Blake Heritage (English)

Chapter 5

When he got home, dinner was already ready and didn't even have time to take a shower. He quickly sat down at the table. The atmosphere was calm as usual and everyone seemed to be preoccupied by their own usual habit. Both Elena and Eden were on their tablets: Elena continued to purchase new and unnecessary things whilst Eden read the newspaper on his. Blake watched the news on Instagram. He didn't have any followers, but he followed many traveler accounts. Blake loved Instagram. He saw this extraordinary world under all its forms thanks to its millions of users who shared their adventures in photos. He was able to witness this extraordinary world by living vicariously through the images millions of users shared. Blake vowed to travel when he finally got the chance to leave this place.

After a few minutes, his mother stopped her online shopping and spoke to Blake about his upcoming 18th birthday, that was now less than a month away, on the 24th November. She asked him what he wanted. Of course, all the Williams around the table knew that Blake didn't have any friends and that his birthday would play out exactly the way it had each year before. Blake would be showered with gifts surrounded by only his mother and father. He didn't even bother to answer the question she had just posed. He gave her a rather dark look and so Elena did not insist.

Blake was drawn to the pictures of his young parents standing at a buffet whilst he ate his dinner. There had always just been two of them, with no presence of other relatives of family members. It might have been stupid, but he had never really cared before. But then he began to pose a few questions that would begin to bother them. They had known a thrilling life in New York and he never could quit understand why they were so sheepish when he prompted them to talk about it. He especially didn't understand why they had ever left in the first place. His mother had explained to him that they wanted to protect Blake from the stress of big cities and pollution, but Blake had never believed a word of it and thought it a silly excuse. He could have experienced many adventurous twists and turns in that magnificent city, but they had locked him in this isolated domain. So, he decided to test them yet again, because their explanations were never quite the same. Maybe after sixteen years he was finally going to learn the truth.

— Don't you miss New York City? Blake said in the middle of the quiet meal.

— Uh...

Elena was speechless for a moment, she didn't expect Blake to ask her that.

— You get used to it.

— What do you mean?

— Well! Yes, you get used to it. Sometimes you have to accept your choices. You'll see later.

His father violently put the newspaper on the table to silence Elena. Blake knew his parents were hiding something and that was why they had come to live here, but he had never understood what this mysterious secret was.

— Aren't you planning to invite family or friends for my birthday? It's my 18th birthday after all, doesn't that mean anything to you?

— You know our parents are dead, and for the rest of our relatives, well we lost contact with them when we arrived in New York. We are now estranged, if you will. I don't think our friends would come to the party of a teenager they hardly know especially since we have cut ties with them for years now.

— This is precisely the right way to meet them again! Well what a brilliant opportunity to reconnect with them again! I'm sure you miss them! Don't tell me otherwise.

Blake was trying to make Elena lose her temper so that she confesses something.

— No.

— Where else have you lived, before New York?

— A small village, I don't even know its name anymore.

— Incredible, replied Blake exasperated.

Blake was aware that this answer was also lie. Nobody could forget where they grew up and where their whole family lived. Elena knew Blake would investigate and unravel the truth if she lied about the name of a village, so it was best to feign memory loss. Every city has archives and it was easy to find someone these days. These absurd lies forced Blake to lose his patience, this had become almost insulting

— What exactly are you hiding from me? What is so bad that you can't tell me and are forced to exclude me from this family?

— You're not.

— That's enough now! Eden ordered.

— No! I want you to tell me the truth, I can't live with all these lies anymore. This isn't normal.

— Listen! This isn't the right time and it's none of your business. Go to your room! I don't want to hear anymore from you. Eden barked again.

— It's never the "right time" with you! You've wasted my life, you have me locked up like a common beast, as if I have no right to happiness. You realize I can never relive the childhood you stole from me. If I knew why, I could have at least understood and accepted the reason and I would have forgiven you! But here, I can't continue to be a part of your peaceful little existence whilst I'm confined here.

— Blake, calm down... With tears in her eyes, Elena felt guilty of all they had put him through.

— No and I promise you one thing, once I will have graduated from school, I'm leaving Alvia and I'm not coming back. I don't care about whether you give me money or not I will leave.

— I sincerely hope you do Blake.

— Do you hope so? But then what is so terrible that you can't even tell me! Am I ill? Will I die? I don't understand, tell me! You sound like I can never live normally.

— That's enough now! his father concluded.

A rage invaded Blake, he felt alone and once again betrayed by his own family. He hadn't felt such anger for a long time. He already knew all this, but he still hoped his parents would finally tell him the truth. He definitely had neither family nor friends. He could see that his mother felt guilty about hiding her secrets, but she held on and still failed to express anything at all. It would be impossible to get any explanation whatsoever from her, she was completely blocked. Blake couldn't stay in this house anymore and decided to go out without a care for the destination. He was so disappointed by the way the conversation had gone. But one thing was for sure, Blake was now certain that these secrets concealed by the Williams were to do with him