No Happily Ever After

Chapter 14

"Mom?"

Mrs. Briar sat atthe desk, going through drawers, and putting papers into a back pack. She stopped at the sound of Aspen's voice and turned to give her asympathetic smile. "Hi, baby," she said.

Aspen blushed. She'd come to an age where her mother's affection sort of embarrassedher. But her anger toward her parents lessened slightly in the faceof her mother's love. And her father stopped what he was doing aswell which was working on his laptop. He set it aside to stand upand wrap his daughter in a warm hug.

Aspen took a deepbreath. "I have a question," she said, struggling toremain calm. Her parents tended to immediately shut down if shethrew any sort of emotional fit.

"Yes, honey?"Mrs. Briar said.

"Who was thewoman in the field? The one you called Melanie?"

Mrs. Briar's jawdropped and all the color drained from her face.

Mr. Briar frowneddeeply and shook his head. "Don't answer that, Alice," hesaid firmly to his wife.

"I didn't knowyou remembered," she whispered in a voice that suggested all thebreath had rushed out of her.

"Alice! Shedoesn't need to know!" Mr. Briar exclaimed.

Aspen looked backand forth between her mother and father. She jerked away from herdad. "Know what?" she demanded. Her mother approached,arms outstretched. But Aspen sidestepped Mrs. Briar's embrace.

"Aspen, youdon't need to know," Mr. Briar insisted. Mrs. Briar began tocry. He moved to put his arm around his wife. "Honey," hesaid softly. "We have to get through one more day! One moreday and its over! Do not tell her!"

Mrs. Briar crumpledunder the weight of gut wrenching sobs. She collapsed onto the sofaand wept as though the weight of many years had finally caught up toher. "She has a right to know, Alan," Mrs. Briar said. Aspen stared open mouthed at her parents. Clearly something moreserious than she'd ever imagined had been going on all along.

Mr. Briar sighedand took a seat next to his wife. He gestured toward the rollingchair at the desk. "Sit down, Aspen," he said in adefeated tone.

She tried to bepatient as she watched her parents. They stared at each other asthough communicating without words for a long time then finallyreturned their attention to Aspen.

"Melanie is mysister," Alice said.

Aspen gasped. Thewoman in black had been family. That explained why Aspen hadn'texactly found her scary. Somehow she'd sensed a biological bond andnot to be afraid. "Oh!" she exclaimed. "Thatexplains why she didn't scare me even though she looked kind ofweird!"

Alan Briar's facedarkened into a stormy frown. "Aspen, Melanie IS scary. You must know that. You must not be fooled."

Alice began to cryharder and Aspen moved to her side, putting her arms around hermother's shoulders. All anger dissipated, though she remainedterribly confused. She hated to see her mother cry. "Momma,"Aspen whispered. "Please don't cry."

After a moment, shecomposed herself enough to continue. "Aspen, Melanie and I... We grew up in a very, very bad family."

Alice launched intoa horrific tale that left Aspen reeling, gaping at her parents indisbelief. She described a childhood in the remotest parts of theLouisiana Bayou. She'd been born into a backwoods family who hadn'tmingled with regular society for generations. She weaved a wickedtale of inbreeding, crime, and a dark religion. Aspen began to cryas well as she listened to the story of Alice's nightmarishupbringing.