DARK PARADISE. Miguel O'Hara

06. Hidden Truths

HIDDEN TRUTHS - Chapter Six
─────────────────────
╰ ─┉─¡! • !¡─┉─ ╯

⇢ ˗ˏˋ Five Months Later ࿐ྂ

JAMES — Sat beside his sister, legs pulled to his chest as he looked at the book Jade clutched onto. Her fingers ran along the pages, tears blurring her vision as James watched intently.

A soft smile formed across her lips, as she turned the page, eyes landing on another picture from her parent's wedding. While she wasn't alive yet, she'd chosen to pass down the stories she'd been told to her brother, hoping it would fill the missing pieces in.

Ever since James had asked to talk about their parents, Jade would tell him stories that had been passed on to her, or tell him about things that had happened when she was little. She'd told him that they were the happiest she'd ever seen after they had him and that they'd be very proud of who he'd became.

Jade held the book of pictures in her hand, the images filling a hole in her heart she didn't need to be patched. Her heart ached as the hole mended itself and as James asked more question, yet a smile remained on her lips.

She never knew talking about things would help so much.

"Why's he making such a funny face?" James suddenly asked, pointing to a picture at the bottom right corner of the book. Jade smiled and glanced to her brother as he rested his head on her shoulder.

It was getting late, but he insisted on staying up late as she told him stories. Since he didn't have school tomorrow, Jade didn't see the harm and gave in, but could see now his eyes were growing heavy and his body was tired.

She looked back to the picture her mother had taken while they were at the zoo. Giraffes stood tall in the background of the picture, her father standing closer to the camera. He held out Maya, Jade's little sister who'd just been born, and had his nose scrunched.

Jade stood close by, her nose plugged. There was a seven year difference her and Maya, so Jade was much tinier than she was now, only seven years old as the smell of her sister made its way to her nose.

Jades heart sank at the thought her sister had died when she was only ten. And then she realized her brother didn't even know about Maya. She had spent so long trying to protect her brother from the truth she didn't realize he likely didn't even remember he had another sister.

"Well." Jade says softly, swallowing the lump in her throat. "That's your sister, Maya when she was young." She says, hoping the new piece of information wouldn't be too big for him to take in.

"Sister?" James says. He perks his head up and looks at Jade with wide eyes. A soft smile form on his lips and the look in his eyes shines with curiosity. "I had another sister?"

Jade closes her eyes and cringes at the thought she'd kept this from him. She mentally curses herself before nodding. "Yeah." She said. "She was 7 when you were born."

"Really?"

"Yeah." She says, pointing to the picture. "You were even tinier than she was when she was born."

Jade smiles and earns a smile from her brother in return. He rests his head gently on her shoulder again and watches as she continues to point.

"And dad was holding her out because her diaper needed changed. It smelled really bad and just moments after mom took the picture I ran up and clang on to her to get away from the stench."

"That's you?" James asks, pointing to the seven year old in the picture. His words are slow and tired, slurring as if he was drunk.

Jade smiles and nods, "I was younger than you are."