the photographer. [zdh]

twenty-two

what?

did i hear her right?

leah was a seavey?

"what?" i whispered, looking at her. tears rolled down her cheek as zach wrapped an arm around her shoulder and tyler stared at leah, open-mouthed.

"you-you're m-my sis-ter?" i managed to say. she nodded as she buried her face in her hands.

"i didn't believe it at first," leah said, composing herself. "i didn't want to believe it was true."

"why?" croaked tyler. "you found us, but you don't want to believe it's us?"

leah shook her head vehemently. "you don't know what this means?" seeing daniel and tyler's blank faces, she sighed. "this means that your parents abandoned me at birth, guys! i'm an orphan because of them!"

zach took her hands. "look at me, lels. this isn't tyler and daniel's faults. you have every right to be angry, but not at them, and not until we hear from keri and jeff, alright?"

leah was silent for a long moment, looking down at the floor. i spoke.

"leah, i'm sorry for whatever you've gone through, but tyler and i didn't know. we didn't know that we-" his voice cracked. "we didn't know that we had another sister, other than anna." tyler nodded in agreement.

"leah, you and daniel have the same blue eyes, we have the the same shade of hair...oh and, i'm quite sure you and anna have the same laugh, too," said tyler softly. "and i'm sorry we didn't recognise you earlier."

leah shook her head as zach hugged her. "i'm sorry for saying that just now, but can we call your parents now?"

zach sighed as she said that. "they're your parents too."

"not until they give me a good reason why i am an orphan, and they haven't looked for me the past seventeen years," she snapped. zach opened his mouth to say something, but at a warning look from tyler, shut his mouth again.

"i'll call them," i muttered as i fished my phone out of my hoodie pocket. pressing the call button next to 'mom', i put the call on speaker. almost at once, mom picked up.

**

"daniel!" keri exclaimed happily. "it's been a while since you called, and-"

"mom, i'm sorry, but can we catch up later? it's kind of urgent." daniel said quickly.

"of course, daniel. what-"

"mom, you had a daughter and didn't tell us?"

there was a gasp on the other end of the line. "i-what? daniel-"

"mom, answer the question," tyler cut in.

"tyler? how do you-"

"mom," daniel hissed. "now."

daniel had never used that tone to communicate with keri before, and when keri heard that, she answered at once.

"yes," keri whispered. "but she died in a car crash in dallas, year 2002."

"what?" exclaimed tyler, baffled.

"your father and i were in dallas for a short trip to visit your grandma, and we were involved in a hit-and-run where another car crashed into the back of ours. the girl -- we named her alexis -- she was sitting at the back, and both dad and i were knocked out cold. when we next woke up, we were in the hospital, and alexis was gone. the person who called the ambulance to bring us to the hospital didn't see any girl, and that car crash was the last we'd heard of alexis. there was no corpse, or any signs that she was dead, but the police told us she probably was, and we believed him. we did file a missing persons report, but no one ever got back to us."

there was silence for a moment before daniel spoke. "mom, if she was still alive, she'd be the same age as anna, wouldn't she?"

we could hear keri crying on the other end of the phone. "she's anna's twin," she whispered. "but anna wasn't in dallas with us that day as she was hospitalised in portland for HFMD. we didn't want to leave her, but your other grandma assured us she'd be okay, and we should go visit anyway. you boys weren't in dallas because you had school, and we visited dallas during the school term."

hearing this, leah's mouth dropped open. i could probably guess what thoughts were running through her head. something along the lines of 'anna's my twin?' and 'what the heck is this?', i was sure.

a minute later, with keri's sniffling still being heard clearly over the phone, leah whispered something in tyler's ear. "mom, i have something to tell you," said tyler.

"w-what is it?"

"your daughter -- she's alive, and she's sitting next to daniel and i right now."