CHAPTER 102: THE TRUTH

Braelyn’s POV

"She needs to know. She deserves to know." Agnes had pleaded with Daddy. I clutched my white teddy that dad had gotten me as I listened from the door unbeknownst to them

I was scared Agnes was going to complain about my behaviour at school earlier. I had run out of the class crying and saying, ’I would never go in there again.’

Daddy pampered me, but was stern when I was getting willful. I hated it when he raised his voice at me.

The door was slightly ajar. A half image of dad sitting by her desk while Agnes stood before him pleading.

.

From the corner, I stood peeking into the study, and I could see Daddy and her. I didn’t go in because I knew it was something between adults. "She is too young to handle it " Daddy had tiredly said that day

"I know I should not tell you how to raise your daughter but I know Braelyn. I had been with her since forever, keeping her in the dark would not help ...." She said while daddy remained silent, listening to her.

"Even if she doesn’t show it. That child is hurting deep inside. Hiding it from her won’t protect her, she is curious and she will ask questions..." From what they were saying it was certain they were talking about me.

"I am sure you don’t want someone else to tell her something so delicate." Agnes had said..

Dad pushed back his chair and then stood up. He was prancing around his office, but I couldn’t see him because he was out of my line of view. Only Agnes remained.

"I can’t tell her. She would not understand.." Daddy managed to say. Agnes’ voice followed.

"They make her understand Mr Alderhiem." She had stated with conviction

Daddy groaned, annoyed with how this conversation was heading. His voice seemed heavier than it was earlier.

"How am I going to make her not blame herself? It wasn’t her fault but life...." His voice trailed off.

I didn’t know why I perfectly remembered this memory. I didn’t understand then. All I was doing was patiently waiting for Daddy and Agnes to finish speaking before I would go cry in his arms.

"It was not her fault. Just make her believe that. From the look of things, the reasons you don’t want to tell her has more to do with you than with her." Agnes added..

Her tone was out of place which earned her a stern warning from Daddy. "Agnes.!!!" He barked. She quieted down.

"You should have handled the situation properly. It wasn’t your place to mention her mother." He boomed. Agnes flinched terrified at his tone

"You should leave now." He added. My eyes went wide. I knew they could not see me at the door, so I clutched my teddy and ran to my room.

All I knew was that Daddy was angry at Agnes. The only reason my naive mind could come up with was that I had acted unruly at school

I went back to my room to hide. Later that night, Daddy had come to my room, and as he usually did whenever he was around, he read me a nighttime story.

It was the gingerbread man tale. I had laughed at the ending because of the weird ending despite it being sad but the gingerbread man had died because of his tricks

"Good night little Braelyn..daddy loves you." He had said with a tired voice placing a soft kiss on my forehead. My eyes were drowsy because it was close to my bedtime, but I shook off the sleep and then reached out to tug Daddy’s clothes.

"Yes dear, is something wrong?" He had asked. I knew he had work to handle but my curiosity didn’t let me. Agnes said Daddy knew where my true mummy was..I wanted to know.

My lips parted but the words felt too heavy. Daddy never liked it when I mentioned anything about why our family wasn’t complete.

I knew Agnes wasn’t my mother, but I made her the missing piece of the family. I wasn’t curious about this before but after what happened in school I really couldn’t help but think about my real mother

Daddy saw how hesitant I was to speak. He sat by my side on the bed. His presence is patient as always.

"You can tell Daddy anything, don’t be afraid." He has assured me.

I finally gathered the courage and then asked. "Where is my real mummy?" He froze at the question. His smile faltered but he quickly composed himself ..

"It is too late to ask such questions, Braelyn. You should go to bed, tomorrow is a big day." He evaded the question trying to tuck me into bed

Unfortunately for him, he had raised me to be willful. I kicked off the blanket and started crying.

"Where is mummy? Don’t I have a mummy?" I continued crying.

"Did she leave because she didn’t want me? She didn’t like me..." I kept on questioning him. He was terrified.

He could not bear my tears. He immediately pulled me into a tight hug. His shoulders trembled. "Please don’t ever say that. Your mother loved you." He assured me, trembling like a man who was scared to lose everything.

My cries died down in his warm embrace. "Then where is she? If she loves me, why isn’t she with us?" I slowly said.

He went silent for a while before he slowly answered. "She is in a far place we can’t visit, but she loves you, Braelyn, and is watching..." He vaguely said those words

I blinked slowly at him. Something was off about his answer. I clutched his shirt. "Can I meet her? Please, Daddy..." I had begged with my best puppy eyes.

He wanted to refuse but in the end said. "One day."

Only that one day refused to come. After that night I kept on pestering him and even went on a hunger strike. He gave me a small, foolish hope to see my mother, and I clung to it.

Finally, he relented. My first day at the cemetery didn’t go as planned. It was the first attempt we made.

On that day we had stopped at a flower shop close to the cemetery to get mum’s favourite flowers. I was confused why we were meeting at the flower shop but I was excited to see her for the first time.

Dad had previously shown me a picture after my constant persistence, and I knew her name was Avelina, similar to Braelyn, but I was going to call her mummy.

"Those were her favourite flowers," he said, holding my little hand as I clutched the single Yellow chrysanthemum stalk. The shop owner handed him a large bouquet so he had to let go of me to accept them. He actually has a soft smile seeing the flowers

Excited to find something mummy loved, I sniffed the stalk in my hand and played with it. "Let’s go." He urged me. I reached out for his hand but before I could hold him. I suddenly felt a jolt of irritation on my skin and I screamed.

Unfortunately, we didn’t make it to the meeting spot because I had a sudden break out. My very first allergic reaction. Dad was confused, he didn’t suspect it was an allergy. It wasn’t my first time being exposed to the flower

I just suddenly got allergic, and before he could figure out what happened, I had fainted.

Despite the delay. He knew he couldn’t keep the truth away from me forever. He had thought what happened the first day was an ill omen but the day of truth finally came

I had our first visit to see my mother only that it wasn’t a person but a tombstone with the name Mrs Avelina Aldersheim.

"Where is she?" I curiously asked, trying to find my mother at the empty graveyard. Dad knelt beside me and said. "She is right before us." He said slowly with a calm expression. I thought maybe Mum was invisible.

He had carefully explained to me that she had gone somewhere we truly could not reach but whenever I wanted to talk to her or be close we could visit her together

It was the closest place to her.

I was a child and might have been naive but I wasn’t completely stupid. I was old enough to know a cemetery, recognising it from movies.

"Mummy is dead," I said. That’s why she was never there. She was dead..his head snapped at me. He was too baffled to say a word

And before he could explain the tears rolled down. I jumped into his arms and cried. I didn’t remember exactly how old I was then. My memories were a mess but that one stuck

I should have been around 5/6 then. While crying, I remembered the conversation he had with Agnes. Then asked him.

"Did I kill her?" His hold tightened, voice choked. "You didn’t kill her, Braelyn. Life happened and it took her away from us." He had said.

He broke the hug and then held my hand. "There was a fire, it brought you to us too early but took her away too soon. That fire also destroyed almost everything I had of her..."

The rest was a jumbled mess. When I got older I understood better.

There was an accident that happened the day I was born. A fire which forced mum into an early labour which she didn’t survive because of her age. She was a woman in her late 40’s then.

*****

That was the truth I was too young to know but what did this picture mean What I knew about the fire was wrong

My heart beat slowed, eyes frantically started to search for the waiter who dropped the picture.