AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I replied with typed words.I can’t talk right now. Overwhelmed. Please give me a day or two.
The three little dots appeared, disappeared, and reappeared.Fine. Tomorrow we talk.
But I didn’t answer his call the next day, or the day after that. Never in my whole life had I felt so crushed by what happened. I was devastated by how hurt Landon was, and how I was responsible for giving him that pain. I had texted him to no response. My stomach was in such knots, my heart was wracked with a high pulse I couldn’t control, and shallow breaths blew out of me with pain and intensity. Trying to focus was exhausting, so I called in sick, which freaked Sylvia out, and she threatened to show up on my doorstep and nurse me back to health. But it wasn’t an illness I was battling; god damn it, it was heartache.
I had visited my favourite spot on the radio tower and had climbed to the top of Thomas Point, but neither had settled my nerves. Nothing worked. I needed to get out of my head. Remembering what Adam had said about escaping into a whole new world, I took him up on the challenge and asked Erin to meet me at his store.
I ran my fingers along the edges of the spines. The desire to escape into a good book had consumed me, however, the longer I searched the titles, the more disenchanted I became. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to read. Romance was out of the question, since it was quite rare if anyone ever found their true happy ever after in real life, and I wasn’t sure if I wanted to escape to another world, even if in reality, I deserved to be on another planet.
“Sorry, I’m late.” Erin stomped her feet on the entrance mat of the bookstore and dropped her umbrella into the bin at the door. “The rain is torrential, and I had to change Vera twice since she splashed in the puddles before I could get her into the car.”
“The kids must love this weather.”
“Vera certainly does. However, as the one tasked with her laundry, I prefer overcast skies to rain, especially since sunny days seem to be a premium nowadays.” She waved at Adam. “Did my order come in yet?”
“You’ll be the first to know.”
Erin walked over to me. “What’s up, Buttercup? You sounded, I don’t know, weird on the phone.”
Even though we were all alone in the bookshop, aside from Adam, I still scanned. Not everyone needed to be privy to my idiocy. “Well, I did it. I exploded like a volcano and spewed out the truth about everything.”
“What did you do?” Her hand flew to her hip, and she gave me a sideways glare.
“I told my half-sister about her estranged father, who I may add, is also my estranged father.”
She gently pushed me on the shoulder. “Wait, you have a half-sister? How long have I known you but not known this?”
“I only found out a couple of weeks ago.”
“And your father is dying? I didn’t know that either. Jesus, I’m so sorry. What else are you hiding in there?” She tapped my chest.
There must be a school for moms where they teach the most intimidating way to give a warning look. Erin would’ve gotten an A+ for the tightened expression on her face.
I turned away and resumed my fruitless scanning of book spines. “Everything, and believe me, it should’ve stayed that way. Opening up the past only allows hurt and pain in.”
“I feel lost.”
“Me too.” I stretched an arm up to the top of the shelf and leaned into it.
“Backtrack please – I’m not fully understanding what you’re saying.”
I sighed, wondering where on earth to begin. “A couple of weeks ago I found out my father was really sick and without a new kidney, had months to live, if he’s lucky. The one I’d donated to him was no longer doing its job. Then my half-brother informed me how my father mumbled wanting to see his oldest daughter. Turns out that daughter, my half-sister, lives here, but I needed a way to connect with her. You can’t just blurt that information out, especially when she hasn’t talked to her father—our father—in something like ten or fifteen years.”
“Right. That makes sense.” She blinked and her head bobbed as her focus jumped all over.
“So, I found an in.” I lowered my voice to a whisper and deepened my tone. “I became friends, fuck buddies, whatever you want to call it with her partner’s best friend’s older brother.” Making sure the connections were all correct, I tapped my chin as I mentally repeated the words.
“Good grief.”
I threw my hands out to the side. “I know. Everyone is related to everyone else here, and yet, I’m considered the strange one for having so many half-siblings because everyoneisrelated to everyone else where I come from.”
Erin gave me a wide-eyed blink. “I really want to circle back to that, but for now, carry on.”
I pinched the bridge of my nose to fend off a violently crushing start to a headache and braced myself against a dark wood bookcase. “Anyway, the market guy and I, well I think because he’s older–”
“He’s the clingy one you mentioned, right?”
“Yes. Well, he introduced me to this half-sister of mine, and it turns out we have a lot in common. Same hair and eye colour, same hands. She has twin children, and I have twin half-brothers.”
