When You Were My Sister

Chapter Fifteen (Tell the truth)

Nola 

They sat watching me while I ate. My stomach churned from finally getting something to eat. Mama and Neima would not be satisfied until I cleaned my plate. When I was done, mama took the plate from me.

"I hope that you both are ready to talk, and I need the whole truth, no trying to protect me." I sat up straight leaning against the head board, folding my arms across my chest.

"You already know I am your biological mother." Neima started.

"Yes, even though you did not tell me. Avery connected the dots for me." I said.

"I had a valid reason to give you up." Neima continued.

"Yeah, I know you were young and ambitious, you did not want me to get in the way of your dreams. Well Neima I am sorry for inconveniencing you." I said frankly.

She chose to ignore my snide comment and continued her story. "I was young, only sixteen when I found out I was pregnant, but I gave birth when I was seventeen, Nola." She gripped my hand between hers. "I was raped when I was sixteen."

I released a gasp from the shock of her words. "What?"

"I was raped and the person that did it was someone my family trusted."

"Gosh, why do I have the feeling it's going to be bad?" I covered my face, like I could hide from the truth.

"It is bad Nola. I was raped by my brother."

My hands dropped from my face and I snapped my head around to look at her. "You had a brother?" The picture of the two children in my red box of secrets came to mind. The boy was older than Neima, I remembered his eyes. I suspected he was my father, but I never expected him to be Neima's brother. There weren't any more pictures of him, it was like all evidence of his existence was wiped from the house, except for that one picture. I was at a loss for words with the dawning of this new information.

"Yes, he was my half-brother, daddy's son from a previous relationship." Neima said.

I couldn't imagine what she must have went through, having her brother rape her then getting pregnant by him and having to give birth to me. No wonder she left me behind. But then, Jackson is my brother and I was in love with him, we were going to have a baby. This whole situation was diabolical and it made me sick. I was going to need a lot of therapy. Why was this happening to me? What was Mama and daddy's role in all of this?

I looked to Mama. "What is his name?"

"Corby." Saying the name felt like it was ripped from her soul.

"Where is he?"

"Prison, in England." Neima said.

"Actually." Mama interjected. "He died in prison a few years ago."

Neima looked surprised.

I was confused. "Why was he in prison in England, didn't he get prosecuted for what he did to Neima here."

"No, Mama and daddy decided to send him away back to England after they found out about Angie. When I told them about what happened to me, they did not believe me." Neima said.

"Why?"

Mama released a depressed sigh. "He was our son, I found it hard to believe that he would do something like that to his sister."

I loved Mama but I found it hard to see the logics behind her words. "But Neima was your daughter, he wasn't your son. If you knew about Angie before Neima, why didn't you believe her?"