THE END

15. Closure

"Phineas is not the biological father of Adira. It's Elijah."

I burst open the first door besides the stairs and I see something I shouldn't.

Cassandra talking to a guy near the balcony. This woman just loves to cheat.

"I. NEED. EXPLANATION. " I shout at Cassandra who flinches as I near her.

"Sweetie, what are you doing here ?" She sweetly says but I notice the guilt in her undertone.

"You tell me NOW or I inform Elijah that you're cheating on him aswell." I say through gritted teeth.

"You're wrong about the cheating part." She sighs and then goes over to the couch patting the space beside for me to sit while she dismisses the man.

"I'm listening. And you better not lie." I take the seat beside her.

She inhales deeply and calms herself before exhaling and finally meets my eyes.

She never looked me in the eye.

Wait. Now that I think about it, I don't have the eye colour matching either her or my dad. They both have brown eyes.

And I have grey ones. Cold and rough like Elijah.

"Adira. It's a long story but by the end, you'll understand my perspective. " She sighs again and that makes me flip.

"How long are you gonna take?" I glare at her.

"Not anymore. I've postponed it enough already. Honey, you are not the daughter of Phineas. When I married him, I was young and in love. But with time passing, he would go on long business trips. And like I said, I was young and desperate. I met Elijah in a bar and hooked up with him. And it relived me. We both needed to let off the steam. "

Young and desperate? My foot.

"It happened some more times, more than I would like to admit and now that I look back, it was a very horrendous mistake of my life. It's easily the second worst mistake I've ever committed. " She paused and looked away from me.

"The first one being betraying Phineas in the first place. He was the best husband anyone could ask for. But I was -"

"Young and desperate. Continue." I completed for her.

"And I decided it was time I repayed it."

FLASHBACK

"Cassandra! That's not how you should talk with a child !" Phineas whisper-yelled at Cassandra.

The rain was pouring outside and Cassandra had shown up after a long while. Phineas had cleverly sent Adira inside to grab a picture knowing she'll take some time to complete it and will not get tangled in whatever the mess Cassandra was going to create.

"I'm here to talk. Not to meet a child. You should have sent her away." She looks away at the distance.

"You HARDLY meet her. She's your daughter !" Phineas grabbed her chin and made her forcefully meet his gaze.

"What's wrong, darling? You've been acting strange ever since Adira was born. I tried to excuse it as post pregnancy depression and supported you at every step. Even when you decided to go on a world tour 2 years back. But now it's getting out of hand. She's almost 8 now!" Phineas's gaze softened and it broke Cassandra more.