Bear | ✔

Chapter Twenty-Four

Chapter Twenty-Four

"Can somebody please explain why on Earth I have grown to believe Joseph was my brother?"

Leila lifted her head up expectantly, but received nothing in response. Her shoulders slumped as she faced the floor. Her face reflected against the cheap tiling; not very clear, like a broken mirror, a crumbled piece of paper.

"So, it was all a lie, wasn't it?" She asked in a neutral voice, as if she had been expecting it all along. It was ridiculous, how all facts could easily change over one night. She didn't know if she would ever be able to trust anyone ever again. She heaved a sigh and straightened her back. "Of course it was."

Julia stiffened on the chair across from her, but that didn't bother. They sat in the hallway separating them from David's solitary cell. It was Sunday. He still refused to let her in.

In fact, the door was never locked. She could barge in at any time of the day and it would never be considered a problem. She was, after all, his wife. And she had that right above anyone else in this room. She was just polite enough not to break his words.

She stared at Rosaline who sat right next to her. Her head was down, mostly covered by her pile of her. Her eyes bore into the thick floor as if she could penetrate it just from staring hard enough. She barely blinked, and she sure as hell had been avoiding her today.

"Did you know it?" Leila asked. She already knew the answer anyway, but she still needed to hear it out loud. She needed a proof that she hadn't gone insane. Rosaline didn't reply. Her fingers twirled the hem of her tee in an absent minded manner. She was getting on her nerves. "I said: did you know it?"

She licked her parted lips, but didn't utter a word. For a second, Leila thought she actually saw her head lift an inch, then tilt back down again. She wasn't even sure it was true.

"Of course she did. He's her cousin," Julia interrupted in a voice that gave away her irritation. Leila looked up to stare at her across the lobby. She could see her hands were slightly shaking as she held her folded glasses in between. "Do you really think we'd be that stupid?"

"Did you really think I would be?" Leila fired back.

"Yes, we did," Julia stressed, glaring at her with eyes that could have almost set the room on fire. She was furious; nothing like Leila had ever seen before in her. "We really thought you'd be that stupid. We had hoped it, in fact. And you were, we could never deny that. I have no idea whatever my son has been stuffing into your head all this time, but believe me when I say that, he was wrong. Everything he has said that suddenly provoked such reaction from you could never be right."

"Oh, really?" Leila was taken aback by her words. Julia had always been supportive of her case. Even when David had mistreated her, everybody else would be on his side except for her. She had always supported her.

"Yes!" Julia stressed, halting up from her chair. "You have brought nothing but trouble to this family ever since you have come. You tore apart bonds that had been there for ages. You made David question things that should never have been. I have struggled for years, decades, to make him the man that he is now. Do you really think that a woman of your like would step in uninvited and decide to turn everything upside down to follow up with her own rules?"

"Mom!" Rosaline protested, looking up at her in utter surprise. Julia showed her no acknowledgement at all.

"I made him aware of his existence," Leila yelled. She stood up from her chair to face her mother-in-law, who unfortunately looked like a cowering chipmunk next to her five-foot-eight frame. "I taught him how to live, Julia. I taught him to how have control of his life. He deserves to drive his own way. He doesn't need you breathing down his neck through every decision."