𝐋𝐔𝐃𝐈𝐂𝐑𝐎𝐔𝐒. ᵒᵘᵗᵉʳ ᵇᵃⁿᵏˢ ¹

𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 44.

𝐈 𝐖𝐀𝐓𝐂𝐇𝐄𝐃 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐓𝐑𝐄𝐄𝐒 pass by through the dark tinted-glass, the leaves and branches transforming into hues of green and brown in front of my eyes, blending in with the rest of the street in a painting of moving colours. The tiniest of raindrops lay scattered over the car windows, falling down to the very rims, and creating puddles of clear water all over the paved ground to later seep into the sewers. Outside, the world was cast with a gloomy look, hiding the blazing sun behind mountains of grey clouds overhead.

The droplets fell from the sky and landed in the water of the marsh, creating a light and peaceful sound to fill the silence inside the vehicle. I tapped my foot on the ground repeatedly. With both hands intertwined together, I stared out the window beside me. The trees slowly started to diminish, decreasing into smaller and smaller sizes with each second the car drove. My mind was racing uncontrollably, at a fast pace similar to how quick the road was moving underneath the tires, resulting in my head beginning to ache.

"Can you believe it?" Sarah squealed.

I didn't feel like saying anything, more focused on the thoughts jumbled together in my brain, piling in with every word. I couldn't say anything, for my lips wouldn't move apart.

Immediately when Sarah had let the words fall from her mouth, as she stood on my porch, my lips departed— I didn't believe her. Who would believe a seventeen year old girl, that has randomly shown up at your doorstep after days of not speaking, who suddenly tells you that you're sisters. When she said it, I didn't no how to act. My brain felt empty.

But, after staring at her face for a long moment, and how she seemed nothing but sure of her statement, I had narrowed my eyebrows. In the first moments, the only possible reasoning for Sarah's appearance, sudden claim, and unusual facial expression, was that she had either stole too much alcohol from her parents, her brother had slipped her some of his drugs, or she had hit her head really, really, really hard. Hard enough to think that the two of us were suddenly related.

I had offered to let her into my home, maybe get her a glass of water and talk about why she was acting so weird, and why this was the reason she was coming over after five days of being apart. But before I could do anything else, she had insisted that we go to TannyHill. To talk to her father. Figuring that her whole sudden declaration was just a big coping mechanism, for whatever things that were going on inside her mind, similar to when everyone thought John B was crazy for chasing after the Merchant— to cope with his father's death, I decided to give in.

As she had pulled me over to her Range Rover without another word, Caroline and Daryl had called for me from the doorway. The whole time she was guiding me to the car, and hopping into the seats, I had been thinking that something was really wrong with Sarah, something that was making her delusional— it was the only possible explanation. But as soon as I had turned around to look at my grandparents, my whole idea had shifted. They were standing in the door, scared.

My blood had felt like it had gone cold when they stared at me from behind the screen door, their facial expressions instantly shooting right into my heart. Why did they suddenly seem so scared. Then, I nearly froze in the passenger seat when their eyes silently sent me a message, an unintentional one, that Sarah was right. They knew what she had been saying. Both of them ran onto the lawn as we drove away, almost as if they wanted to stop the car and take me back, to keep me from learning something I wasn't supposed to learn about.

"And that's why I didn't call you or come see you this whole week," Sarah was now saying, "I was too busy crying over the fucking fact that Cecile Collins, I mean, the Cecile Collins, is my fucking mom!"