The Truth About Us [ON HOLD]

Chapter Seventeen

A smile pulled at Cameron's lips. It was exactly what he wanted to hear, the beginning of why he was the way he was.

The big question hung on the tip of my tongue, but I bit my lip, holding it in. I didn't know whether we were supposed to talk about the big things, especially when small talk seemed so much easier.

"How did you two meet?" He muttered, his voice wavering. He wanted to know the big stuff too, there just wasn't an internal battle going on inside of his head.

"We met in junior high. We were in the same classes and hung around with some of the same people. In grade nine, we started dating." She faltered. We'd hit a sore spot which was obviously hard for her to talk about. Cameron opened his mouth like he was about to say something else, but it slowly shut. "You can ask me anything. I promise I will answer or at least I will try my best to."

"Okay..." He trailed off, not knowing what else to say or ask.

There it was again, that big question threatening to make an appearance. She said you can ask anything. My breath shook as I wiped my sweaty palms against my jeans and my tongue burned with the weight of the question. "Why did you give us up?"

Cameron's headshot in my direction, and he gaped at me, his eyes burning a hole in the side of my cheek. I gulped, a sequence of swear words bouncing around in my head. His eyes flashed back to Beth and his expression shifted from angry to curious.

"That's one loaded question," she muttered. "But you deserve to know." There was a long pause as she gathered her thoughts. "I'm not sure how much you know so I guess I'll start at the beginning.

"I was fifteen when I found out that I was pregnant. All I knew was that I didn't want my child to have the same upbringing as I did. My mom had remarried and he wasn't very nice to me or my sister. Devon didn't have it any better. He was living in a foster home at the time; both of his parents were alcoholics. When my mom and stepdad found out I was pregnant, they kicked me out. Thankfully, a friend took me in.

"What I'm trying to say is that neither of us was in any position to be able to provide for a baby, let alone two. We started to look into adoption. Devon's older brother, who was 19, offered to adopt you both, but I was concerned. He was still young and already had a seven-month-old daughter. I wanted the best possible life for my twins, all of the opportunities that I never had.

"Your parents seemed like the perfect fit. They were struggling to make a family and they had respectable jobs. I knew that you would have a good life with them.

"Please don't get me wrong, giving you up was hands down the hardest decision that I ever had to make but it was for the best." Tears slipped down Beth's cheeks, and she quickly wiped them away.

My heart ached in my chest, feeling so much for a woman that I had only just met.

"Being pregnant with you gave me a reason to get healthy and thinking of you helped me stick with it." It felt like something that she just let slip, a last thought that made Cameron and I furrow our eyebrows.

I was too scared to ask, but thankfully Cameron wasn't plagued with that burden. "Get healthy?"

"Right," she chuckled almost to cover up her anxiety and then sighed heavily. "I struggled with anorexia."

What she said echoed in my head, and my stomach twisted into knots. Never once had I thought that my anorexia could have been genetic. Of course, only a few months ago I didn't know I was adopted. It was a reason, the reason that I had been searching for for years. I felt as though her words had reached across the table and wrapped around my neck, inhibiting my breath. A warmth crept over my body, creating a burning sensation in my cheeks.