A Sky Full of Stars

CHAPTER 25

I couldn't believe it. I look through more photos and see one with Susie in the hospital, just before giving birth. Her face was scratched off with a marker pen in all of them.

I found a pic with a six-month-old baby sleeping. The baby as I recognized was Noah Dixon.

I sit down because if I didn't, I would fall down. I took a deep breath, and everything started making sense, like I found the missing pieces of a jigsaw puzzle and put it all together.

The weird expression on my dad's face the first time I said Noah's name. His obsession with keeping me away from Noah. That day when my mom was crying, my dad would have told her about his other child, and then she suddenly changed her opinion on Noah. And my mom would have told Leo. My dad was cheating on Susie with my mom.

He was crying the other day as he would have seen Noah in the hospital and that's what Noah wanted to tell me before he slept off. It all fit perfectly. But just one thing didn't make sense. Why did my parents keep this from me?

"Took you long enough," a voice says from behind. I turn to see my dad standing right outside the door.

"Dad," I say, not sure what to say next.

"I forgot my lunch so I came to get here, you left the main door wide open."

I don't say anything back. Now when I looked at my dad all I could see was how much he resembled Noah.

"Ambs, I know you have a lot of questions, but before you say all that or get pissed, I just want to say sorry. Your mother and I were gonna tell you the other day but you left. It's a lot to take in all at once, I know."

I didn't reply again so he just continued.

"I wasn't sure if Noah told you or not, but-"

"Wait, Noah knows?" I say perplexed.

"Yeah. That day when you went to his friend's grave and he saw me, he recognised me. I could see it in his eyes. After that I thought he would stay away from you himself but he didn't." I couldn't believe it. I was already pissed that Leo kept this from me, but Noah?

"Why didn't you tell me before?" I ask.

"This was one of my biggest regrets, and I kept this away from everyone, your mom included. It was wrong of me not to tell her but I never thought I would meet him. And I definitely didn't think that my daughter would fall in love with him. It would have been really weird if I told you. I mean you know; you're technically dating your step-brother."

When he put it like that it did sound weird.

"What a small world," he says after a minute of silence.

"Why would you leave Susie to raise a kid alone! That's just cruel."
"I didn't leave her, I just fell in love with another woman."

I sigh with disgust. How could he do that to Susan and Noah.

"Just leave," I say avoiding his deep green eye piercing stare which was something Noah did too.

I was surprised when he actually left without saying anything else. I put everything back and hustle back to the hospital, anger filling my chest.

Noah was already up, by the time I reached.

I barge in.

"Woah, what's wrong?" he asks.

"Why didn't you tell me?" I say softly, trying to subside my anger.

"Tell what?"

"That we were related," I say slowly.

He doesn't take a second to be scared that I found out, but instead he just shrugs and says,

"I didn't think it was necessary."

"What?"

He looks at me with a genuine look and says,

"How is that the one time I fell in love, from a world full of billions of people, from an ocean full of fish, from a sky full of stars, how is that I am related to that person? How is that we found each other? You are my girl, my fish, my star. We were meant to be."