AGAPI

40. Good-bye

"Did you know Caroline is your aunt?"

"What?" I face him directly, not believing the words he just uttered.

"The one who was working in your house, Caroline. She is your mother's sister." His words make me feel numb as I cannot bring myself together to digest the words which came out from his mouth.

"How do you know that?" I furrow my eyebrows, not wanting to believe him. He hesitates to speak, looking anywhere but in my eyes. "I don't have all day to spend with you." I sigh, getting annoyed the more I'm with him.

"Sit down." He points at the seat where I was seated before. "I'll tell you." He nods. I take a deep breath to sigh it all out with frustration and annoyance while sitting down as he does the same. He looks at me hesitantly before speaking. "When you ran away that day, I followed you and got to know about where you live and-"

"Did you stalk me?" I raise my eyebrows with anger.

"I didn't stalk you, Austin. I just wanted to know where you live." He shakes his head as he speaks, not knowing that that's exactly what stalking means.

"That's the same. I never gave you the permission for you to know where I live and you have no business in knowing wherever I live, no matter what!" I gradually increase my voice as the anger fills me up to an extent I wouldn't want to.

"I'm sorry." He drops his head down with guilt and I calm myself down, getting my breathing back to normal as I'm trying to get the anger inside me to subside.

"How did you find out about her?" I ask him with as much as patience I could gather in this infuriating moment.

"After a few days when you ran away, I came near your house to meet you and explain myself and that's when I saw Caroline getting inside your house with another young lady." He takes a short glance of me and drops his look back on the table. "Caroline didn't know about me because your mother never told her family about us. Infact, your mother and I didn't even get married." He looks at me as I drop my gaze on my thighs and hold it tightly to not get too overwhelmed by his words.

"Don't call her as my mother. She never was one and neither were you a father to me." I rub the spot of my thighs that I had held tight, making all the blood rush there.

"You're right. She got pregnant all of a sudden with you when we weren't even married. Since we found out about you too late, it wasn't even possible for her to get aborted and so she ran away after giving birth to you-"

"Oh," I exhale with sarcasm, laughing like a maniac I'm about to become because of his words towards me. "I was a burden to you guys even before I was born." I scoff. "But do you even think before speaking? Did you ever think how it would feel for a child to hear his birth parent tell him that he would've been aborted if they had found out earlier?" I furrow my eyebrows with a mixed emotion of anger and sadness.

"No, Austin. I didn't mean it that wa-"

"No. I completely understand that you had a reason to abort me but I never came here to listen to your reasons." I sigh, pulling my hair back from my forehead and glare at him. "Just tell me how did you find out Caroline was just working in our house." I get straight to the point, not wanting to talk about a matter that would just hurt me.

"Catherine, your birth mother," he looks at me and I just look away, hearing the name of the one who birthed me, for the first time. "Catherine had showed me some of her family photos and that's how I recognised Caroline." He takes a breath before speaking again. "I met her again, around one month ago when I had mustered up to speak to you again that day and came to your house, but she was already leaving your house with a brief case. I approached her and introduced myself with shame. Later, I asked her what she was doing there and that's how I got to know about her working there so that she could repay you for the troubles her dead sister did to yo-"