Fishing For A Dream [Book Three]

Chapter 1 - Bianca

I don't know how long I stared at the girl claiming to be my long-lost sister - my mouth agape and eight thousand questions fighting their way to the front, rendering me speechless - but it was only when Rose appeared at my side and touched my arm that the shock faded and I started to realise I needed to do something. Whether it was to ask questions that would prove she was telling the truth, or calmly invite Bianca inside so that we could talk. Or I could - at the very least - cry! I just had to do something other than staring at her like a stunned mullet.

"Are you okay?" Rose asked, her voice sounding overwhelmingly loud, though it was only just above a murmur. "What's going on?"

I turned my head to her, and I saw concern written all over my best friend's face as the expression on mine said it all. My biological sister was apparently standing opposite me, but the woman who was slowly taking the bag of cat food I'd been clinging onto for dear life from me, she would always be my sister, too, and so much more. Rose was my sister in life, and the blood that ran through our veins may as well have been the same. We'd gone through thick and thin together, and I didn't trust anybody the way I did her. Nothing would ever change that.

Opening my mouth to talk, nothing came out, so Bianca reached out the same hand I hadn't been able to shake to Rose and said, "Hello, I'm Bianca, I'm-"

"My sister," I whispered, feeling my cheeks grow warm and the urge to cry swell in my throat.

I could see Rose was as surprised and shocked as I was, but she hid it. She said 'Hello' and quickly shook Bianca's hand, before reaching to hold mine, tightly. "Well, this is a bit of a... Christ, I don't think words have failed me like this in a long, long time."

"I'm sorry," Bianca grimaced apologetically, "I've spent months thinking of how I could do this so it wouldn't be too much of a shock."

The three of us stood in awkward silence, and I found myself wanting to laugh at the absurdity of it all. Dee was probably in the living room, eating curry and completely oblivious to the bombshell going on outside. Remembering food, my stomach rumbled, and I felt myself starting to shake with a mix of hunger and shock.

"I need to eat," I blurted out, before quickly adding, "do you want to come inside? Are you hungry?"

I saw Bianca hesitate, looking over her shoulder at a car I guessed was hers. She looked so much like our mother, Paula - as did I, when I thought about it - that it was spooky, almost like her death had really just been a nightmare after all, and she was reappearing to ask me where I had gone. I had known Bianca was an adult, but in my mind she was still a toddler and not a young woman who would look like me and who would be old enough to come to my office for an interview.

When she looked back at me, "I have my son in the car, is it okay if I go get him?"

"Oh! Uh... of course!" The urge to cry grew tenfold. A son. She had a son - my nephew, Paula's grandson. I forced a smile, wanting to hide how much I wanted to weep for all the things we had missed from each other's lives, and from the joy of knowing I not only had a sister, but I was an aunt, too. "Do you need a hand with him?"

"No, I should be okay, thanks. I just hope he stays asleep!" She chuckled, rolling her eyes in a way I often saw mothers do, one that was full of unconditional love and a complete lack-of sleep.

Rose and I laughed with her, then Rose said, "We will leave the door open for you, just give us a shout if you need anything."

I felt myself suddenly being pulled in the direction of the house, grateful my friend had seen an opportunity to snatch a quick moment alone to regroup. Dee looked at us with utter confusion as we rushed into the living room and just as I'd pictured, she had been happily eating her food and watching TV, but the moment she saw our faces she was up on her feet.