Blind

Remember

I shook my head as tears started to form and run down my cheeks. Memories before the incident replayed in my head and even more tears ran down, I grabbed a pillow and quietly sobbed. Not wanting to burden my parents with my misery. I hear a knock at my door and quickly dried off my tears as I went over to the door. Opening the door, I plaster a fake smile on face and greeted my mother. I waited as silence overtook the room, then I was suddenly pulled into a tight embrace. I gazed into my mother's eyes and saw that it was full of concern and worry. "I'm sorry." I quietly whispered.

After a few minutes, we pulled back from the embrace and she grabbed my hands. "Athena, we have news." She said. I had a blank look on my face, wondering what kind of news she was about to deliver. "I don't know how to put this, but we found..." She hesitated. "We found your sister."

Shocked at what she said, I scrunched my eyebrows together in confusion. I didn't have a sister and I never recalled my real parents saying anything about that either. "I.. I don't have a sister." I said letting go of her hands and backed away cautiously.

I saw her shaking her head. "But you do have a sister, Athena. Her name is Rose."

I shook my head in disagreement, that can't be true. If I had a sister my real parents would've told me about her or at least mention her at one point in time. A flashback suddenly took over my thoughts.

'Mom, who's this?" I asked my mother, holding a picture of me and a girl, that looked similar to me. I was about 8 at the time and as childish as it sounds, I was exploring through the attic and came across a picture frame.

I saw my mother slowly walking towards me with a blank expression. "You shouldn't be playing in the attic, Athena." She said sternly.

"I'm sorry mommy. I just wanted to explore, but mommy who is this girl? I don't remember meeting her." I asked not wanting to give up the subject.

"Nobody special. Now put that down and let's go back down." She said. I raised an eyebrow and crossed my arms, showing her that I wasn't buying her lie. It can't be nobody because for whatever reason the girl was actually quite familiar to me.

I saw my mother sigh and drooped her shoulders in defeat. She knew that I wouldn't give up the subject due to my stubbornness and determination. "I don't recall anything serious, but I do know that she was once very close to you." We had a silent moment, she was now looking at floor, lost in her thoughts. "She was closer to you than you think." I hear her mutter.

"What?" I asked curiously.

I'm going to guess that my voice broke her out of her trance and she quickly looked back at me. "Nothing Athena. Now I told you all that I know of that girl." She paused noticing that I was still in my suspicious "pose". "How about we go get some ice-cream after picking up daddy from work?"

As the 8 year old girl I was, my eyes widened at the sound of ice-cream and went with it, forgetting everything that I just witnessed. After picking up dad we got ice-cream, stopped by the park and finally watched a movie.

I never really gave any doubts about the event, I was just a kid, but now I know why they did it. They were trying to erase what I just saw, that the girl in the picture was my sister. What I don't get is how my adopted parents knew that I had a sister. I look at my mother suspiciously. "How did you know I had a sister?" I asked.

"You don't know?" She asked in a surprised tone. "On your adoption papers, it stated that you had a sister, but nothing more. So your father and I decided to investigate. We did research and asked around, finally finding out who your sister was." I was speechless and surprisingly overwhelmed with relief. "I'm really sorry for not telling you in the first place, we just wanted to make sure it was true."

I kept looking at her, not really knowing what to do I hugged her. I hugged her with all my heart because now I know that they do really love me, that they care about me. "When can I see her?" I asked my mother quietly. She didn't say a word. I pulled out of the embrace and looked at her. "When can I see her?" I repeated thinking that she didn't hear me. The air was tense and I felt like there was something missing, something she wasn't telling me. "Mom. What are you not telling me?" I asked with a determined expression.

. "You can meet her tomorrow if you'd like, but you have to brace yourself." She said with a sigh. Brace myself? For what?