if by chance | ✓

28 | broken glass

[ 28 ]

C O R A

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The wine drenches every inch of the cream colored rug like it's pure blood ─ the pieces of broken glass almost invisible except for the larger shards that lay scattered all over, one dangerously close to where my mother stands. Nobody dares to speak.

"What's the point of digging out eighteen year old dirt?" Uncle Ian mutters in his thick English accent and the teardrop that had been pricking my left eye finally slips down my cheek.

"Ian, I think ─" Aunt Vanessa gulps, an unreadable expression flashing in her ocean eyes, "I think she deserves to know."

Noah steps forward, skin as pale and cold as a ghost when his fingers wrap around my wrist. The 'twin thing' tells me he's terrified. Maybe even more than me because he didn't have the faintest idea of whatever the hell was going on. I wished I could tell him about Rhys, and all of the stuff he had told me just hours ago that had led to this disastrous evening. But my mouth had become as cemented as my feet and all I could do was inhale, exhale, inhale to control the erratic beating of my heart.

"Stefan . . . He's not your real dad" My mother sighs, falling back on the couch and I notice my 'dad' pinch the bridge of his nose. I almost don't hear what she says ─ the words echoing in my ears as I brush a lose strand of hair sticking to my forehead.

"What do you mean, mum? What the fuck is going on? Cora, is this some sick drama or what? What the fuck is this all about? I mean, this is batshit crazy" Noah screams, his lower lip trembling vehemently. He barely ever raised his voice, except on necessity and when he does it right now, even Uncle Ian flinches in his chair. His cheeks are flushed from anger when Viv pulls him back in an attempt to calm him down. In fact, calm would be an understatement.

"Your sister wanted to know the truth. Here's the truth. Stefan is not your real dad" My mother shoots a stony glance in our direction, her face resembling a devastated land after flood. Her jaw twitches slightly when I meet her gaze.

"Then who the hell is? No really, I still don't believe any of this" Noah shakes his head, as if that would make him wake up from this living nightmare of an evening.

Before my mum could respond, I blurt out the name for a second time like it had been waiting for long on the tip of my tongue. And in a flicker, all the confusion I had been having about the sketchy people ─ the Clevelands ─ who had been visiting our house lately, clears up like fog when the sun rises. Well, apparently.

"And you thought it was completely okay for us to not know our biological father? I'm amazed mum," I let out a dry laugh, my lungs feeling like they had been crushed with a bulldozer.

I still couldn't fathom how, in a moment, all the high regards I had for my mother came burning down to nothing. Yet it doesn't occur to me  once why my mother had chosen to not brief us on the truth, that is, until Aunt Vanessa decides to speak.

"Coraline, before you point another finger at your mom, you need to know why she did what she did ─" the vein on the side of her forehead throbs and my dad eyes her alarmingly.

"Is there really anything else I should know? Seriously, I had never in my life imagined I'd get to know things about my family from a stranger, in this way" I gulp and Vivianne winces at my reference to Rhys Crawford as a stranger, which makes me want to reframe my sentence but I guess it was too late.

"I swear to God you don't have the faintest idea, Coraline" Aunt Vanessa glares, saying my full name once again. She was fuming.

There's another agonizing minute of silence where I look at everyone's faces ─ my mother leaning against the couch like a statue, Uncle Ian holding on to her arms for support and Vivianne does the same for Noah. And my dad, he stands fixed adjacent to the Michelangelo paintings on the wall, his eyes telling me he knows he's losing everything all at once. And even though all I wanted was to run and pull him into a hug, something in the back of my head prevents me from doing so.

"Your mother was pregnant with the two of you when she was in highschool. And she literally had no idea about it until the day Ezekiel died in the car accident that none of us had anything to do with ─ you could never in your life imagine how it must have felt to know the father of your children right after an hour of the hospital authorities pronouncing him dead. You could never imagine, how it must have felt to hear the news of Mr. Eastwood, Ian and Iris's father, having a severe heart attack the same night. You could never, ever imagine,"  Aunt Vanessa wipes the tears flooding her cheeks with the back of her hand, "how it feels to give up ballet, when it was something she wanted to dedicate her entire life to."

"Vanessa, let it be" My mother whimpers and I almost choke on my emotions. Aunt Vanessa's words come down on me like a thunderclap.

"No we can't just let it be and allow your children to assume whatever the hell they are assuming" the brunette lady retorts, looking me dead in the eye.

"She . . . Mum was a ballet dancer?" This comes from Noah, who looks as shell-shocked as me.

The giant clock on the wall reads 11:11 as we turn to Aunt Vanessa and wait for her to speak again.

"Oh, not just a ballet dancer, the best ballet dancer I had ever known. She had offers flooding in from the Ivy League schools ─ but what was the use when she had made up her mind to give up something she loved with all of her being just for the both of you, for Ezekiel. And don't get me wrong, it wasn't like she would never let y'all know. She just never knew when the time was right" Aunt Vanessa purses her lips, "And the person you call your dad right over there, he is one of the bravest men I am fortunate enough to know. The day Stefan vowed to marry Iris, he knew he'd never have a child carrying his own blood, but he vowed to take care of her and the two of you nevertheless. He vowed to stay."

When a significantly long moment has passed and she doesn't continue, Noah walks up to dad and does something he had never done since we turned fourteen. Noah hugs him.

I think nobody had anything more to say, and I guess I should have followed Noah. Maybe I should have hugged mum too, but the wounds in my heart were still too fresh to look past. That was the difference between me and Noah. He could never hold grudges, he could let go. But me? I've always been the difficult one. Maybe that's why my mother was more worried about me than she was about him.

"I'm sorry, this is just ─ too much information to take in" I mouth quickly before storming up the stairs to my room. Nobody makes an effort to stop me, knowing I needed more time than my twin to adjust myself to the new-found truths that revolve around my entire life. I wondered if I'll ever be able to.

Resting my head against the biggest cushion I could find, I allow my mind to reel off to every little doubt I had in my mind ever since the Clevelands came here for the first time. Did I really know everything?

For starters, I knew for certain that the old couple were none other than my paternal grandparents. Second, I knew that the passport sized photograph that had slipped from Mr. Cleveland's pocket (intentionally or not) was of biological father's. No wonder I had found way too many similarities to forget it so soon. I also knew my mother did not, in the least, like them visiting. But what I didn't know ─ was why? Why would they visit my parents, especially when I had literally no idea who they were until now?

I don't get enough time to ponder on that question. Vivianne knocks on my door, which I had kept half ajar to avoid any more unnecessary drama. She steps in with the puffer jacket I had left in the car and manages a sympathetic smile.

"A ride around the city until you're feeling better. Yes or yes?"

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a/n: short chapter because i couldn't fit in the next part without making it too long. BWAHAHA
i've also down with a cold (and i'm moving to another city in like, 2 days), so might not update next week (?)