Chapter 49: One Week Later

CHAPTER 49

AMARA

ONE WEEK LATER

It hasn’t hit me yet. I don’t know if it ever will.

She was my sister. Lilith was my sister, and she tried to kill me. She would’ve done it if Fionn hadn’t come at just the right time.

Reliving her death every day makes me ill inside. She was broken. Hurting. But what she did wasn’t right.

And Julius… I don’t even know what to think about that. About what his father did to me.

When I told Emily and Patricia about it yesterday, they cried, unable to believe it too. How could our friend have been such a psychopath? I don’t know what other way there is to describe her.

“Are you ready to go inside?” Fionn asks as my leg bounces, parked in front of their house.

Roxanne and John. My parents. My real parents.

I want to meet them. They definitely want to meet me.

Fionn spoke to them when I couldn’t. And after he rescued me, he sent his men to check on them, knowing what Lilith was capable of, only to discover them tied up in her bedroom. He told them who he was. Told them their daughter was dead. One, anyway.

The other? She was a little dead inside too.

I didn’t speak to anyone for two days. Everything was locked up tight. But slowly, things unraveled, and I let myself feel it. Feel this immense agony in the center of my chest.

My life was stolen from me. So many other lives destroyed. I could’ve had a sister. A real family. But that was taken away. And for what?

It didn’t take me long to realize that the dream I’ve had of myself as a little girl wasn’t about being abandoned by a father who was never mine, but about what he did to me.

What they did.

Lloyd and Desdemona were arrested a few days ago. Fionn made sure of it. They’re waiting for trial, and I cannot wait to testify against them.

“I’m ready as I’ll ever be,” I tell him.

My heart races, but I have to do this. I have to meet them. It’s what I’ve been waiting for without even knowing they existed.

When I step out of the car as soon as he opens my door, he clasps his hand in mine, kissing my knuckles.

“It’s over, baby. It’s gonna be okay from now on.”

I nod, a knot in my throat.

But nothing is okay. None of this is right.

Dragging in a shallow breath, I get ready to meet my parents. The two people who never forgot me.

He leads me up the three steps before we’re in front of a plain white door. Nervously, I knock on it, my stomach gnawing.

Footsteps rush over before the door is quickly pulled open.

And then I see them. Mom with her hazel eyes just like mine. Dad with brown ones, both of their hair a similar brown shade.

“Thalia?” Mom cries.

I almost forgot that’s the name they gave me. The name of the hotel I worked for, not knowing it was named after me.

I rush into their arms, all of us sobbing. And being held by the people who gave me life, it completely shatters me. I felt so alone in this world, abandoned and unloved, but none of that was true.

They really loved me.

“Oh, baby, I’m so sorry,” Dad cries. “I should’ve been watching you. I should’ve been there.”

“It’s okay, Dad. It’s okay.” I wrap my arm around him tighter. “I’m home now.”

We stay together, desperate for every moment, feeling the weight of our reunion and separation all at once.

And though this story has a bitter end, there’s still some love left to go around.

Days later, and we’ve returned to my parents, Fia playing with their Cavalier King Charles named Rami.

When my parents invited us over for lunch, we immediately agreed. I wanted them to meet their granddaughter. I want her to meet them too.

Fionn clutches the results of Fia’s paternity test in his hand, finally wanting to find out. I think he was just afraid to know the truth because the reality that she isn’t his would crush him. I figured we can do this with my parents to give them something after all they have missed.

“May I have another cookie?” Fia asks, and her toothy grin has Mom in a pile of goo.

“Oh, honey, you can have ten. Cute little thing like yourself.” Her eyes glisten with unshed tears. “You remind me of your mother. Same smile and all. Right, John?”

He nods, choking on his own emotions. “Right, sweetheart.”

It’s been hard on my parents, reliving what happened to me when I was two. Apparently Lloyd was hooking up with Desdemona, who wanted to have a kid with him, probably to trap him. But he didn’t want that. When she wouldn’t stop pestering him about it, he decided to take matters into his own hands.

The day Lilith was born, he found me lost in the hospital, so he took me, ruining my entire life in the process. He told Fionn from jail that he regrets what he did because he never loved my mother; he just liked sleeping with her. He stayed with her for another six months after he took me, and then he left, growing sick of bouncing between two homes.

The very idea makes my stomach turn. I’ll never forgive either one of them.

“I can’t believe she’s gone,” Mom whispers, swiping under her lower lashes. “No matter what she thought, we loved her with all our hearts. We told her time and time again, but she wouldn’t see past her own jealousy for still keeping your memory alive.”

I lean over and clasp her hand from across the sofas. “I believe you, Mom. She was just sick. None of us saw it. I was her friend for years, and I never saw it either.”

She sighs, glancing at Fia, her mouth thinning as she tries not to cry.

“So…” She clears her throat and looks over at Fionn. “Are you gonna tell us the results, honey, or are you gonna keep us in suspense the whole day?”

He laughs. “Alright. Fine. Fine.”

His fingers clench and unclench before he’s ripping the flap open and staring at the paper inside. Seconds drift, and my heart turns into a mess of erratic beats.

“What does it say, babe?”

He gazes up at me, his face unreadable at first.

“She’s mine.” His eyes glisten. “Fia’s mine.”

“Oh my God!” I jump out of my seat and into his arms, my face buried in his chest as he holds me.

“I knew it,” I cry. “I knew she was yours from the moment I had her.”

“She’s always been mine, mo ban dia.” He cups my face between his loving hands, his gaze shining with so much love, I drown in it. “No test would ever change that.”

When Fia runs over, he brings her onto his knee, his other arm coming around her.

And I remain there, in the arms of my family—my entire family—knowing how lucky I am to have them.