Holding On to Silence Until; You Came Along

30 | Mom's Past

"I don't know, but let me tell you before hand, she told me not to interfere so I'm not uttering a word. Go on." He went back to eating.

"Traitor," She mumbled pouting, Ryan laughed.

"Come on now, I'm to report to mom." He said.

"Ugh, fine." She took a deep breath before starting. "I learnt about it on my seventh birthday. They'd taken us to an amusement park and we returned home after 7.30 pm and because Ryan had dragged me to the horror house and made me cry on my birthday, I wasn't able to sleep properly that night." I looked at Ryan.

"What? Don't look at me like that, I was just helping her overcome phasmophobia." He stated. I frowned and turned to Hanna.

"You are phasmophobic?"

"Yeah, but it's not that worse. I'm only affected when I see such things, like while in a horror house, or watching a horror movie and he knew it." She glared at Ryan to which he laughed. "And imagine, the ghost was this close to me!" She exclaimed holding her hand close to her face to emphasize her statement.

"Mean brother," I said, Hanna laughed while Ryan stuck his tongue out at me.

"Anyways, I woke up some 30 minutes later they put us to sleep and decided to go sleep with our parents as I knew I wouldn't be able to sleep alone. But when I went down the stairs, I heard sobs and stopped halfway from getting down. Mummy was sobbing while daddy held her tightly against his chest. Of course they were talking what they already knew about, but I learnt everything from their conversation and have it penned down in a book."

"Their conversation?" I asked.

"Yeah, the exact words they spoke, I'll show it to you later, but now I should narrate it as a story, so here it goes... While daddy got married only once in his lifetime and that too to his first love, it isn't the same with mummy when it comes to daddy."

My eyes widened.

"You mean, dad is mom's...?" I trailed. Hanna nodded.

"Second husband, it's mummy's second marriage." She continued. "Her first love was Mike, who just like her was a part time intern at KELSEY MOTORS. However her story doesn't start from there, it goes way back to her birth. You remember how I reacted when you first told me that your mother died giving birth to your sister?" She asked.

"Yes, I also wondered why did you react that way as if you know the pain." I answered.

"That's because my grandmother died after she gave birth to a girl and she'd to go through hell to survive eighteen years with her father and three older brothers."

"Mom?" I asked, she nodded. "Why would they hate their own sister and how on earth can a father hate his daughter?"

"They said that she carried bad luck that took her mother's life as soon as she gave birth to mummy and so treated her like a slave. At least they provided for her till she completed her high school, then on her 18th birthday she left the house and most probably went to look for part time jobs to get herself into college. Luckily for her she got a job at our company as it was daddy who was interviewing the candidates then and I needn't mention that he liked her from the moment he laid his eyes on her, but of course she was oblivious."

"Love at first sight, huh." I smiled.

"Yeah," Hanna smiled too. "His father gave him the task so that he gains some experience before getting into college and he was doing this." She giggled.

"How'd he know about her past?" I asked.

"Taking her interview, he came to know she left her family, but for the reason; he eavesdropped when she was telling about it to a friend at the company." Hanna smiled at her father's ways. "Love makes one do things they haven't ever done,"