Adria's Choice

Chapter 2

I gaped at her. "Your sister? No way! I met all your sisters already, Karyl. We've been friends for ten years and not once have you mentioned that you have a sister named Lexie." I looked at the photo and at Karyl, trying to find even the smallest resemblance. Nada.

"She's my younger half-sister," Karyl explained quietly.

It took me a second to process that sentence. Karyl was the eldest and had three younger siblings, which meant...

"Oh shit."

Karyl nodded. "That's the only acceptable response, really."

I hugged her quickly. "I'm sorry! I didn't mean it that way. I'm not judging. But how come you never told me about her before?" My feelings, to say the least, were rioting. And how does this change our relationship? I wanted to ask, but I didn't want to be selfish.

Karyl fidgeted on her chair. "Remember I had a family dinner last night?" I nodded and she proceeded with her riveting story. "Well, actually, we just met her last night. Mama knew about Lexie all along, but they only told us after Rico saw Papa with her yesterday morning. They were having breakfast near Rico's school, and he thought Papa was having an affair. It was quite an eventful afternoon when we all got home." She shrugged. "After that, all of us siblings demanded to meet Lexie last night. Dad called her, in front of us, no less, and she agreed to meet us for dinner."

I recalled Lexie's very text that blew Tom's cheating out in the open. Just got home from my family dinner. It was great! I stayed silent as I absorbed that my very own best friend, who was like the sister I never had, was the actual blood-relative of that scheming bitch. My life was starting to feel like one of those never-ending drama telenovelas on Philippine television that my dad secretly loved to watch.

"She was nice," Karyl finished lamely. Then she saw the look on my face and rushed to say, "But what she did was still wrong. She shouldn't have gone out with Tom."

Good Lord. Her baby sister and her best friend's ex-boyfriend. I started to giggle a bit.

"What's so funny?" Karyl asked, her eyes looking a bit hopeful that I'm finding humor in the situation.

I just shook my head. "Well, this is quite a tangle. Your newfound baby sister and your best friend's ex-boyfriend. I understand if you don't want to listen to me anymore rant about..." I trailed off. "Sorry, I said all those nasty things about your, uhm, sister." Almost sorry, I silently amended.

Karyl smiled at me knowingly. "Dad might hit the deck if he finds out your Tom has been fooling around with one of his daughters." She sat back on the couch and just stared off into space.

I laid my head on her shoulder. "I'm sorry, I didn't even realize you were having such a huge day yesterday! You've been so patient, listening to me rant and cry all morning. How was the dinner? Was it weird meeting her?" I didn't even notice that she was uncharacteristically silent since I arrived. I thought she was just being sympathetic.

Like a true best friend, she picked up on my hint and started to talk about her Twilight Zone-ish night. "Well, it was really painful at first, finding out that Papa cheated on Mama twenty-four years ago. But she has already forgiven him, since it was just a one-night stand. I was only a year old when it happened so I wasn't aware that they were actually estranged and only got back together when I was three. When they tried to patch things up, Papa confessed everything to Mama, and she took it in stride and said that Papa should still financially support Lexie, since it wasn't Lexie's fault. Mama and Papa decided not to tell us anymore since we weren't affected anyway. Papa worked really hard to be able to provide for all four, I mean five, of us. Then when Lexie graduated from college, her mom died."