Only You

Bonus Chapter 1: A Beautiful Lie

(This chapter develops before the winter dance)

ALLIE'S POV

I feel so tired right now, I just want to go to sleep. Just because school is almost over my teachers think they can leave us tons of assignments for the next day, it's crazy. Good thing I'm almost done.

I print my work and look through my checklist to confirm I have done everything right. Ugh, I'm missing a manila folder. I look through my stuff but I have no luck. Where am I going to get a folder this late at night? I feel relieved when I remember my dad always has a bunch of them in his office.

Everyone's asleep already, so I try my best to walk at the slowest and silently pace so I don't make any noise. My foot slips when I'm halfway the stairs and I quickly grab the handrail, making a huge noise. "Shit." I say to myself and hold my breath. I look upstairs and everything seems the same, so I'm pretty sure everyone is still sleeping.

I open the door and get into the office, leaving it halfway closed and then I turn the lights on. There's a lot of stuff in here, I don't want to make a huge mess from looking through his things trying to find a folder.

I open some drawers but I don't find anything, damn it. I look around to see if there's one on top of his binders and tables but nope, it's as if they were all gone. I'll text Stella in the morning, maybe she'll have one I can borrow, but what if she doesn't? The teacher won't accept my work because it's incomplete.

That's right. I haven't checked one of his bottom drawers, of course. "They must be there." I say when I look down to the bottom right of his desk. It's the biggest one of all, I don't know why I didn't think of it earlier. I pull it but it's locked. Hum. I didn't know he locked his drawer, that's weird. I pull harder just in case it's stuck but I still can't open it.

If I was my dad, where would I hide the key? I walk around his office for a moment and then my eyes land on his lamp. He never lights it up, that must be for a reason. I walk closer to it and I notice it doesn't have a lightbulb. Eureka.

I find the key resting in there and I immediately take it out, rushing to his drawer to open it and finally go to sleep. "Yes." I say when I'm able to open it. I see tons of papers in there but not his bunch of manila folders, where the hell are they? I see his has several folders but he's using them, although I don't think he'll mind if I take one, they still have a huge clip on them, so they won't get all mixed up.

I grab one of the folders and take all the papers out. I'm so happy. I'll finally get some rest.

I see the cover of the files and it has a picture of Becca from when she was a baby. Aw, she's so cute. I've never seen this picture. I sit down on the floor and decide to look through these pages, maybe I'll find more adorable pictures.

I frown when I see a Certificate of Adoption. What is this? I keep reading it and oh my God. My heart starts beating faster by the minute. Is this real? I can't believe it. Why didn't my parents tell us before?

My heart gets out of my chest when my dad appears next to me. I jump because of the surprise and l look at him, "You scared me." I say, still holding the papers in my hand.

"What are you doing?" He asks and looks at his opened drawers. I think I'm getting in trouble.

"I was trying to find a manila folder." I say and shake it in the air. I look down to the certificate and then back to my dad, "Is this real?" I ask when he doesn't say a word.

He stays in silence for a second, "I was going to tell you eventually." He admits.

"Does Becca know?" I ask. Maybe they were just hiding this from me, I don't know why but perhaps everyone knows except me.