Light & Dark

Chapter 11

First day

"Nerea, I have wanted to talk to you." Cara's mother said to Nerea as she hugged her.

"Me too." Rea answered. "I...I wanted to say I'm...I'm..." Ciara stared at Nerea and wrapped her arms around her. Nerea felt a knot in her throat.

"Shh, you don't have to say a thing." Ciara said. "I know what you feel, my dear."

"I think you are the only person that has said that to me."

"Well, I am a mother. I know what to say and when to say it." She said as Nerea left her loving arms.

"Yes, I know. One of the reasons I envied Cara for. A mother that actually knows what to do in rough times."

"Honey, you are sure it's me." Ciara laughed. " I record I few minutes ago I was crying more water than a waterfall." Nerea laughed with her.

"True." Nerea said. "I never thought I would be here."

"None of us did."

"I love seeing them play." Nerea referred herself to the two boys running from one place to another.

"I am so thankful they don't know what is happening around them." Ciara said. "I know Cara wasn't their true sister but I want them to remember her as true as she was."

"Family isn't define only by blood." Nerea said. "I did not know she was adopted."

"I thought she had told you."

"Well, she told me but not directly."

"What do you mean?"

"I found out in the letter." Rea explained. "The letter Cara wrote me... the one your husband gave me." Ciara stared curiously at each word Nerea said. "You didn't know?"

"I did not know she had left you a letter." Ciara said. "I'm sure Steven forgot to mention it but I'm sure she only wanted you to see it."

"Actually, she did." Nerea said. "But you have the right to know..."

"Nerea," Ciara touched gently Nerea's face. "If Cara wished that letter only to be read by you, I will not disturb her wish. I will prefer to leave it that way."

"Ciara..." A man called her and with a smile she left Rea. Nerea was disappointed to have talked so little with Cara's mother. She was a presence in her life, but there was a feeling of worry in Rea's chest. Why didn't she know about the existence of the letter? Steven had said they both had decided that Nerea should have it. Were they lying? There was something that did not fit in the situation. Something that was rotten.

Nerea embraced herself. It was better for her to leave now, she thought. Tim and the girls may be looking for her. She began walking to the entrance of the graveyard when she froze. Someone made her stop without having contact with her. Rea changed her direction and followed the stranger. The stranger walked faster and Nerea lost his track. She looked everywhere to search for her target until she found it. Entering towards the woods.

***

Nerea followed his path with stealth. She wanted to assure herself who he was. If she did that would be giant wave of emotions. His dark hair, black as a raven was equal as his. She knew who he was but she just did not want to believe it. Believe it no but to become reality. If it was him, there were a lot of things she had to not grant.

Her thoughts became a distraction that made her lost the man. She had finished on a hill where the sun rays revealed the true hour of the day. Nerea looked around, there was nothing except trees and leaves on the floor. There was no one there. She was all alone. Her mind became with the idea of hallucinations and paranoia. Maybe it was that. All of it was inside her mind. What better traitor than your own mind that tricks you into believing or that deceives you. The power to know the truth instead of what we want to believe. That was what she wanted to believe, but that wasn't true.