You're Mine, Always and Forever

78

"I'm so confused." I stutter and Max groans again.

"You were always the confused one." He drawls as I try to wrap my head around what's happening.

"That doesn't make sense! I don't know either of you!" I exclaim and Noah, Luke, Lexi and Skylar joined me up in the bleachers.

"Now you had to attract your friends! This is a family meeting." Max says glaring at all of them. "What do you mean 'family'? I've never met either of you." Lexi peers at them closely before looking at me. "But you guys do all look...alike," Skylar says.

"They're telling me we're triplets!" I say throwing my hands in the air.

I sit next to Gracie. "You have to explain to me what's going on," I tell her and she looks at all of my friends. "Okay, since you claim you're my siblings, what-"

"We have a younger brother named Liam who has epilepsy and dad died when you were thirteen and Liam's staying with Auntie Olivia. We've met her before, she's a nice lady." Gracie says and I stare at her in shock. "Wait, where were you my entire life?" I ask.

"We were staying with Grandma and Grandpa," Max says.

"No, that's not possible! They're dead." I say shaking my head. I'm trying not to have an asthma attack. "Maddy you need to calm down, you're gonna have an asthma attack," Gracie says trying to calm me down.  If we're being honest, she's freaking me out more than Max.

"What the hell is going on here?" Lexi repeats in frustration.
"They're...my siblings." I breathe out as I look down.
"Finally! Can we go home now?" Max drawls and I glare at him. "I still can't believe I'm related to you but you can go if you want," I say and he salutes us before leaving.

"Grandma and Grandpa aren't dead. Mom only said that so you wouldn't go there and find...us." She says whilst looking at the ground. "Strangely enough, I actually believe you," I say looking at her and she gives me a genuine smile. "Why is your name Brooks then?" Noah asks and I look at him before turning to her.

"We're in the same English Literature class," she answers and I relax, slightly. "Mom changed our name so people wouldn't get suspicious. Basically, we weren't meant supposed to meet. Ever." She says sternly looking at me.

"Do you wanna come to my house?" I ask and Skylar stops us. "You need to be careful, yeah you look similarly but you need birth certificates and stuff to prove it." She says peering at Gracie. "We don't need it," I say confidently.

"I say we visit the police station."

*************

"I still can't believe you're crazy enough to go back there," Lexi repeats for the third time.
I sent Luke and Skylar home. I needed Noah and Lexi for support. I changed back into my dress and jacket and we were currently driving to the station.
"I won't believe anything else except what she tells us," I say while concentrating is on the road.

"I haven't seen her since she first got arrested," Gracie mutters and I step on the brake a little harder than I need to at a red light. "That was over 4 months ago." I gasped looking at her as she pushes up her glasses. "I'm sorry to do this but I deserve answers," I mumble as we pull into a parking spot and all file out of the car.

We finished practice an hour early so we have an hour until visiting hours close. As we're walking down the same corridor I was in with Noah over 2 weeks ago, I grab onto Gracie's hand and she looks down at them and smiles. As we reach the end of her cell, the same officer opens the cell and we all walk in as she stares at the ceiling.
"Hey mom," Gracie says and her eyes widen at the sound of her voice.
"Gracie? I told you never to-" She freezes as she sits up as takes in the sight of the two of us, hand in hand.

"We go to the same school mom. She was gonna find out eventually." Gracie says with an eye roll. She diverts her gaze to me. "Don't you have any questions?" She asks me with a sneer and I shrug. "I don't really have anything to say. But one question," I say and she groans before getting up and walking to the table.

Like mother, like son.

"Why did you kill dad? Why didn't you tell me I was part of triplets? Why did-"
"You said you had one question." She says and I roll my eyes. "Answer all of them," I say with a stern voice and she beckons to the two seats opposite her. Gracie sits in one and I stand behind the other with my hands on the top of the chair. "First off, you both along with Max, and Liam don't have the same father. Liam's dad Gary is somewhere in Europe and I couldn't give two shits about him. I killed your father because he was going to find out about Liam and he was also going to find out about you and Max." She said pointing at Gracie.

"He thought I had one kid, Madison. I had an affair with Gary and had Liam, and he left whilst I was in labour and after Madison was born, because he had some work shit to do," She explained waving her hand in the air. "After he left, I had Max and then Gracie." She said.

"So, I'm the oldest?" I asked and she nodded. "And I'm the youngest?" Gracie asked in shock and she nodded again. "My whole life has been a lie." She whispered. But the funny thing is, it actually has been. "I only told you that Max and Madison were younger because you were the most responsible." She says leaning back against the chair and folding her arms. "So you guys knew about me?" I asked looking at both of them. "I've known you since we were ten. Max found out a few years ago, he couldn't be trusted with that information at a young age." She said and everything finally made sense. "That's all I needed to know," I mumbled before walking out of the cell with Lexi and Noah who were silent the entire time.

As we waited outside the car for Gracie, Noah asked, "Are you okay?" I shrugged. "My whole life has literally been a lie. So I'm part of triplets?!" I said still completely lost about the whole ordeal. "I guess you are," Lexi says as Gracie walks out of the station doors. "I'm sorry everything happened the way it did." She apologised and I waved it off. "At least I know," I say with a smile as we entered the car.
I dropped off Lexi first and then Gracie, with her directions of course and I got her number so we could stay in touch.

As I drove with Noah next to me, we sat in complete silence. "Today has been a weird day," I say and he hums in agreement. "I'm glad you're still holding it together." He says with a smile as I stopped driving. He gave me directions to a place I've never heard of and smiled as we climbed out of the car and walked to the edge of the cliff. The orange glow of the sunset radiated against me as I stood at the edge with Noah behind me, his arms encasing me. "I'm glad you're with me," I mumbled as he let his head rest on the crook of my neck. "I'm glad we could sort out what happened. So, you're part of triplets." He says and I sighed letting the thought sink in for like the thousandth time today. "Gracie is actually not bad, I think I'll enjoy getting to know her. Max on the other hand is a pain in my ass, and we've only known each other a few days." I grumbled.

"Weirdly, he reminds me of a boy version of you." He said spinning me around and I wrapped my arms around his neck as he held me by my waist. "Well, he's got a bad boy vibe to him, like you when we first met." I shot back and he looked at our feet before grinning. "You look happier." He said staring at me intensely. I shrugged and leaned in to kiss him.

These past few months have been a complete rollercoaster. New friends, love, bullies and now more family. Gracie and Max will create a huge difference in my life and possibly another challenge. But after losing my parents and getting shot in school by one of them, I'm pretty sure there's absolutely nothing that can stop me now. Not even an annoying sibling that smokes and another that puts on the biggest 'good girl' act I've ever seen.
I'm happy with my family and my friends and I know more adventures are gonna come my way. At least I know they'll be with me...Always and Forever.

THE END.

Cue the applause.
👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾

I'm honestly so happy that I've finished this story. It's been a long one and took me over a year to finish but we've finally done it. It's safe to say that I definitely will not be continuing this story...I mean look how long it took me to finish it!

There will be an epilogue on the next chapter and that will be it.