On That Winter's Night.

9-The Talk.

"What were you two doing up in the attic?" Mum demanded, once the two girls were up and out of bed. Lily had no plans to say anything for now. She just held out the notes her and Katherine had found the previous night. Seeing them, Mum and Dad's faces softened, but their eyes were sad. "We're sorry for how we've been acting." Dad said eventually in a broken voice. "It really is time we trusted you both with the whole story."

Flashback/Explanation.

We loved you both very much. When Lily was born we were so happy. And then when your sister was born, everything should have been perfect. However, Lily was diagnosed with mild autism and some mental health problems from an early age. We both struggled to come to terms with it, struggled to cope. We wanted to raise her right, really.  We wanted to raise both of you right. 

Time went by, and you both grew, but life got scary one night when we came home to find someone had broken in and your babysitter was dead on the floor. The criminal was a man and thank the lord above we came home on time, because you both would have been taken! We both pleaded with him not to harm you, when he pulled out his knife and he almost did, but then he seemed to change his mind. He then promised to never set foot in our house again if we didn't expose him to the authorities and being the desperate fools that we both were back then, we didn't. Even after the criminal left, we both knew it wasn't over. We had to protect both of you. So we thought keeping you two separated was the best option, but we can understand now that wasn't and preventing you two from finding each other, as well as trying to prevent you both from living your lives in your own ways all these years has been wrong too. Lily's not going anywhere. You two girls belong together.  We won't make the same mistakes again.

Present Day.

After their parents had finished their story, the two sisters couldn't help it. They threw their arms around each other and held tight. They heard their mother let out a happy, choked sob, but neither of them registered that. In that one moment, they held each other, both of them unwilling to let go.