before he finally drove away from them.