Dark Secrets ✔️

Chapter 28

Afrah's POV

"Afrah!" Saniya exclaimed surprised when she saw me at her door, " What are you doing out at this time?!" She opens the door wider for me to enter.

"Are you alone?" I ask her while I sit down on the couch.

"Actually_"

"Don't worry. I won't disturb you. Just let me stay here tonight."

"What happened? When did you leave the hospital?" She sits next to me.

"Today,"

"Are you okay? Did anything happen at home? You don't normally go out at this time. Does your brother know you're here?" She grabs her phone and I take it from her.

"Don't call him. He knows I'm out."

"Did you argue with him? It must have been bad, you never left home because of an argument." She says and I shake my head.

"We didn't argue. Apparently, my mum and my second eldest brother, are alive. In fact, I've been working at my brother's company all this time and I've been hanging out with my mum for the past week, without knowing a thing." I try to summarise in the simplest way possible but I knew she would be confused.

I look at her and she looked nervous, instead, "But... look at it this way, he just didn't tell you because he wanted to protect you," She says.

"How do you know that? I never told you that." I ask, expecting a reasonable answer, but she takes a while to talk back. "Who's here?" I ask when I hear footsteps. "Your brother?" I remember that she told me she lived with her brother.

"Sis, I'm going out. Make sure you lock all doors as soon as I'm out." A male voice says and I turn back to look.
I couldn't believe my eyes.

"Marcus!?" I ask to make sure I'm seeing right, "Is he your brother?" I ask Saniya and she takes a while to answer. That's when I remember what my brother told me about our neighbours.
My brother said that our neighbour had a son and a daughter and that the son happened to be Marcus. If Saniya is Marcus' sister, that means she was also my neighbour.

"You didn't know, did you?" I ask Saniya, expecting her to tell me she didn't.

"Afrah, why are you out so late?" Marcus asks me.

"Please, tell me you didn't know," I direct my words to Saniya, ignoring Marcus.

"I'm sorry. I couldn't tell you." She finally answers.

"So, everybody recognized me and I was the only one playing dumb?" I ask and then look at Marcus. I'm sure he knew everything as well.

"I didn't recognize you at first, but when I saw your brother I knew he seemed very familiar. The day before you got fired, I went to your brother and finally asked him whether he was the one I was thinking of and he confirmed he was, but also made me promise I wouldn't tell you anything. He wanted to be the one telling you and I agreed because it's a family matter, I shouldn't get involved in it." She explains.

"I came here thinking I could escape from my past at least for a few days and little did I know... Don't worry, I'm not mad at you." I get up, making my way to the door.

"Where are you going? The buses have stopped working and It's very late," Marcus tells me, "Stay here or let me give you a ride." He said but I ignored him and closed the door behind.

I walk away from the block, aimlessly. It was indeed very dark. It was over midnight and the only bus working was the night bus, which doesn't go to my house. I'm not planning to go home anyway. I turn my phone off when I see ten missed calls from my brother. What I feel right now isn't hatred. I definitely don't hate my brother, but I feel hurt by him. I understand his reasons but I don't agree with them. The way I've been so clueless about my mother's existence makes me feel sorry for myself. It makes me think whether things would've been different and much better for me and my brother if I knew the truth. I know my brother has been hurting on his own, mainly because he had to go through it all on his own. I thought mum had passed away, so at some point, I healed from it. Yet my brother knew she was alive, but he couldn't be with her. My pain was nothing compared to his. But right now, I just needed some time alone. It's not easy to grasp the idea that your mother is alive just from one day to the other, after believing that she was dead for twelve whole years.