Beautiful Mess (Book II)

Chapter twenty-two

"Be strong now because things will get better. It might be stormy now, but it can't rain forever."

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•Rae•

"Kyle, come look at this!" I call out from our bedroom, sitting in front of the computer and staring at the screen.

He walks in and stands behind me, leaning forward so he can be able to read the email I received from Shelley.

"Her wedding's next week on Saturday!" I exclaim in excitement. "And she said everyone from the therapy group will hopefully be there too."

I hear him chuckle and glance up to see him staring at me in amusement. "What."

"Nothing, you're just wayyy too excited for this."

I shake my head and turn towards the computer again. "You can deny it all you want, but I know you wanna see them too."

"It's my first time attending a wedding." He changes the subject, making me roll my eyes in amusement.

"It's my second time," I say getting up from the chair and heading to the living room.

"Was it a family wedding?" he asks as he follows behind me.

"No, it was my friend's sister's," I tell him as we plop down on the couch. "Come to think of it, I've never even met a single relative or anyone who's part of the family. No aunts, uncles, nieces, cousins... nothing."

"Really? No one at all?" he asks me in surprise.

"Yeah..." I frown. "It's weird."

"You never asked your parents about it?"

"I did, and according to what they told me all four of my grandparents passed away when my parents were little. My mom told me she's an only child, and my dad said he's not close with his siblings and that they live in another continent. That's all I know."

I want to ask him about his family too, but I don't want to ruin his mood. We hadn't even talked about his mom after that day he promised me he'd try to make things work between them. I wanted to call her but that would be doing something behind his back which I promised to never do again.

"I have an uncle," he blurts out, and I look at him surprised that he's willingly talking about it. "I met him when I went to the house that day."

"You just met him that day?" I ask, raising my brows. "You've never even seen him?"

He nods. "I didn't know any of my relatives, like you. My parents weren't exactly social people. He seemed cool though. He said he and my mom are half siblings."

"Is he the guy we saw at the funeral?" I ask him.

"Yeah," he says grabbing the remote. He starts flipping through channels and that's my cue to stop asking questions.

My phone suddenly rings, and I immediately know it can't possibly be Jess or Trevor. I spent the whole afternoon with them while Kyle was at work.

I get nervous thinking it could be Kyle's mom, but I look at the name flashing on my screen and realize it's not her.

"It's Peter," I tell him as I stare at the screen. "Something must've happened."

"Pick up," he reminds me.

I pick up and greet Peter, nervously waiting to find out why he called me. But what he informs me makes me feel relieved and anxious at the same time.

Kyle is staring at me in expectation as I hang up and look up at him.

"They arrested the guy," I tell him. "The guy in that video."