You Again (Completed) ✔️

36.

Mom and Dad sit on the couch as we enter the living room and sit across from them.

Mom starts laughing and then says. "Well, if it isn't my lonely children. Coming back home to me. Too bad you're not wanted here."

Dad touches Mom's hand, and he whispers something to her. He looks at us. "I'm glad you're all here. There's something I need to tell you about your mother."

I looked at Dad and said, "Dad, after you tell us about what's wrong with Mom, I want to know why you're all so angry. I know there are things you haven't told me about while I was gone, and I want everything in the air at once."

Dad nods. "That's fair." He looks at the three of us and says. "Your mother has a brain tumour. She needs to get it removed ASAP, but she's afraid to go to the specialist. I have to take her next week and organise a day to remove it."

"I'll come with you, Dad," Antwon says. "I want to be there every step of the way."

Dad smiles. "Thanks, son. I'll need someone to drive us around. I don't think I'll be able to do it alone."

Tears roll down my face as I take in what Dad said to Mom. "Is that why Mom's been mean to me since I arrived home?"

"Yes, it seems the tumour is pressing on the part of your mother's brain, and it's making her have unusual outbursts."

"At least I know why she's treating me differently. Can you tell me what's going on with you, Daddy?"

Dad looks at me. "A year after you left, we noticed that some money was disappearing from the vaults. Our clients discovered some of their stuff went missing a few months later. I had to find out what was happening, and I hired someone to investigate what was happening, but by the time the investigation finished, all the money my parents left was gone, and the private investigator told me who did it. Kevin, my brother, took everything from me, and I was broke. I lost everything until someone came with money and told me he would help us. That person was..."

"Cole Mason," I say. "He told me that much."

A smile spreads across his face. "I like that boy."

I stand up and move next to my father. "I'm sorry you went through all that, Daddy. I wish you had called me, though. I would have come home."

Dad wraps his arms around me and says. "I couldn't let you miss school to help us. Besides, you need to live your life away from your parents. Your brothers did that for a while, but they wanted to come to come home and save money."

I pull away from him. "Until Uncle Kevin stole from them, too."

Dad looks at Antwon and says. "You should tell her what he did to you, Antwon. You're the one that lost a lot because of that man."

My attention turns to my brother, who looks down at his hands. From the way he's acting, I can tell that whatever he's about to say will hurt the most.

I think he lost a lot when it came to Kevin's actions. But I don't understand why he blames me for it.

Antwon takes a deep breath. "A couple weeks after you left, I met a beautiful woman at a pub. She looked similar to you, with dark hair and eyes, sun-kissed skin, and a beautiful laugh. She was a wonderful woman. We started to see each other regularly, and I fell in love with her. A year into our relationship, Uncle Kevin started to take notice of her."

Oh, no. I hope Uncle Kevin didn't do what he did to those girls in New York to her, too. If he did, it would be my fault that my brother's story was his hell.

"He watched her when she visited me when I was helping out at the vaults. When she left, he told me that she was hot and if he was younger, he'd bang her."

My hands start to shake, and tears fall down my face. "You don't have to continue." I interrupt him.

He shakes his head. "I need to let it out, Julia. It's been nine years since it happened, and I've let it bottle up. It's time that this story is told to you."

Dad moves away from Mom and sits next to me. His attention turns back to Antwon. "Tell us what happened next."

Antwon stands up and starts pacing. "I proposed to her when she was two months pregnant with our child. We were going to move in together and start a family. One day, she didn't return home from work. I looked for her everywhere and couldn't find her. After 48 hrs. of her disappearance, I went to the police and told them she was missing and pregnant with my child. They questioned me most of the night before they sent someone to investigate the case. It turns out Uncle Kevin took her." His eyes land on mine, and he says. "He dressed her up like you. He beat and raped her."

I run out of the room and up to the bathroom. I lean over the toilet and throw up.

It's my fault that he lost everything.

I hear footsteps approaching the bathroom and look at my father. "Daddy, this is all my fault. I knew Uncle Kevin was obsessed with me, but I didn't know he would do something like that to my brother's fiancé."

He grabs a tissue and hands it to me. "There's more to the story, Julia. He's never been able to get this far without breaking something. You being here is going to help him heal."

Shaking my head, I say, "It's not going to heal him. He hates me because the girl he loved looked like me, with dark hair, dark eyes, and sun-kissed skin."

Dad places his hand on my arm. "Come back downstairs and let him finish the story, and then you can tell us all about Kevin and what you've seen."

"I can't do that, Daddy. They're going to blame me for not helping the girls out." I stand up and walk to the basin. I wash my hands and face. Grabbing the mouthwash, I swish it in my mouth before spitting it out.

Dad leads the way to the living room, where Antwon is leaning against the window, looking outside. "You can continue, son."

He nods. "The police found Kyra in a hideaway house that Uncle Kevin owned. She hung herself and left a note for me." Pulling out the note, he reads it. "Dearest Antwon, I couldn't live with what your Uncle did to me. Losing my daughter, being beaten and raped continuously has made it hard for me to continue to live. I don't blame you for the things that happened to me. I need you to know that I love you and always will. - Kyra. Ps. Please look out for your sister. She's in danger." Looking at me, he says. "I'm sorry I didn't check on you when I had the chance, but grief had a hold of me."