Pretend

Chapter Nine

"Room service?" Beau is wearing black sweater, dark jeans and my favourite cologne. He is still the same Beau I left three days ago. My tears came and I went right into his arms.

Beau sighed in content, "I missed you, beautiful,"

"I'm so sorry,"

He wiped my tears away and kissed me, "You'd got nothing to be sorry about." He closed the door behind him and passed me the iced coffee, "We need to talk, Brooklyn,"

The both of us sat by the edge of the bed, Beau brushed his fingers to my cheeks and said, "No more tears. God, you have no idea how much I missed you,"

"Beau, I didn't lie to you about my identity," I looked away from him. Beau placed his finger under my chin and said, "I know. Joseph came to me when I was not myself. He showed me what he read on the internet about you. Everyone went crazy after I posted all those photos. They went online to look for 'Brooklyn Jaynes'. I'm sorry that I got you into this but I was desperate,"

"It doesn't matter anymore, Beau. I'm ready to tell you,"

Beau nodded. He watched me go over to my bag and took my stash out. I placed it on my lap and took out a photo of my family, "My family owns a ranch in Idaho. I am so proud and happy of being an Idaho girl. You have no idea how much I love waking up by the mountains and go for a run out there. My brother, Zachary always teased me, that one day; I will get eaten up by the hyenas out there. When it snows, it becomes winter wonderland. It's the most beautiful sight."

"Is this Zachary?" Beau pointed at Zachary. He had the same eyes, same hair and same smile as me. People often thought we were twins. I nodded and smiled, "The last Halloween I had with Zach, we dressed up as Quicksilver and Scarlett Witch. Zach was thirty and I was twenty-five. We were still really playful. We tricked the kids that we are twins and we are going to get them,"

"Awesome brother," Beau smiled lovingly at me. I nodded, "My mother and father, they are the best parents I could ever ask for. It was snowing that night." Beau held my hand.

I was playing with his thumb, "I was driving us to the nearest restaurant for Zach's engagement with Keely. Keely was the best sister-in-law. I loved her as much as I loved Zach. She was sitting in the passenger seat and we were singing. Zach hated it when we sing and we were trying to provoke him. Dad and mum were laughing at the back."

"It was dark, total pitch black on the road at night and it was snowing so heavily. The only light I had was my headlights. That night, only one headlight was working on my SUV. Zach told me to take his car; he told me it's dangerous. I refused because I was stubborn as hell."

"Don't blame yourself, Brooklyn,"

I leaned against Beau, seeking the comfort I needed, "The next thing I knew was another truck was coming at fast speed. I could have swerve and got out of its way. The driver was drunk as hell. He thought that nobody is going to be driving on that road. I thought the same. It came from Keely's direction. The truck torn half of my SUV apart, Keely was still breathing when the paramedics came."

My hands trembled as I go down the memory lane, "My family was gone the moment the truck hit them. Keely lost a lot of blood, she had brain damage and she went into comatose. She passed away two days later. The driver was charged and put behind the bars. Four people died in that freak accident. All I got was this fucking pathetic scar," I lifted my hand up and shook my head, tears were running down.

Beau kissed my tears away and said, "Do not go there, Brooklyn,"

"My tattoo," I took a deep breath, "is a poem from my parents' favourite author Maya Angelou. The title is Still I Rise. Without my family, I won't become who I am. Everything I learn, I learned from them. When they were gone, it took me away too."