"I... I don't get it, mommy. Where is Lucy going to go? She lives here!" The confused three year old Chey exclaimed. She didn't understand why her twin sister had to be sent off. "Lucy is sick. We have to take care of her!" She almost screamed at her mother, stomping her foot down onto the hardwood floors.. Lucy, her twin sister suffered from cancer and was slowly becoming immune to the treatments.
Her mother calmly bent down towards the distraught girl and brushed hair behind her ear. "Chey... Lucy needs you to be a strong girl, okay? Lucy needs to live with granny and grampa. We can't take care of her here, sweetie. Mommy and daddy work all the time now."
Shaking her head in disagreement, tears welled up in Chey's eyes. "No! No! Lucy has to stay here. I'll take care of her."
For reasons unknown, a smile spread across Maria's face. "No, you can't sweetie."
"Yes, I can! Daddy told me I could do anything I wanted!" The three year old rashly exclaimed. A moment passed before either one of them spoke again. "Please don't send her away," Chey mumbled, the pain evident in her voice. "I love her."
Nodding her head along with Chey, Maria smiled slightly. "I know you do, sweetie but just because you can't see her doesn't mean you love her any less. We're a family and nothing can come between that. You love her and she'll always love you."
It had been a couple of days since Chey's sixteenth birthday and now, everything was beginning to settle down. Car keys in hand, the girl sat on her bed, contemplating the trip she was about to take. Sure, her and her mother never had the perfect relationship but she did send Chey a car for her birthday. She at least deserved a thank-you visit. Throughout this entire ordeal, she had been avoiding her mother when she did nothing but try to keep their family together. As time went on, Chey forgave her mother for cheating but she knew there was a long road ahead of her that included finding her father and whatnot. Shaking her head, she closed her eyes for a moment as her mind emptied the thoughts that clouded her mind. "Just do it," she told herself, clutching the keys a little tighter in her hands before getting off her bed and walking into the student parking lot.
There wasn't anything spectacular about the drive up to her family's old household but when she got there, she felt a weird sense of nostalgia. There was something different about being at the house today. It was almost as if she didn't belong there anymore. Shrugging off that feeling, she quickly walked up the driveway, eager to get this visit over as soon as possible. The housekeeper let her in and Chey made her way towards the kitchen. Her mother must be trying to learn how to cook again. Rolling her eyes at that thought, Chey recalled all of the nights her family would gather around their large dinner table with something that didn't even class as edible.
"Hi," she greeted her mother as she walked in.
"Chey! Darling! How are you? You look well! You're so tall!" Her mother gushed.
Shrugging, Chey smiled slightly, "it wouldn't seem this drastic if you saw me more often," she mumbled softly, as her mother pulled her in for a hug. A few moments passed and she still didn't let go. "Air would be nice."
Her mother soon let her go and her eyes studied the girl that now stood in front of her. Chey could tell there was a twinge of sadness in her eyes. "That's how she would have looked..." She whispered to herself.
"What who would have looked like?"
"...You weren't supposed to hear that," Mary snapped back, her eyes now wide with surprise.
"But, I did... What is it now? This house already has too many secrets in it."
Mary took a deep breath before she spoke once again. "You... You're a twin."
Chey shot a look at her mother to imply that she was crazy. "What the hell are you talking about? You don't think if I would remember that I had a twin?"
Pursing her lips together, Mary nodded along with Chey slightly. "You were three when she went to live with grandma and grandpa. She... She was sick and we couldn't take care of her like they could have." She added, her voice breaking slightly.
"You're telling me that I had a twin... now?" She asked, trying to mask the anger in her voice.
"It was traumatic for everyone and you must have blocked it out. We just... We're Maslins. We don't talk about these things. We're supposed to be perfect."
Chey's eyes widened at her mother's words. "You're saying that you sent her away because you didn't want to look bad? You... You..." Unable to finish that sentence, Chey shook her head in anger.
Her mother was sobbing now but Chey didn't feel any sympathy for her. "I didn't know what to do... And, my parents offered to take care of her."
Running a hand through her hair, Chey took a deep breath. "Tell me about her." She demanded simply. "If I had a twin, I deserve to know who she was."
Mary nodded. "Her name was Lucy. She was exactly like you, but, she had black hair and you're blond. You both have the same piercing blue eyes." Mary picked up her purse and took out a photo of Lucy and showed it to her daughter.
"This... This..." She mumbled as the picture Liam showed her flashed in her mind. "This can't be my sister." She mumbled, finally finishing that sentence.
Mary raised an eyebrow, studying her daughter's facial expression curiously, "what are you talking about?"
Shaking her head, Chey put the picture back down onto the table. "Nope. I can't do this right now." Walking out of the kitchen, she continued to shake her head. Her twin sister couldn't be Liam's Lucy. No. That was impossible.
"Chey! Wait!" Her mother called out from behind her.
Rushing towards her daughter, Mary continued to wipe away the tears that fell from her eyes.
Chey sharply turned to face her mother again. "I never should have come. Thank-you for the car. Goodbye, mother." She said emotionlessly before walking out to her car. Quickly getting into her car, she slowly pulled out of the driveway.
The drive home differed greatly from the drive towards her parents' house. Weirdly enough, she was filled with a weird sense of hope when she was driving up. Like, there was a possibility of her and her mother patching things up. Instead, she was left with nothing. Once again. Pulling over on the freeway, she sat in the car for a moment before the tears began to roll down her face.
