The Family LIES

13

It was past midnight and the trio sat on the bed speechless. The thoughts running wild in their head didn't have the courage to speak up. All of them sat without making any noise. The only noise was their own shallow breathing.

"That is the last diary entry Lily have written." Kimberly was the first to break the silence. "Yes, the diary isn't even half finished. I thought that she might have completed the whole thing." Hayley joined in the conversation. Alonso still sat quietly.

"What happened Alonso?" Kim asked him. It took him some minutes to speak up. "Lily was pregnant with my brother or sister." It was something none of them wanted to acknowledge. Lily Laine was pregnant with Albuerto's child. The diary had an uncertain ending. The only thing that the kids knew was that Lily died in 1998 when she was just 16 years old. The newspaper didn't have any mention of the child that she carried.

"It complicates the things." Hayley muttered under her breath. "What?" Kim asked unable to hear it. "I mean, I thought that reading this diary would give us some answers, but it gives more questions and makes everything look more suspicious." Near her, Alonso grunted.

"You are so invested in finding the mysterious killer. I think all of us know who it is. So just say it out loud." Hayley looked at him with a shocked expression. His eyes were welled up with tears and he was trying hard not to cry. But the anger rising inside him couldn't stop his words from coming out of his mouth.

"It is him, my father. He is a really bad person. He might have cheated on Lily and left her to die." Kim kept a hand on his shoulder. "Do you really think your father would kill someone?" Kim's voice had a soothing effect on him and he looked at her and said, "No, I don't think my father is capable of something like that. But...he is capable of destroying another one's happiness."

"We are not talking about who destroyed another's happiness, Alonso! We are trying to find the killer." Hayley said in an irritated tone. "It's the same Hayley. He had the choice of going back to Lily and taking care of his own child, but he didn't. He cheated her and broke her heart. She was already vulnerable, she and the baby might have died just like that. It is all because of my father. I thought that he was just a crappy father to me and a shitty husband to my mother, but he was always bad. I just wonder, does my mom even know about his illicit affairs." Alonso was hard to console. He was trembling with anger.

Alonso looked at Hayley. She was unusually quiet. She was going through the diary again like it had some deep secrets that no one else can find other than her.

"What are you still doing looking over that?" His words brought Hayley back to the reality. She looked at him and asked, "How old are you?" He looked at her disapprovingly. "Tell me, Alonso!" "24", he said.

Kim let out a gasp and looked at Hayley. She nodded. Alonso didn't understand why his age mattered or why it brought such a reaction in Kimberly. "What?", He asked to both of the girls.

Kim was too stunned to say anything, but she managed to mutter, "you are the one." "What?" Alonso asked again not understanding what she was implying. He then looked at Hayley who was looking at him curiously.

"You are the one Alonso, you were the baby!"

             
                            *****

The room fell silent again. Alonso couldn't picture that. He raked through his mind to say that he wasn't Lily's child but Jennifer's. But the dates were accurate.

"What if my father had another child with my mother, that is with Jennifer?" That was his only try to prove that he wasn't Lily's child.

"There is a possibility Alonso, but it is really not much of a possibility . And if that was the case, then Aunt Rosette and Uncle Patrick might have told that to Lily." Hayley tried to say that calmly. She knew in her mind that whatever he was implying was impossible. She have seen plenty of romance movies and she doesn't think that Albuerto's love towards Lily was just a fake one, or so she hoped.

Moreover, looking at Albuerto closely, she could see that he had the same facial features like the late Lily. Then she suddenly remembered something.

"That day, when we visited Mr Stem, he told you that you look like your mother. You don't look even a little bit like Aunt Jennifer. He was referring to Lily. He knew who you were. He knew who your mother was." Hayley's new revelation brought clarity to Alonso's mind, but he couldn't picture himself as anyone but Jennifer's child.

He remembers her love. It was a mother's. She was always there for him. Whenever his father was drunk and distant, Jennifer looked after him. Who would look after someone else's child like that? No one. He knew that. Jennifer was always his mother. But he couldn't think that she wasn't his biological mother. It hurt him to even think that. Just like reading his mind, Hayley said, "You need to realize that al though Jennifer isn't your biological mother, she is still your mother. It would never change Alonso." That words somehow comforted him and he hugged Hayley.

"At least we have found something." Everyone looked at Kim. "The baby is still alive." They nodded and smiled.

                           *****

Kim soon became sleepy and she bid goodnight to the others and left for her room. It was just Alonso and Hayley.

"Are you ok?" She asked him. He nodded. "I think I am fine for a man realizing that the only parent who ever cared for him wasn't even his parent at all." His smile was painful to watch.

"It's fine. It doesn't change anything. Aunt Jennifer is still your mother and moreover now you realize that you had another mother too, one who loved you deeply. So think like that instead." He smiled again this time with happiness.

"Yeah, I guess she loved me deeply in the end." Hayley nodded, "she did." When Hayley too decided to go to her room, Alonso stopped her."Do you think I should ask my mother, what happened to my biological mother?"

Hayley thought for a moment and said no. "We already know she died. Possibly because of complication during pregnancy time. The focus needs to be on Edna's and Isabella Laine's deaths. If you confide in someone about these revelations, something bad might happen. Also, the police are investigating. Hopefully they will find the culprit sooner."

Then Hayley took the diary from Alonso's bed and asked him, "Can I read it again?" He was unsure of what to do. "I know that you want to keep it as a souvenir of Lily, but I think there maybe something in the book that we may have missed. So I will read it tonight and give it you by tomorrow morning."

He agreed. She hugged him. Then she stood on her toes to reach his cheek and kissed him there. "I was hoping to kiss you on the forehead, but I couldn't reach there." Alonso laughed. "At least you reached my cheek." She smiled and left to her room.

Alonso switched off the lights and climbed under the sheets. He slowly drifted off to sleep. He dreamt of the little girl from the portrait. Lily Laine.

                               *****

Hayley came to her room and locked it behind her. She switched on her lights and climbed atop the bed. She placed the diary on the bed and started reading it again.