Braided

Chapter 23: Never The Same Again

It was official now. My life was being turned upside down.

Everything I knew was in question. There was so much more strange about the way me and Mom had been living than I had thought. With the mixture of the strange way she hides me away, the missing poster and Grandma's diary pushed me closer to a unbelievable realization.

I cautiously looked over at my mother . No, she wasn't my mother. She was some woman who kidnapped me. No wonder she didn't ever let me talk to others and let me live a little, it was because she wasn't my mother and I wasn't her daughter. I didn't love her any less, but I had no idea what to do.

Should I confront her with my suspicions?

Should I tell Nathan and Naomi?

Or should I just leave things alone?

I had too many questions and my mind was on rewind thinking over all the thoughts I already thunk on this whole thing. It didn't help me one bit and it didn't give me any answers or any securities. I didn't want to hurt her, but I also know that this wasn't right. I wasn't supposed to be with her I was supposed to be with my real family. Everything was confusing.

Like how am I able to do home schooling?

How was it that no one suspected a thing about me?

No one thought it was weird that this lady who had no baby suddenly had a baby?

What did she tell people? Did people even know I even existed in that lonely house in Texas?

No wait there were people in Texas that had known about me. Mom introduced me to a coupled her friends, but they didn't come over often. They never really tried to converse with me, they'd only come around once in a while. Still no one other than grandma and Mom had known me until Nathan and Naomi came into my life.

"I'm going to bed." I said as I raised myself up from the couch. I couldn't stand being in the same room as her.

"Are you okay?" She looked really concerned. It gave me a twinge of hope it wasn't true.

"Yeah I'm just tired." I gave a slight smile to her before leaving the room. She didn't push on with more questions I probably couldn't answer anyway.

When I got to my room skimmed through the diaries again. Deep inside me I wished that I was wrong, and that the weird reaction to the poster and Grandma's diary were just strange. That my Grandmother was already losing her mind and she thought I was stolen and in reality I was just born unexpectedly. Or she forgot that I was even born.

Nope, I studied the diaries from that day on and everything pointed towards the worse. She had hid me in this house for a month and then took me home. Grandma didn't turn Mom in because she loved her too much. I wasn't getting those looks because I was fatherless with a paranoid mother. It was because I wasn't meant to be living this way and was taken away from my family.

I placed the diaries back under my bed and out of sight and took out the photo of me and Nathan. It relaxed me and reminded me that not everything was chaotic. That one of the truths I was sure of was that me and Nathan were kind of perfect together. It wasn't chaotic like the rest of my life.

I jumped at the noise of a knock at my door. I quickly placed the photo underneath my comforter. I couldn't let her see it, I had no idea what should do, or even at she was capable of. I didn't even know her anymore.

"Come in." I responded to the knocks.

"Hey." She opened up the door I could see that she was holding a coffee cup.

"Hey," I responded staring her.

"I made you some broth." She sat on my bed and handed the cup to me. " I noticed you've been feeling a bit unwell lately." She ran he hand through my hair. She knew at would make me feel better and it somehow eased my mind knowing she cared so much for me.

"I'm fine, just not used the weather." I wasn't entirely lying I wasn't used to the cold chill that was starting to come. I was raised in the heat. This weather was different than what I was used to.

I used to love these moments between us where we could just enjoy each others company. Where she understood exactly what I needed to be cheered up. I don't know if I could enjoy these moments any more with what knew. They just wouldn't be the same ever again.