Shattering Truth

Chapter 7

She decided to cancel her next appointment with Dr. Edwards. She told him she needs some time for herself, to rest and to think, and that she will be seeing him next week. To her surprise he was understanding enough of her needs, and accepted her excuse with no questions.

Over the weekend she met up with her friends and told them she remembers everything now. She kept apologizing to them for putting them in such a situation even though they kept saying there's no need to apologize. It's okay to be messed up after something like this. It's okay to crack and let them stitch you up, and it's okay if you crack again under those stitches.

She still felt ashamed and guilty, especially in front of Jacob's mom, from whom a chance to grieve was taken because of her crazy daughter-in-law. In many ways Jacob's mom was the only family she was left it, and it could also go the other way around. Her adoptive family and her brother were on the other side of the country, and Jacob's dad was diagnosed with early stage of Alzheimer's few months ago, so he's slowly fading away, while Damon, Jacob's older brother, moved to Europe for his fiance.

Elena was blessed with three mothers, her own, who gave birth to her, one who adopted her and raised her, and one who took her in when she was left with nothing. Elena still talks to her parents even though she's not as close to them as Jeremy is. Her mom calls her once a week, and she remembers to call home once or twice a month herself. They were at her wedding and her dad gave her away, and she took Jake home to meet them even before they got engaged. She loves them, she respects them, but mostly, she's thankful to them. She knows they're the reason she got to stay with her brother, that they're the reason she got to keep her only family. They gave her everything and even though they're not her biological parents they never acted as she's not theirs. She started calling them mom and dad with a heavy heart, but for her brothers sake. She knew her real parents never meant to leave her. They never abandoned her, they got into an accident, and accidents happen. Jeremy doesn't remember them, he wasn't even able to talk when they died, but Elena does. She called them mommy and daddy and held their hands and her mother read her bedtime stories and her father fed her with ice cream. When she was little she used to cry herself to sleep at night, begging them to forgive her for betraying them and calling strangers by how she should be calling them. But as she grew up, she accepted life as it came.

She didn't tell anyone she had seen Jacob even after she remembered the truth, not even Dr. Edwards when she went to see him next week.

She gulps a cold glass of water and takes a pill to calm her nerves before sitting in the middle of a couch, closing her eyes and exhaling his name. "Jake," she says, warmly and silently, a picture of him popping into her mind as his name escapes her lips.

"I'm here," he says instantly, making her open her eyes.

He's leaning against a wall, in the same position she had seen him the last time before she asked him to go away. It's like he has been there all this time, she just wasn't able to see him.

Maybe he was. Where else would he go? This is his home.

"I'm ready to talk," she looks into his eyes.

There's a barrier in them. Something that's not allowing him to look at her the way he had used to. Like she's the most precious thing in the world. It stings all over her body. Her skin, her insides, but mostly her heart, which is beating wildly.

He nods understandingly, indicating for her to continue.

She parts her lips to speak which is when she realizes she has nothing to say. She laughs internally, because there are so many things she could ask him. He probably has all of the answers to the universe, he could probably tell her whatever she wants to know.