the mystery girl | COMPLETE

chapter 17 | the meeting

(A/N : At this point of my story, I go back and forth with times. Here is gonna be the explainations why I skipped 5 years. TRIGGER WARNING)

(Author's POV)

Everyone gathered around the table, sitting in the chairs. They were never in this office for meetings, but when they did, it was because they were serious.

Anthony was nervous. He didn't want to tell Alexis' story like that, but he didn't have a choice. Like he said preivously, when they tell stories, they explain it from the beggining.

" Everyone doing good, today? " He asked them. Everyone nodded. He rubbed his palms together, not too sure where to start. He was nervous. " Hey, just tell them what you told me. " Ian whispered.

" Um, well this meeting is about my sister. You guys have met her very briefly, either at the office weeks ago. " He paused, " Or at the party. "

Everyone really listened to him, everyone was paying close attention, because they didn't want to miss a single detail.

" Well, for starters, Alexis just turned 18. " He spoke. " She's been my sister for legally, at least 6 years now. " Everyone's eyes widden. " She's not your biological sister? "

" Yeah. Well, no. Hence why, I've never mentionned her. " He answered Sohinki's question. " My mom and I adopted her from a orphanage center back in 2013. She wasn't originally in that orphanage, she had a home and a family. She used to live her father, mother and younger sister. But when she was 6 or 7, her mother died due to cancer. "

He said, remembering the night of the 10th anniversarry. She was sobbing uncontrollably that day. She thought she was home alone, but Anthony had gotten home a little bit earlier. He walked into their house and he could hear crying from her room. He rushed upstairs to see her, in a fetus position, holding onto a box. The box contained the last few letters of life lessons her mom would write to her and Emily. She was reading the one that said specifically 'the night you miss me the most', and he could see a few lines from it, his heart breaking for her.

" Her dad took over the two kids. He was working two jobs, day and night. He barely saw them, but he managed to get them into school and keep paying rent and food. " He explained. " She was left to take care of Emily, early on in their lives. "

" Who's Emily? " Keith asked. " Oh, her younger sister. She's about 8 now, I'm not sure. " He answered. " Did you adopt her too? " He shook his head. " I'll get to that. "

It's not that his mom didn't want to adopt Emily and keep the sisters together, it was more of the fact Emily herself didn't want to leave her father. Even after, the rescue.

" One night, her dad had a day off from working both jobs. Instead of staying in with the girls, that fucker went out to club and drank. " He cursed. To this day, he still couldn't believe that.

" He drank so much, that when he went home, he just started throwing stuff around. Alexis said, he was mostly throwing her mom's things. She says that, her dad kept screaming 'why did you leave us?' when he threw the things around. "

" Wow. That's really heavy, man. " Joven commented. " I know. They were both so young. And after that night, that's where everything escalated. He took off from work the following day since he was hungover. And then, he just continued that pattern. "

" My dad, stopped going to work. Our bills got higher, food started downsizing. It was to the point, me and Em didn't have any school lunches. I practically had my teachers make extra food for us. " Alexis told Anthony. It was those deep 2 AM talks, and this was the night she finally talked to him about her past.