"Hey girl!" Amelie says entering Evie's car.
"Hey, Am," Evie says in a low voice, the sadness visible on her face.
"Are you ok? You know you don't have to take me to work every day. It is not an obligation."
"What are you saying Amelie? It's not about that," Evie mutters and presses the accelerator pedal, the car speeding forward.
"You look changed," Amelie raises an eyebrow. "Are you sure you're okay?"
Evie asks herself the same question as she continues to drive. She's not okay at all. She found out something she didn't think she would ever find out in her entire life. But what did she actually find out? She's just suspecting something. But she has solid evidence. And she will not leave it and she will unravel this mystery soon.
"Amelie... Do you know when you were with me at my teacher's funeral?" Evie asks in an unusually calm voice, still looking at the road.
"Yes..." Amelie begins to feel that her cousin will tell her something scary.
In less than five minutes, Evie tells her cousin everything she's discovered so far.
Amelie is shocked, with a wide mouth and wide eyes.
"Are you fucking kidding me?!" She screams.
"No, Amelie... It's true... Yes, I know... Unimaginable. I'm still in shock... I don't understand... I'm so confused... What's going on in my family? Was I adopted after my father died? I mean, he's not my father..."
"Ev..." Amelie puts a hand to her mouth, her face is concerned and uncomfortable at the same time. "I don't want to upset you more than you are now... But you thought maybe... You know... Your mother..."
"Yes. I was thinking that my mother had a relationship or an affair after she became a widow. You can say it, Am. I do not mind. I thought about that too. Who knows who is my real father. Maybe my biological father lives in this town. Maybe I passed him and I didn't know anything. I can't believe it!"
From here the brunette's voice fills with frustration and tears form in her eyes. "My mother! She is so religious and she had a child out of wedlock?! And she now pretends to be a saint and does not make mistakes and stresses me to be a good Christian! She? Who is the most good and wise woman in town?! Or let's just say it's not like that. Maybe she adopted me. I hope so! But why didn't she tell me?! I'm 20, Am! Almost 21! What the?! How could she do such a thing to me?"
"Ev..." Amelie puts a hand on her cousin's shoulder, and her eyes fill with tears. "I'm so sorry... I think it's best to stop the car and calm down a bit. Ok?"
"Oh," Evie quickly wipes away the tears that run down her cheeks with the back of her hand. "I'm sorry... That's what I'm going to do..."
"And okay, take a deep breath. Everything will be fine," her cousin speaks calmly.
In about a minute, Evie stops the car at the side of a road. Amelie hugs her.
"Does that mean I'm not your cousin?" Evie asks and looks up at Amelie, her eyes full of tears.
Amelie is the daughter of Evie's "father's" brother. So if Evie isn't Gavin's daughter, she's not Amelie's cousin either.
"Evie! Never say that again! You will always be my cousin! It doesn't matter that we are not related! We have a stronger connection, girl! A soul connection. No one can ever break that."
"You're right," Evie smiles and a tear slips down her face.
"What are you going to do now? I mean your mom..."
"I'll... I'll confront her about it. And I want my sister to be there too. She was 17 when I was born! She sure knows everything and maybe she hid it just like my mom!"
"Do you want me to come with you?" Amelie smiles warmly at her and takes her hand in hers.
"No... I have to do this alone..."
After a few hours...
The front door can be heard closing tightly. Evie hurries into the foyer, heading for the stairs. She barely touches the railing as she hears her mother's voice:
"Evangeline?"
The young girl does not answer and continues on her way, climbing the stairs. She wants to go to her room and calls Florence. To invite her here and then ask her and their mother for explanations.
Olivia leaves the kitchen and goes to the last steps of the stairs shouting at her daughter who continues to climb stairs:
"Evangeline! Why did you slam the door when you came inside?"
Evie doesn't answer this time either and finishes climbing the stairs. Olivia is puzzled by her daughter's behavior and begins to get angry:
"What do you think you're doing, young lady? Why don't you come back and talk to me?"
She does not receive an answer this time either.
"Your sister will come today to pay us a visit! Behave nicely, miss!"
Evie, who is in front of her bedroom door, suddenly stops with her hand on the doorknob and enlarged eyes. Her sister here? This is unexpected, but even better. She doesn't have to call her anymore. She will come here like in a trap.
Olivia hears her daughter slamming her bedroom door. She's not going after her. The woman rolls her eyes and leaves, not wanting to know what is displeasing her daughter this time.
Evie walks over and stops in front of her bed. She sighs and throws herself into it. She lays on it like that, with her hands and legs outstretched. With her eyes open she looks blank, thinking of what she had discovered earlier in her family.
How could Olivia believe that she would never find out the truth? But this plan has succeeded all these years. If she didn't see that tombstone and if Nikki didn't tell her she didn't look like her father or her mother or sister, she would still be living this lie.
Oh, Nikki. Her thoughts run through him now. He unknowingly gave her a clue about her tumultuous and mysterious life. Now she feels even worse thinking about him. She can't forget that night after they kissed and she left.
She would like to tell him everything she has learned so far. How would he react? She struggles to admit that she doesn't miss him. But she's wrong. Her mind is always on him.
Slowly she falls asleep. And she sleeps for about an hour. Because of the stress she has no dreams. Everything is blank. She wakes up to her mother's voice:
"Evangeline! Your sister has come! Come down to us! We're in the kitchen."
The brunette immediately opens her eyes and gets out of bed. She feels a slight dizziness, but controls it and looks at the door. She goes to the window and sees Florence's car. The time has come for everything to come true. She inhales air into her lungs, clenches her fists, and leaves her room.
But she doesn't go straight to her mother and sister. Before that she goes to the storage room. She enters in there and goes to the closet. That closet where she found that document. She has to have a proof with her so that she doesn't look crazy and so that Olivia doesn't have any chance to deny everything. She looks in the last drawer below and find Gavin's death certificate. She takes it and wants to leave, but her eyes slip to another document that she seems not to have seen last time.
She takes it and looks at it closely.
"What the hell!?" She exclaims, reading what is written on that paper.
It's her birth certificate. But it looks bizarre.. So old... And there's something different written on it. This seems to have been her first certificate. She believes. Because she knows that her true certificate doesn't look like that! It has been well kept in this place. How ingenuous could Olivia have been to leave here such an important document?
Tears flow down that sheet. Tears that formed from her anger and shock. She can't believe what she's reading now! How much she wants to be some kind of prank. But she knows it's not. It's the truth. A truth she did not expect.
Her whole body is shaking uncontrollably. But somehow she manages to get out of that room, holding that document. She walks so fast that in a minute she is already in front of the kitchen.
There she hears Olivia and Florence talking. She goes inside and hears Olivia saying:
"Oh, you finally came-"
"What the hell is this?!" Evie has no patience for Olivia to finish what she has to say and shouts and throws that document on the table in front of Olivia and Florence.
Her sister is next to her mother and she has a face as shocked as Olivia. Florence is dressed in her nun's clothes. She looks at that piece of paper. And after at Olivia. They both look at the document again and their blue eyes go up to Evie who with tears in her eyes is waiting for an answer.
A/N
I apologize for leaving you in such great suspense! But I couldn't help myself. Oops! But I promise you will find out everything in the next chapter! The whole secret kept by Olivia will come out!