>>Amara
He stared at me for a second, he was about to speak and opened his mouth for it, then closed it. I watched him in confusion as he raised his hands.
What is he going to do? Why is he raising his hands in the air?
But what he did caught me off guard. It was something I never would have even dreamed of.
'For you,' He answered in sign language, making all of me freeze, 'I learned it for you. So that I could talk to you.'
'Me?' I couldn't believe it, 'Why would you learn it for me?' And I ended up asking a dumb question, in a dumb manner, looking dumb stuck because his words just didn't process in my mind. For me, it was so unbelievable, I didn't think it was possible.
All my life I had seen Dad from far away, so could I even think about it?
"Why of course," Dad let out a cute smirk, "Obviously so that I could talk to you. Because you're my daughter, I wanted to be able to have a conversation with you, if the opportunity ever arrived." He smiled softly and shivers went down my body, "Well, I'm glad it finally did." My skin stood up and a wave of cold air seeped into my veins.
The initial emotion that washed over me was a profound sense of validation. In a world where verbal communication often takes precedence, the acknowledgment that my father was willing to step into my world, to learn a language of hands and expressions just so he could talk to me one day was... something beyond words.
And this time, I couldn't control it, my tears came gushing out.
The loneliness that often accompanied my muteness, the sense of being on the outskirts of conversations, began to dissipate.
As I absorbed the news, a poignant mix of emotions unfurled within me—joy, because I now had a shared language with my father that transcended the limitations of speech. Relief, because the burden of being never understood felt lighter; and a deep-seated sense of connection, one that I had always fantasized about having with my father even though whenever I thought about it, I knew it was impossible.
"Hey..." Dad scooted near and pulled me in a hug, "That's not a reason to cry..."
But I couldn't stop myself.
Dad wouldn't know what this means to me. He could never. No one can and so, because of the same reason, no one could be as happy as I was at the moment.
Because, even though I thought it was impossible, yet, here I was, having a conversation with him, only because he thought I was someone important enough to learn a language for.
I hugged him back.
I always craved it. The love of a father and I wondered how it would feel to be near him.
I snuggled next to him.
It was nice to have experienced this.
***
'Are you alright?' I asked Dad and he took a deep breath.
"I'm not sure," Both of us were standing near the hospital exit, in the lobby. We couldn't leave because patients weren't allowed to leave the hospital after dark, "I don't think I'm ready," He looked down, "It's still hard to accept that I actually don't have my son anymore..."
I stared at him.
We were both standing here because I told Grace I came back and she said she'd come to pick me up since she wanted to go back to the Alma mansion and get something she forgot there.
I poked his arm and he looked at me, 'You don't have to force yourself.' I said, 'I can wait for her alone, you can talk to Grace when you feel like you're ready.'
He stared at me, "..." His eyes turned softer, "Grace," He called her name, "Her name was Grace?"
I nodded at him and he let out a soft smile.
Right, for him, for years he knew only Mael. His son whom he believed he never lost. Looking at Grace now might be challenging for him.
"I am tempted to get out of here," His pupils were shaking, "But I fear I won't get a second chance if I leave now."
Dad...
"But at the same time, I am scared to face her too." He looked at me, "Does your sister hate me?"
...
I was taken aback by his question because I had no idea how to answer that.
I had a detailed conversation on this topic with her. She always mentioned that it was really hard staying with the Alma's but she never said anything about hating Dad.
'I don't know,' I told him, 'She never said anything.
He looked depressed at the moment, "I see," His facial expressions showed how disturbed he was and in the end, he chose to turn around, "It won't be good to meet her if she hates me." He began to leave and that pained me.
I thought about going after him but then stopped.
He was right. If Grace did hate him, then they shouldn't have met. But does she hate him? I looked at the entrance door and saw a figure coming our way.
If she hated him, she wouldn't have made the decision to come here, right?
Grace jogged up to the entrance and then waved at me as soon as she saw me. I waved back and glanced at Dad who was about to turn the corner
"Amara!" Grace's voice made Dad stop for a moment right at the corner and look back at us. I looked at my sister and then pointed at Dad subtly so that he wouldn't see what I did.
Grace's speed slowed down as she came near me. She frowned slightly when she noticed I was pointing at something and slowly moved her head to look at who I was pointing at.
!!!
She stopped the moment her eyes landed on Dad and her mouth got slightly agape.
There was an awkward silence in the lobby where the two of them stared at each other without saying anything while I looked between the two.
Dad was hesitating but she wasn't looking at him with a bad gaze. It didn't look like she was glaring or anything. On the contrary, she was as confused as Dad.
Maybe in her mind, she was hesitant since all her life Dad has called her Mael, and known her as his son, and so she's afraid that nothing may have changed.
I glanced at Dad and he spared me a look too, that's when I nodded at him and signed, 'Talk'
He gulped and looked back at his daughter, "Hey," He raised his hand to wave at her, "Hello Grace,"
I saw how Grace's eyes went wide and her skin stood up. It was like she almost couldn't believe he knew her for her, "Uh!" She panicked, unsure how to respond so I walked over to her and grabbed her hand.
I didn't need to say anything to her. She calmed down a little with my support and raised her spare hand to wave back at him, "Hi... Dad..." Her voice was soft but Dad heard her.
He smiled at her, it was a satisfactory smile. I guess with this he knew his daughters didn't hate him, then he nodded and walked away.
Grace gripped my hand tighter while she clenched the other one as she brought it down and placed it on her chest.
"Waoh..."
I chuckled, and nodded at her, 'Same,' She looked at me, 'It was an odd feeling.' This whole interaction we both had with Dad made me feel that there was a new kind of progress in our lives.
"Was today the first time you met him?" She had her curious eyes wide open.
I nodded, 'Hm,'
"Why though?" We both turned around to leave, "You never mentioned ever wanting to meet Dad." There was an excitement in his voice. She moved her hand away and instead held my arm.
'I didn't plan on it. It just came to my mind out of the blue because I wanted some answers.'
"What answers?"
'Just,' I looked away, 'Things about him, Mom and Rachel and why he did what he did and what he could have done if things were different.'
"Oh..." Grace looked down, "I never thought about asking him..." She looked back at me, "Did his answers satisfy you?"
I shrugged, 'Somewhat,' I smiled
"Tell me all he told you," She leaned in closer to me and I nodded, "Yaay!" She was excited, but then paused, "But still," She knitted her eyebrows, "Why did you suddenly think of doing all this?"
I looked away from her, purposely avoiding her eyes but she immediately caught on.
"Amara," She stopped, making me stop too since her arm was intertwined with mine, "Come on now, don't try to hide things from me."
I smiled, then shook my head, 'I'm not,' I looked at her.
"Then tell me!" She whined.
I shook my head to calm her down and began to walk along, pulling her along, 'I found my fated mate.'
Her eyes went wide, "REALLY!!!!?" She was awe-struck, "That's amazing!!!" She did a bouncy walk to show how excited she was, "Who?"
'You know him,' I replied and she paused, frowning.
"I know him?" She didn't like that.
'Don't be surprised,' I said, 'You might not even like him.'
The color on her face changed and her expression turned sour, yet she still asked anyway, "Who?"
"Killian Blair,"
She stopped dead still in her path. For a moment, she remained frozen, then let out a scream, "KILLIAN BLAIR!?!?!?" She threw my arm away and jumped back, "HIM!?!?!"
I pursed my lips and nodded.
"OH MY GOD!!" She grabbed her face, "What the hell!?!?!"
I made a gesture with both my hands to calm her down but it wasn't easy.
It took me a lot of time to calm her down and explained everything that happened between us
***
I've met Rachel before, she works in the Omega scholarship programs for the underprivileged and Nico is a die-hard fan of hers. He really admires her.
She's not a bad person in general but she was an enemy to us solely because of how fate intertwined our lives.
'Are you okay?' I asked my sister as we entered the Alma mansion.
"Yeah," She answered, "I'm just not fond of this place."
'What did you leave here?'
"My pills," We ascended the stairs and made it to the porch.
'Why do you need those pills?'
"Those pills were specially made for me, to suppress my omega gene and insert Alpha ones. Because I was exposed to them for years, my wolf is weak."
Oh...
That was sad. She never told me about this before.
'Are you okay?'
She nodded, "I'm just happy she's still with me."
'So why are we looking for the pills?' She opened the door and we walked in. The place wasn't closed since she had informed them beforehand that she'd be coming.
"Eli's cousin is a doctor and researcher, he wants to study them and see if anything can be done to reverse the effects."
'I see,' I nodded. That made sense, 'Did Rachel have them made?'
She nodded, "There's no one else," She let out a sarcastic snicker, "But I guess even she had no idea the pills were slowly killing my wolf."
We walked into the house hand in hand.
How weird is life?
Rachel's a villain in our lives, I can't really count myself in but I'm looking at things from Grace's perspective, and sure enough, from there, she was nothing short of an enemy.
But for everyone else, she's like a hero.
And now that I look at her, I feel bad.
She's got nothing left.
'You don't hate Rachel?'
Her only son died, her pretend 'son' is gone and her husband's in the mental hospital. In this huge and wide space. She's all alone.
She shook her head, "No..." We stepped into the spacious lounge and turned on the lights.
To begin with, she had to make her husband's illegitimate child her pretend son.
I wonder how she felt every day?
I looked at my twin.
Well, it's not like she didn't take her anger out on her....
But I also know she regretted it.
I saw it.
Just like Grace did. That's probably why she couldn't bring herself to truly hate her.