ELENA

A MONTH LATER

We get an early unexpected visit from Earl. He comes bearing gifts of little clothes with a plane colour. "I still don't know the gender yet, so..." He defends his actions, but I can never be grateful.

We invite him in for breakfast, and as minutes pass I notice his uneasiness at the table. I know it's not because of Justin's presence. They get along too well. He is the only one who certainly knew that we were still in town all along and often snuck here for dinners. Sometimes he brought Luyana and Kris, and I met his family.

"Earl, is everything okay?" I ask after being concerned. Justin's phone suddenly rings and he excuses himself after laying a kiss on my forehead.

"I'll be back." Justin says.

I nod as I take my attention back to Earl. He sighs out loudly and let's go of the fork he has in his hand. I pay careful attention as I also let go of my food and look attentively at him. He takes out a pierce of paper from his jacket and places it on top of the table. He pushes it slowly towards me.

"What is this?" I ask as I take the paper from the table.

I slowly unfold it and the first thing my eyes fall on is on the bolded name of the hospital. My eyes slowly stroll down to the word 'DNA' and I feel like I need some water. I read thoroughly as the document states that I Elena Sam who is known to be Patrick Sam's daughter is not actually a Sam afterall. Instead, I am a sibling to Earl Cross and a daughter to Rebecca and Fatim Cross.

"I'm sorry you had to find out about the truth in this way." Earl states.

I suddenly feel hands on my shoulders, and Justin is back. Tears form in my eyes at the whole fact. I look at the paper and at Earl so many times. I know is has always been kind of clear. But a part of me wished it would all be just a coincidence.

"I'll leave you to digest the news." Earl says as he is about to stand up.

"No, please. I've actually got a sudden meeting to rush to because we're planning a certain event. I'll be quick." Justin begs Earl.

This is the time and moment that I zone out of everything. I feel like a whole dvd of my childhood life is displaying in my mind. How can my entire life suddenly all be a lie? Does dad know about this? I feel like standing up and going up to my mother and confront her about this. Maybe if I find out that dad is also involved I would also confront him. But I know my heart might not be able to bare with it.

"I love you, okay." I hear Justin say like he is standing far off from me. When actually he is standing right next to me and the least I do is nod.

A moment of silence arises. The one I allow to occupy the room for the longest time. Earl has had his head bend for the longest time. Am I maybe making him feel like he is at fault here? I exhale out loudly as I hold in my tears and put on the weakest smile. I try to utter a word but instead a whim escapes my mouth. I hold my hand to my mouth, and let my tears shade down my face.

"Do you wanna know what hurts the most in all of this?" Earl utters. "All my life I was told you were dead. The day that I was told that, I felt like all my life had just perished. I wondered how? When? What happened? What about all the plans I had for me and my little sister." He continues.

"I'm not trying to compete with you on who's hurting most, but everything just seems like it had all been a dream." He chuckles. "You know, I even told the entire neighborhood that I was going to have a little sister. Told my friends that they wouldn't have to bother me anymore, and one of my friend's dad promised to build a little tea table and chairs for my wonderful sister." I sob at hearing this.

I stand up and walk left and right in the house. I feel like exploding of emotions. Hurt, confusion and lost is what fills me. Earl suddenly stands up and comforts me, focusing more on my bump. How can I simply forget that I am pregnant. Stress is not good for the baby.

"Um...I'll get you a glass of water. It's better off if we talk about something else." Earl affirms as he heads to the kitchen.

My mind jams for a moment. It's like a bomb has just been thrown into the room. A light slender lady with ginger hair walks through the door glaring around. Her eyes fall on me and she suddenly smiles as she approaches but I am lost of who she might be. Could it be one of Brigdet's friends? I thought it was clear to everyone that Brigdet no longer lived here.

"Hi." The lady utters brightly.

"Hello..." I say with an interrogative form.

"I am Backie. I am the one who will be catering for your gender reveal party." The lady says and an 'oh' facial expression stings my face as I even scratch the back of my head.

"Sorry, our appointment slipped my mind. Please, let's get on to business." I breath.

Earl cones back with a glass of water and greets the nice young lady. We then get on to the venue and theme of the party. After hours of puzzling we come to a conclusion. Since the babies are twins of different genders, we should leave people stunned and wondering. The males invited to the party should wear baby blue and the females baby pink.

Also, the venue. I want all the decorations to be a mixture of baby pink and baby blue in a cute way. There should be baby decors like cartoons. Surely Cocomelon is invited to the party without any doubt. Then there would be two big balloons. A blue and pink one, that will be popped to reveal the gender of the baby. We already have our designer designing our outfits. So, we discuss everything, Blackie and I. Quite strange, the lady's name is Blackie but she does not look even a little bit black to me.

"Thank you so much, I'll be in touch. Bye." I bid goodbye to Blackie as I escort her to the door. I then head back to Earl who is in the kitchen and I sigh out loud as I take out icecream from the fridge and start scooping in without taking out a bowl.

"Am I also going to have to wait for the gender reveal party? I mean, I am already here. Why not spill the tea?" Earl sets, and I giggle.

To come to think of it. I have always wondered what it's like to have a sibling, quarreling all the time and then miss each other later. I had to put myself in a right position that I would never have a sibling. My dad ensured me that he was never getting involved with any woman again. Now... turns out all this time I have always had a sibling. I chuckle as I bend over to look at Earl with a smile. Maybe it is true that behind every bad thing there's a good thing.

"You're going to have a niece and a nephew." I blabber and Earl gasps.

"Shut up." He says. "You're having... (breaths) twins!" He exclaims.

I nod slowly and he smiles as he approaches me and hugs me. He then loudly clears his throat to make a request. "Can I listen to them?"

Why not? He is their uncle afterall. He bends as he places his left ear on my belly and the only thing he does best is gasp of amazement.

"I can't wait to meet them. I'm sure Justin must be thrilled. Oh, Luyana is going to be so happy to hear about this." Earl affirms.

Unexpectedly, the entrance door barges open and my little laughter ends weirdly as I stare at the door. It walks in a woman with shades and a scarf hiding her face. As she approaches, she gets rid of her shades and scarf and it's her. Mother in the flesh. What is she doing here? Came to confess how guilty she feels for making my life a lie? I chuckle at my thoughts as I fold my arms before my chest and Earl scoffs unbelievably.

"Elena..." She utters, coming close and my face winces like a disgusted person's. "Elena." This time she cries, stretching out her arm to touch my face and I restrict.

"What do you want? Here to play mother of the year?" I feel the urge to say out loud. "How did you even get in?" I continue, because I am sure that security is very strict here.

"Um...I... I sneaked into Earl's car boot. I had to see you and explain everything to you." She states, and I chuckle unbelievably as I fold my arms upon my chest.

"Explain what exactly? How you lived so free like you did not leave your own daughter behind? Or how you let me live a life that's a lie all my entire existing life." I shout. "You are just a nobody to me. You never gave a damn about me, so don't act like you do now when the truth has came out. You can never be a mother to me. You failed to be a mother to me." I yell as I even want to poke her but Earl holds me from doing that.

"Elena, calm down. We both know it's not worth it. You will only regret in the end of harming your pregnancy." Earl asserts, and I exhale out loudly as I feel like smoke has just even escaped my nose.

"I have been there!" She shouts, and I look her with an unbelievable expression on my face. How? Spiritually? "First day at kindergarten, primary level, secondary..." I cut her off.

"Wait, what!" I yell of fury. I also don't know why I just yelled.

"As you strolled down Patrick's car in your white legging tight with black dots. You had a white frozen t-shirt on and a Jean jacket. I watched you as you carried your little lady bug bag pack with your hair ponytailed, and you jumped joyfully as you entered the big school building. You turned at that moment and yelled,  'Bye, daddy'. I was there. You even looked at me." She continues.

What... what is she talking about? How was she there? How does she know all of this? I remember that day very quite well. The same day I came back home upset because I had peed my pants when getting bullied. I spent the entire week being mocked by other kids. No one wanted to sit with me, and that's when I met Prisilla and Isabella. Wait...I remember the woman. She was just like her. Always in shades and scarfs. I saw her almost once every month.

"I remember you. You...you are the woman who always stood by the side of the road. You showed up every month in your lousy scarf and shades with a long jacket." I chuckle on not believing. "I remember one day I told my friends about you, said you were kind of strange but they assumed that you were my fairy godmother. And when I told dad he only thought I was hallucinating." I continue, and she smiles like she is proud of that. I hope she does not hope her peeking would be considered enough to be a present and caring mother.

"Patrick didn't want you talking about it because he knew it was me. He used to allow me to sneak in your bedroom when sleeping and just have a glance of your beauty in sleep." She utters.

"Hold on, hold on." Earl finally speaks. "So, all this time when you flew here before we moved here you were not really going on a women association group meeting. All along you were coming here to snoop on my little sister that you told me was dead." Earl shouts the last part, startling his mother.

"I had to do it." Rebecca comments.

"What do you mean you had to do it.?" I ask.

"I had disappointed Patrick so many times by cheating on him with Fatim. When I was pregnant with Elena, he was sure that it was his child and it hurt me to prove to him that I had actually been unloyal. And when you were born, he knew but he loved you so much like his own just because he loved me. But my heart was not there, it already belonged to Fatim. I left you behind as a fortune of forgiveness." My heart feels like it has just been clinched into a fist at her words.

So I was more like a material than a human being to her. She left me in exchange of forgiveness. She did not care about how I would feel when I find out. All she cared about was my dad forgiving her and being happy. Not offense towards my dad who raised me with all the love he could, but every child deserves to be raised by its own biological parents. So, my dad knew all along. And he never thought of breaking the news to me.

"Get out." I calmy say.

"Sweatheart..." Mother tries to say but I cut her off.

"I said get out!" I yell loud enough even for a passerby to hear. "Get out before I call the guards." I threaten, and she yet makes a movement.

JUSTIN

I stand frozen outside the door as I hear yelling coming from inside. Of course it's Elena's voice, and her voice is crystal clear. Could she be kicking Earl out? What could have happened? I was just gone for 2 hours. But how can I take two hours to be short when life itself can just change within a mere minute. I rush inside to meet Elena... Elena's mother walking out with her head bend.

I find Elena looking like she has just been boiled. Looking at her standing a little far with Earl makes me aware of something I have never dared to look clearly at. These two really do look alike. Their hair colour is not far from each other even a bit. The way they pop out their eyes when shook and their eye colours. I sigh as i approach and I take off my jacket to unbutton my shirt.

"What happened?" I ask.

"Someone just thought their pity story can win me over." Elena says as she heads to the kitchen, and she takes a bottle of water from the fridge. I gaze at the half eaten ice cream on the kitchen counter. "How was your day baby?" Elena continues.

"Um...I'll get going. I'll expect the invitation to the gender reveal party then." Earl makes his way out, but before he exchanges a few words with Elena.

"So, are you ready for after tomorrow. The whole world is going to know." I assert.

"I'm excited, baby. I just got all the answers I've been wondering and it kind of caught me aback." She replies saddened.

I approach her as I open my arms for a hug. She smiles before she walks into my arms and places her head on my shoulder. I caresses her back as I place my chin on her head.

"Forget about that for a while. I've got just a way." I suggest as I let go of her and she looks at me with her eyes full of curiosity.

The day goes by and Elena and I end it perfectly as I find the perfect way to make her feel better. Its still kind of hard for me to believe that all along Elena has been carrying not only one child in her but two. I have got to throw a gratitude party for my sperms or something. Anything to thank them for aiming for such a wonderful goal.