Moving On

Twenty-four

Twenty-four / Sandra

"No. That can't be right," I say as I hold the envelope my in hands. "Maybe this is some other person." I look at Aunt Joslin.

She puts her hands up, a gesture that says she's innocent. "Hey, I just grabbed every file that had a Carly on it."

"Let's open it to find out." Austin grabs the thick envelope from me and started to bring out its contents.

We gathered up at the table, trying our best to spread out every document in that brown envelope in an organized way so it would be easy for us to read and comprehend what the papers have on them.

"Okay... so this other Carly's born Carly Queenly on the 28th of July in 1996... to parents Geraldine Nichols and..." My voice trails off. "It doesn't say who the father is."

"How old is Carly?" Aunt Joslin asks no one in particular.

"Somewhere between sixteen or seventeen?" Calum shrugs. He's not sure.

I know what Aunt Joslin's thinking: this other Carly's sixteen now according to the document. It's a perfect match. And the mother's surname was Nichols, so that's pretty strong evidence that document Carly might be real-life Carly.

"No, wait," Austin motions. "Look at this other birth certificate from another envelope. It's says the same thing but she was born to parents Geraldine and Marco Nichols."

"Where did you get that?" Aunt Joslin asks him.

"From the same folder the DNA test results were in."

Aunt Joslin smacks Austin in the head with the envelope. "Then it's probably faked too, you imbecile."

Austin muttered sorry and then they scanned the other envelopes while Calum and I concentrate on the one on the table.

"Look at this." Calum was pointing to a specific area in the birth certificate we were examining. "Her mom was from Indianapolis. Isn't that where your family came from?"

I snatched the paper off the table. "Yes," I whispered.

I noticed only know that the box where the father's name was supposed to be was a little bit different. It was whiter but the dust and aging of the paper didn't make it obvious when you see it for the first time. I carefully run my fingers on it, and sure enough, the white stuff that covered what was written underneath crumbled under my index finger.

"No way," Calum says beside me.

It was correction taped.

I kept on running my index finger on it until I got my answer on who document Carly's father was.

I could make out a few letters now, but it won't make sense to me until I had all the letters together. I saw a Q there and a Y there, and I broke my heart because I could confirm that Queenly was the father's surname. I was just hoping that what I was thinking was wrong.

The last of the tape was off. I almost crumpled the document.

"Who's Franklin Queenly?" Calum asked.

"My dad."

I had a sister, and as much as it hurt me to know that my dad had another family aside from me and mom, it hurt me more that I wasted time hating her even if it wasn't that long. It killed me to know that I had a sister... and she's dying.

It was unbearable.

I didn't even care about her being involved in Luke's life. Luke was the last thing that hurt right now.

"You didn't know your father had another family?" Calum asked me. Aunt Joslin and Austin's attention were on us now.

"How could I possibly know if he had?" I argued. "I was just a little kid when he died." I looked at Aunt Joslin. "How about you? He's your brother. Did you know something about this?"

"I didn't, sweetie." I know she wasn't lying. "That's not my thing. I didn't like getting in other people's lives unless they wanted me to. But I kind of suspected something years ago."

I sat down and caught my breath.

My dying sister was just a few floors away from me, but she felt farther. All those times wasted hating her when I should've been there for her.

"I think I'm going to sit this one out," I announce to them. "I just... I can't. I need to clear my mind."

I just sat there and closed my eyes.

I could hear them work, trying to find out more.

This is big. This is very big. This just opened a few more doors than what we previously imagined. Now, the game is just not who Dev's real father is. We're now trying to figure out why Carly came into our lives and made this big of a mess.

"Hey, Calum," I hear Austin say. "Look for documents that look like this one." And then I hear paper being handed.

"The DNA test?" Calum asks. "Why?"

"Just do it."

After a few seconds, Calum found what Austin was looking for. "I found it, I guess," he announced.

"Give it to me," Aunt Joslin says. "Hmm... Yes. This one's printed the wrong way." I didn't know what she was talking about or what document she was pertaining to because I had my eyes closed and was relying completely on my ears. "It's official," she announced.

My eyes flutter open.

"What's official?" I eagerly ask.

She hands the papers to me. "We're now sure that the DNA test was indeed faked. The DNA test that was released to Liz, and Luke, and you guys, was just brilliantly manipulated. This," she point to the other paper, "is the real DNA test. Luke didn't screw that chick. Dev's father is called Blaine. Blaine Hawk."

"You're going a little bit faster for my taste," Austin complained. "Can you explain it again?"

"The fake one was based from the real one's results. Whoever made the fake document only changed Blaine Hawk's information with Luke's. And viola, Luke suddenly became a dad," Calum explained for Aunt Joslin.

"Does it say where he lives?" I ask.

"Yeah, he's just here in Cincinnati."

"Okay. I have a plan," I announce. "Austin and Calum, you go to Blaine Hawk's address and make sure that we're not handing Dev to a crack addict." I face Aunt Joslin. "Talk to the doctors who conducts the DNA tests and have them confess. We can't let this thing happen again."

"What about you?" Austin questions.

"I need to talk to my sister."