Temptations

Chapter Fifteen* - Unveiled

Chapter Fifteen ~ Unveiled

*Edited

I spent twenty minutes pacing my room before I decided something needed to be done. I couldn't take it anymore. I needed to know what was going on. I didn't have a brother. I couldn't. It just wasn't possible. My mom would have never kept a secret this big from me. 

I didn't even feel like myself anymore. A little while ago, I was telling Ian I didn't have any sibling, and then a brother pops up? What are the chances? If I'd known that my wish would have come true, I would have asked for something else. I'd have wished for a pony. 

There had to be more. There just had to be, and if there was, I wasn't going to find out by pacing in my room. All the action was happening outside and this was my house. This was my family and I had a right to find out, even if it meant disobeying my mom.

If everything the guy had said was true by some miracle, some twisted event in time, I had a right to find out and I didn't want to hear it from a woman who might have potentially been lying to me all of my life about my family. What if I had a family? What if my dad was still around? What if I had more siblings? More brothers and sisters?

And what if it wasn't? What if everything I'd heard downstairs was a lie? It was possible that everything the guy had said was a lie and my mom only knew him by some coincidence. He might not even be her son.

If that was true, then I wanted to know, too.

With that in mind, I marched to my door and flung it open, determined. I silently went down the stairs, hoping to hear something, but I heard nothing. There was only silence. As I stepped down, I noticed that my mom was alone in the kitchen. She was pacing, muttering something to herself. The guy from before was nowhere in sight, but I knew he had to be around. He came in a cab. He couldn't have gotten another one so quickly.

"Mom?" I said. My mom froze with her back towards me. She took a visibly large breath before turning around. She looked genuinely worried. All the smiles and happiness from before was gone. She looked a thousand times more worried than she did when Dominic came. This was, like, a whole other level. "Is...everything okay?" I forgot about the guy for a moment, my mind only filled with concern for my mom.

"Eira, I'm sorry." She said. For a second, I felt like my heart froze at her apology. Why was she saying sorry? My mind immediately was filled with negative thoughts. Was what the guy said true? No, I told myself. Don't jump to conclusions. Listen first. Judge later.

"Sorry about what?" I asked her, telling myself to put some faith in my mother.

"Eira...Ari Berry, I have hidden some things from you and I think it's time you find out." She said, not meeting my eyes. The whole time, her eyes were glued to the floor in what seemed like shame and guilt. What was she being guilty about?

"What do you mean?" No judging.

"I never married your father." She said. I paused, shocked at the information. She never married my dad. She was single all of her life? Whoa. Suddenly, I didn't feel like trusting her anymore. All my life, she'd led me to believe that she and my dad, they were married when I was born, but suddenly, I felt disgusting. 

"W-what?" I sputtered out, shocked. 

"Alan and I, your father and I, we, Alan was never my husband." She said, a tear escaped her eyes as if she was recalling some painful memory.

"Why are you telling me this now?" I asked her, wanting to know. "You didn't have to tell me. I would have never found out. You could have gone on my whole life, letting me think that you were married. That I actually had a dad."