His Snowflake

Chapter 16 -Truth & Lies

"The truth is still the truth, even if no one believes it. A lie is still a lie, even if everyone believes it."

-Unknown

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Alana's POV

"So Snowflake, why did you try to jump?" Trevor asked seriously.

What should I tell him? The truth? Half of it? He can't know certain things...He can't...

So without making eye contact, I stared at the white ceiling and rambled on.

"When I was 14, there was a fire. It started in the kitchen due to a gas leak and my mother and I were playing with a small game machine kept in storage until we heard things collapsing and smoke was entering the basement. The house was crumbling down in flames and my mother and I were sort of trapped.. My mother smashed open the window near the ceiling which leads to our garden. She pushed me out first and when she was trying to come out..." I choked out, barely holding myself together.

Trevor seemed to be able to guess what had happened and he kept silent. In a few seconds , he stood up and sat right beside me and embraced me into a hug.

As soon as I felt the comfort from the warmth he provided, I broke down into tears.

From my mother dying, to surviving alone, to my father abusing me, to being under pressure to exploit someone and as well as working with clients trying to do unfavourable things, it all built up to this moment where I let everything go.

Trevor held me even tighter as if he were piecing back the pieces that I was breaking into right now. He occasionally patted me on the back and said reassuring words like "I'm here" and "You'll be okay".

Those words meant nothing to me.

His presence. Me in his arms. It meant the world to me now.

His voice did not hold any pity. The pity like "Oh I'm so sorry, you'll be fine. Everything will be okay". It was more of the "You're strong and I'm proud you came this far" type of reassurance.

I totally left out the reason why I jumped. Trevor probably assumed it was just survivor's guilt. I bet he would never guess about what my father has done for eight years that pushed me off the edge.

That is great. No one needs to know because it can go back to normal.

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After much crying, it reduced to just sniffs. Trevor let go of me and went to get a glass of warm water to drink which I really appreciated. He just sat there and gave me pats on the shoulder. No words could describe this moment, it was so surreal that it was near perfect.

Near perfect only because I lied to him and how I will continue to do so. I convinced myself that Trevor was temporary and my dad was the priority.

I really couldn't lose my dad.

I sipped the warm water and soon regained my composure.

I turned to Trevor and smiled, "Now it's your turn."

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Trevor's POV

Alana was so strong. Even though I never experienced it, survivor's guilt is really something that people struggle to recover from.

Alana, I really want to take your pain away...

I was really happy she told me all about what had happened. The fire that her mum died in was all over the news and every death anniversary, Helena Rivers would appear in the newspapers to be remembered. The pain must be fresh every year...