His Secret [Completed]

Original: Chapter 34 - The envelope

As I laid there staring at the white ceiling wondering where on earth I was, I drifted back to the events of last night. The party, clubs, mysterious men dancing with me, whisky stashes, broken picture frames...

I sat up immediately looking to my hands where I was clutching a sharp object, the picture frame. There was a small crack in the glass which was definitely not subtle, and the wooden edges were falling apart. Alan is so going to kill us. 

Crawling along the floor to where Kelly laid motionless except the rise and fall of her chest, I shook her slightly to wake her up only to receive a groan from her. Having no other choice I took a pillow which was on the floor as it had fallen from the couch on the far right side of the room and slapped her face with it. 

"Seriously!" Kelly snapped but them must've realised where we were because she had a look of horror on her face. "Dad is going to kill me." 

"Us" I corrected, I wouldn't let Kelly go down for this one when it was partially my fault. I should know better, being 25 I should have been a responsible adult. Then again Kelly is 22 and not exactly a child. 

"What are we doing in here?" Kelly asked

"The last thing I remember was sneaking into the house and you telling me that your dad keeps a Whiskey stash in here," I told her

"That I do," Alan's voice entered the conversation, startled we looked up to find him sitting in his office chair writing on a piece of paper. He had his glasses on looking very professional. He didn't even look up at us, luckily for me so that I wouldn't have to face even more embarrassment of looking hungover as well as explaining the reasons we got so drunk and let this happen. I needed to explain all of this to him,

"Alan I am so sorry about all of this, I should have been more responsible. You allow me into your home and I have betrayed your trust. I'll pay for all of the damages in here and fix this picture fram.... huh?" 

Looking down at the picture frame in my hand I notice the picture in the centre. The image appears to be located in a beautiful garden with lush green grass, there are two older women sitting on metal garden chairs around a small glass table near a swing. I notice the women with each of their arms around the other smiling into the camera. The woman on the left I don't recognise, but the woman on the right "that's my grandmother..." 

Now Alan looked up from his papers and slid his glasses off of his nose looking at me intently. 

"Why is there a photograph of my grandmother in your office?" I whisper, confused. Taking a deep breath, after Alan hadn't said anything I proceeded to walk closer to his desk and place the picture in front of him.

Kelly came to her father's side and looked over his shoulder at the photo, "gran knew Sophia's grandmother?" My eyes snapped to Kelly's but still, no one said anything. "Who's that?" 

Unsure of who Kelly was talking about I bent down to take a closer look at the figure I had not seen in the image at first glance, in the background by the swing there was a child no more than 4 years old. She was sitting on the grass cross-legged playing with a plastic tea set. "Me?" I questioned.

 "Dad, what is going on here?" Kelly asked her father

"I guess I have a bit of explaining to do," Alan said picking up the picture frame and sliding his glasses back onto this nose. "My mother- Kelly's grandmother- and yours were good friends. They met at high school and instantly became friends, a few years after they left school they drifted apart and didn't see much of each other. It wasn't until 5 years before you were born that they reconciled their friendship because my mother set out to find Jacqueline."