Left Unexplained

Chapter 19~

"My parents...were murdered?"

Mom let out a gasp. I fell to the floor next to Hanna and wrapped myself around her.

Mom too stepped out and kneeled down with us.

"Sweetheart, I-"

"Why? Why didn't you tell me?" Hanna stopped mom's advance at comforting her.

"Honey, I-, umm, I couldn't. Please-I'm so sorry. Please don't cry. Please, sweetheart," she choked as fresh tears rolled down her cheeks.

"This is all too much. Dad, he-he ended my uncle and his wife. Hanna's parents-both killed by her uncle. Mom, was it his idea not to tell us?" I released a shaky breath.

She slowly nodded. "I'm sorry Hanna. I swear I was going to do something about it. I was going to, but then he offered money. I needed money for myself and Grace, badly. I couldn't land a decent job and barely had any savings. In return, I had to say silent."

Silence engulfed us, with the exception of occasional sniffles.

"You know what? He and his money can piss off! I want my children," mom broke the silence, a new determination in her still wet eyes. "Hanna, I'm going to do what I should've all those years ago."

She softly kissed her cheek, and with the most love she could muster, she decided. "I will adopt you."

~ooooOOOoooo~

"She said she found a journal in his room. The murder he was planning was all in there," I explained.

I had no idea why I was blurting out the craziness of my dad to Cameron, but I had no choice. Hanna wanted to tell Xavier, and the two boys were so close, I'm sure any passerby would think they were secretly lovers.

But then again, a part of me trusted Cameron, or at least wanted to. He did save me from a molestation. I felt a tiny flicker of safety around him.

"Where's the journal now?" Xavier was so absorbed in our story-telling session that he hadn't touched his food.

"Roasted, toasted and barbecued," Hanna replied before stealing a handful of his fries and stuffing them in her mouth.

"Eh?" he raised a confused eyebrow before shooting a playful glare at Hanna and in turn, stole her juice box.

"He burned it. That book was the only piece of evidence that said he committed the murder. Getting rid of it meant mom wouldn't have any proof to hold against him," I clarified.

"And now, your mom is adopting Hanna? And you two will be like, I don't know, sisters?" Xavier questioned.

We nodded. He smirked and snuck a mischievous glance at Cameron, hoping he was thinking of the same thing. But Cameron's thoughtful face said otherwise.

"So wait, your telling me that when your dad told you to break it off with Hanna because 'she is a useless orphan', all he was trying to do was keep his secret safe?" he interpreted.

I glanced at Hanna, and she too had the same look as me; impressed.

That wasn't what we had said. But it was true.

"God, I never saw it that way," I was about to rewind back a few years of my life to see if there were anymore connections, but the vibrating of my phone in my pocket had other plans.

"Oh, it's mom," I nudged Hanna. Her eyes lit up.

"She's done with the adoption already?!" she was more than excited. This could mean she would finally have her lucky break away from her abusive adoptive parents.