ILLUSIONS II

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Kim: I didn’t know if it was true. I had to make sure that it was true before I start to announce to the entire world that the woman who is supposed to be dead is alive somewhere and she abandoned me! What the hell was I supposed to say?
Barry: whatever it is that you just said! You cant be mad at me for finding out and not sharing if you were doing the same thing.

Kimberly turned around to look at Nicholas and he turned to look away. She scoffed and she turned away.

Nicholas: he is right, Kim. It doesn’t make any sense. I thought that after last year, you would realize that you cant do this on your own but you keep making the same mistake. You have always been making the same mistake and that has you stuck in a cycle with no way to get out and I think you need to stop to think about it. 
Kim: I don’t think there is anything to think about. 
Nicholas: Kim, listen for once in your life.

She was going to respond in the nastiest way when the phone rang. All of them became quiet at the same time. She looked at the both of them before picking it up.

Kim: what is it this time?
Garret: your mother is about to book a flight for the states. I think this is the perfect opportunity for you to see her.
Kim: I am not interested in seeing her. My mom is dead. Leave it that way.

She said and she ended the call, not knowing how to feel about all of this. The feeling was so overwhelming, she needed air, she needed space. She needed to go for a long drive and probably never return. She sighed and rubbed her forehead.

Barry: what is going on? What is wrong?
Kim: nothing is. Can I be left alone?
Nicholas: Kimberly!
Kim: mom is coming down to the states. She just booked a flight down here and she is on her way. 
Barry: that is good news. We can ask her why she would go through all of that just to fake her own death, why she would leave us alone. Why she did all of the things that she did. We could get all of the answers that we have always wanted.
Kim: no! Nobody is going to talk to her. She is going to come and she is going to leave! Nobody is going to see her and nobody is going to say a word of this to my brother or my father.

She said as she walked out of Nick’s room, heading towards the main entrance.

Barry: they deserve to know, Kim.
Kim: and then what? We tell them that she is alive and they find a way to link up with her and ask her why she did all of those things and she looks them in the eyes and she tells them that she did it because she felt like? Because she had to? There is no justifiable reason for her to have done it! Do you know what I went through? What we all went through? We thought she was murdered. We broke rules, almost got ourselves killed just because we were trying to get her murderer! We would have been dead. She stood by and watched all of that happen. I don’t know who that woman is but she is not my mother!
Barry: look, Kim. I am going to respect your choices and decisions to keep this way from the rest of the house but I am getting my answers, one way or another and you can be sure that I am doing this, with or without your help. I don’t care who she is and who she is not but I want to know why she would do all of those things and not look back.
Kim: and there you go, moving back into the cycle that we fought so hard to get out from.
Barry: it doesn’t matter to me, none of it does if we don’t know the truth. She is coming back into the states, she is coming back here for something and we are going to meet up with her and find out what and why she is back here. 

Kim looked at him and she sighed. She knew that there was no possible way she was going to talk him out of it. The best she could do was go along with him and make sure that he was going to be okay. She looked at Nicholas and he nodded at her.

Kim: fine, we would go together but keep Jayden and my dad in the dark until we know what the hell is going on
Barry: that is something that I can do.

She looked at him and she sighed. She had fought so hard to move on from all of this drama but here she was, finding her way into it once again. She slapped her forehead as hard as she could possibly slap herself and she looked up from her hand after slapping herself.

Barry: when does she get here? 
Kim: an hour, maybe two.
Nicholas: how long is she staying?
Kim: how on earth am I supposed to know that? I don’t know anything about how long she is staying or why the hell she is even here in the first place. When we find her, we can ask her all of our questions.
Barry: then we should get home and get changed. I am not about to lose my ticket to get my answers.

That was what they did. They left Hailey and Bryant in Dani’s care and the three of them headed back to Kim’s house so that they could get outfits that were more comfortable before they drove off, following the instructions of a total stranger. She needed to know if any of it was real, she had to know why her mom would abandon her and then fake her own death? What was the agenda behind it? Why would she do something like that? Kim felt someone touch her thigh and that pulled her out of her world. She looked at him and tears welled up in her eyes.