#4

(Back in the house when Amaris left)

“Amaris”, Jadis called out her name as she got up to go after her.

“Jadis, let her go”, Alcmene said as he placed his hand on Jadis’ shoulder to stop her from going after Amaris.

“let me just make...” Jadis insists on going after her. But Alcmene stopped her again, “No Jadis, she needs time..she needs time to take it all in.”

Jadis stood there for a while, staring at the ground. She realized Alcmene was right. After all that had happened today, Amaris needed time to take it all in. Jadis slumped back onto the couch. She felt guilty for the pain Amaris was feeling right now. “ ‘sigh’ I wanted to tell her a long time ago”, she sighs again as she scratches her hair, “but I didn’t know how to do it without her getting hurt in the end”

“It’s okay Jadis”, Alcmene said as he placed his hand on her hand, ”I know you were only trying to protect her and had only her best interest at heart and I’m sure when she finally listens to you, she would realize it too". He said this as he moves closer to her to console her as she leans onto his chest “I hope so”, Jadis whispers.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

AFTER THE FLASHBACK

‘’No wonder I looked nothing like her,” I thought to myself as I reminisced. I sat by the wall of the house for almost an hour and staring at the silent open field in front of the house. By then, my eyes were all puffy and red from crying a lot and it was almost dark outside.

I knew I had to go back inside at some point, but I wasn’t ready yet. I was still trying to come to terms with what I just heard. I still can’t believe she kept it from me all this while.

Was that why she brought me to this place, to have some kind of joyous family reunion with my uncle and biological parents. Did she think it was going to be that easy?

As I thought about the events that took place a while ago in the house, I remembered the guilt, fear and pain in her eyes as she told me she was not my mum. I realized it took her a lot of courage to tell me that and she was also in pain.

Should I just hear her out; her reason for not telling me all this while. ‘sigh’, somehow, I felt like this was just the beginning, I say to myself as I gaze at the stars in the sky.

After a while, I finally went back inside. As I got to the door of the room that I ran out from, I noticed that uncle Alcmene was no longer in his seat but was right next to mum, hugging her or comforting her. She looked like she had been crying, too. Her eyes were all pink and puffy.

I cleared my throat as I walked into the room to announce my presence and went over to them and sat on the couch facing them and glanced at my mum.

“Amaris”, mum said as she saw me.

As I sat before her and stared into her teary eyes, all the emotions from earlier on came rushing back, and I didn’t know when I started crying. I couldn’t believe that the woman sitting right in front of me, isn’t my birth mother. Forget the fact we look nothing alike. This woman raised me. She worked 5 jobs to take care of the both of us, and she has made a lot of other sacrifices just to make me happy.

As I started crying, mum left her seat and came to hug me, sobbing, “Ama, I’m so sorry I caused you all this pain. I’m sorry I kept this a secret from you. I just didn’t want to hurt you “, she said as she hugged me tightly, “but seeing how hurt you are, ‘sob’ I know I was wrong. Ama, please forgive me for causing you this much pain,” she said as we sobbed n hugged each other.

We stayed like that for a while, then my mum moved out of the embrace. She held my shoulders as she wiped the tears from my face and said, “but don’t worry, I’m going to tell you everything now, right from the beginning and I won’t hide anything from you ever again”, she said and started crying again “so please forgive me”

Seeing my mum all teary, I couldn’t help but forgive her...how could I not forgive her. Even though she didn’t give birth to me, she raised me and I will always see her as my mum.

“It’s okay mum, I forgive you,” I tell her as I wipe her tears

“Thank you”, she says as she finally stops crying and smiles at me.

“ hm hm, I’m sorry to disturb you” I heard someone clear their throat. My gaze went to the direction it came from and I saw Thalia, the girl from earlier on standing at the door. She strode into the room, and came to where we were sitting at the fireplace and curtsied before Uncle saying, ”I’ve prepared their baths and I have served the food “

“oh, is that all”, Alcmene asked Thalia

“yes, sire,”

Alcmene then turned his attention to us, ”Well in that case, why don’t the both of you go freshen up, we’ll have dinner together and then when we are all done, we will come back here and talk about everything, hm"” he suggested

“Is that okay with the both of you?”

He asked us again since we did not respond to him the first time

“uh, sure it is,” mum said, nodding her head. “after the long journey and the events of today we do need it, right Amaris?”.

“yes, we do,” Amaris replied

“In that case, you both should follow Thalia. She will lead you to where you shall take your bath,”.

* Hello my wonderful readers. I'm so sorry for my late updates, I've been so busy with school and sewing that I've not had enough time to write but I promise to make it up to you guys. So please don't give up on my book and keep reading it.

Love you guys