Stolen at Birth

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Thirteen

Keira could feel her fingers and eyes twitch as she struggled to open her eyes and find out where she was. She could smell this antiseptic scent all around her that reminded her of a hospital, but she couldn't think of any reason as to why she would be in the hospital. She's never been to one before, not even when her father nearly killed her a couple of years ago.

"Keira," whispered a voice beside her ear. Keira couldn't place who the voice belonged to, but she knew that it was familiar to her. It sounded friendly and worried; about her probably, considering she's in a hospital bed. "Come on Keira. Wake up, open your eyes."

Finally Keira is able to open her eyes, but to a blinding light that makes her shut her eyes again instantly. Everyone around her stands anxiously, waiting for her eyes to adjust to the light so they can make sure that she's ok, that she'll live another day. They watch as she cracks her eyes open again and this time they stay open to observe the five set of eyes in the room, all focused on her. Daniel and Jared were the closest to her, sitting on either side of her; her real parents standing at the foot of the bed, holding each other's hands in relief that their daughter was finally awake and Jakob standing the furthest away in the corner of the room.

Keira turned her head towards her new found brother and croaked, "What happened?" Keira's birth mother heard how she struggled to talk and went to grab her a glass of water to moist her throat so she could talk a little bit easier. Keira smiled in thanks at her.

"Don't you remember?" questioned Jared. She turned her head towards him and saw him to possess an angered look on his face. "Your bastard of a father almost beat you to death and your brother brought you here."

Keira almost looked back at Daniel when Jared said brother, but she stopped when she remembered that Daniel still doesn't know what she found out and neither does her real parents. "I remember now," she mumbled. Keira recalled the sound of her father's fists pounding onto her face and stomach. The sound of her bones cracking as they snapped under the pressure. She mentally examined herself and found her whole body to be in a lot of pain. "He did it because I found out who my real parents are."

Everyone looked at each other in shock and surprise. All except for Jakob, who knew who her real parents were all along. That was the secret he couldn't ever tell her, for fear of their father's wrath. Now that she knew, he wouldn't be in fear of that anymore. Donald and Karen kept sneaking glances at each other, having a secret conversation with one another. Daniel and Jared sat patiently and waited to hear what Keira was going to say.

"My real parents are-" Keira was interrupted by the entrance of the doctor who looked after Keira in her weak state. Donald and Karen let out a quiet frustrated sigh, they were really looking forward to what she had to say.

"Hello Keira," said the doctor. He had on a white coat that reached mid-thigh, a bold head and brown eyes covered by a pair of small black glasses. "My name is Dr McKenzie. How are you feeling?"

"Like my whole body is on fire," she mumbled and everyone's happy, cheerful and hopeful smiles faded into lines of worry. "I hurt everywhere."

"Well," stammered Dr McKenzie, clearly not expecting Keira to say how much pain she was in, "we'll fix that right now." He walked over to where a million of thing were hooked up to Keira and pushed a needle into a tube that was already in her arm. "This is morphine, it'll help with the pain and it may give you hallucinations. We couldn't put it in before you woke up because sometimes it causes patients to not wake up at all and with the state you were in, we couldn't risk it." After that, he went around and checked all her vital signs; saying they were good, that the bruising and swelling would go down in about a week or so and after that she was going to be fine, then walked out, leaving them alone.

"Do you feel a bit better now, Keira?" asked Jared as he grabbed her hand and rubbed his thumb along her hand.

Keira looked around the room in amazement, finding everything fascinating. "There's butterflies in my room!" she laughed. The morphine was kicking in and as the doctor said, she was hallucinated that butterflies were in the hospital room, flying into everyone's head and playing with Keira's hair. "Is that an elephant? I think it's too big to be in here."

Everyone stared at her in wonder, then Daniel broke out in laughter, then Jared and eventually, so did everyone else. Jakob was happy to see a smile on her face, even if it was from a hallucination. He would take a drugged up smile over a crying face any day. Slowly everyone started to calm down, but Keira was still in her own little world, mumbling about flying elephants and dogs playing poker.

"Hey, Jakob?" asked Daniel suddenly. Everyone looked at Daniel. "Do you know who Keira's real parents are?" Everyone looked at Jakob and waited for his answer.

He nodded and looked Donald and Karen in the eye. "You found your lost daughter."

"I knew it!" exclaimed Karen suddenly, after several moments of tensing silence. "I knew from the moment I first saw her. You felt it too, didn't you Donald?" She turned to Donald and everyone found him to be smiling in wonder and happiness at the still giggling Keira, oblivious to everyone's stares.

"I felt it too, my dear," he answered. Daniel was staring at his newly found sister is amazement and anguish. Donald noticed. "Why the angry look Daniel? Are you not happy we have your sister back?'

"Of course I am," conformed Daniel, tearing his gaze from his sister to his father. "But I can't stand the thought of what she had gone through; all that pain and suffering." Slowly, tears fell from Daniel's eyes, staining his cheeks. Donald walked over to his son and wrapped him in his arms, soothing his sadness. Keira seemed to notice what was happening and looked at her brother.

"Why do you cry, my brother?" she asked him. She leaned over towards him and placed her hand on his arm.

"Because of the pain you have been through," he hissed. "How are you still alive because of what that man did to you?"

"Because of Jakob," she smiled and looked to Jakob who still stood in the farthest corner, away from everyone. "He stopped our father before he could seriously harm me and protected me even when I didn't know it." Keira wanted to tell them what Jakob was forced to do, to protect her from their father, but she knew that everyone in the room would either force Jakob to leave or try to kill him. Keira couldn't bear the thought.

"But he still harmed you!" snapped Jared, gripping tighter onto Keira's hand, that he never once let go of.

"He would have killed me years ago, if it wasn't for Jakob," she looked at her brother Jakob and smiled at him. "Our father also knew that if he did any real damage to me, Jakob would've killed him. He knew Jakob was big and strong enough to take him down, so he never did anything to anger him when it came to me, except-"

"Except for the time when he forced me to sleep with you," interrupted Jakob.

All was silent around them, until Karen stood up and slapped Jakob across the face.

"Why would you do that?" she screamed. "She may not be your sister by blood, but she is still your sister!"

"Because I found out you were her real parents and he threatened to kill me, while Kiera watched and then kill her too." He lifted up his T-shirt and displayed three lash marks across his chest. "He warned me not to say a thing when I brought it up to him."

Keira had wondered how her brother had received such marks when he had taken her, but did not want to talk to her brother about any of it afterwards and seemed to have forgotten about them.

"Oh you poor child," gushed Karen and took Jakob into her arms. Keira found it funny that one minute she had slapped him and the next taken him into her arms, so she laughed at the situation. Everyone else chuckled at her. "You can stay with us too, if you wish."

"Thank you, but no thank you." He removed himself from Karen's arms and stepped back, away from her. "I am eighteen now and I need a new start, so I'm going to move away." After that, Jakob didn't say anything and no one else did either, too much in shock to answer. He walked over to his sister and kissed her forehead. "Goodbye," he whispered, before leaving the room.