Her Past
Just as discussed, Kevin and Carla moved in with granny and Ellie few days after. They were still managing in the small room until the said apartment would be sold. The apartment had been put up on sale already but no buyer had been gotten yet.
They were all living in peace and everything seemed to be going on smoothly for them. Ellie and Kevin too seemed to have been drawn to each other as they couldn’t do without each other. Granny was the one taking Carla to school and also picking her up after school. Kevin on the other hand, wouldn’t report back home without Ellie. Once he was done with his work, he would go to the convenience store and wait outside until Ellie was done with her shift before they would head home together. People often mistake them to be lovers not knowing they were siblings.
They share a lot of secrets about themselves together and often talk about their future. Ellie cared for Kevin a lot and always made sure he goes out with his inhaler. On one of such nights when they were heading home, Ellie made her past known to Kevin.
“You have never told me about your past or how you got to this city. Is it that you do not trust me?”, Kevin asked.
“It’s not that I do not trust you but I just don’t feel comfortable talking about it as I haven’t gotten over the trauma yet”, Ellie responded.
“Do you want to get healed and be free from the bondage of your past?”, Kevin asked, as they walked through the valley.
“Yes, I want to”, she responded.
“Then, talk to me about it. Let me ease you of your pains”, Kevin said, holding Ellie’s hand. Ellie nodded her head in affirmation and they sat by the staircase along the valley.
“I grew up having the perfect family ever. Although, my father wasn’t always around, my mother and I spent a lot of quality time together. I never lacked anything as my parents were well to do. My father was a businessman while my mother was a seamstress and also a designer. Due to the nature of my father’s business, he travelled a lot, hence the reason we barely spent time together. Due to my mother’s love for fashion, I also fell in love with it. Everything was going on well until one fateful day, the day that everything changes”, Ellie narrated and by this time, she was already clenching her fist, as if she was scared to narrate what had happened next. Seeing that she was getting scared, Kevin held her hand in his and patted it, as if trying to motivate her to carry on and assure her that everything was going to be okay.
“My mother had been suspecting that my father was cheating on her and that he had another family apart from us. At first, she thought she was being delusional and jealous but when she she began to find evidences pointing at that, she decided to find out the truth. On this day, my father as usual, had said he was going on a business trip. My mother to confirm her suspicion, had followed him without his knowledge. Just as my mother had suspected, my father had another family apart from us but it was the other way round. We were the second family!!!”, Ellie said, with shock written on Kevin’s face.
“What?”, Kevin exclaimed.
“It turned out my father was married before he met my mother and had deceived her into marrying him. To make the matter worse, the other woman also had a child who was around the same age as me. My mother was devastated by the shocking truth and so, she became a shadow of herself. When my paternal grandparents found out, they had my father choose between us and his other family and alas, he chose them over us, abandoning my mother and I. My mum and I left our home for another abode just to get away from my father and his new family. We were living fine in our new place and my mother was already getting over him until he found us again. He pleaded with my mother to get back together with him but my mother never agreed. His other wife somehow found out that he was frequenting our abode and she threatened to take my mother out of the way if she didn’t back off. My mother hadn’t taken her threat seriously as she had thought she was just bluffing”, Ellie said, pausing.
“My mum pleaded with my father to leave her alone but he wouldn’t budge. Somehow, the other wife found out my father was still frequently and decided to do what she had said. The night I lost my mother, my father’s other wife had come with her daughter and some thugs and set our house on fire. My mother managed to save me and the last sentence she said before getting engulfed in the fire was for me to run away as fast as I could without looking back. And that night, I ran away like a coward, leaving my mother to burn to death. I came here with no specific destination in mind and while I was wondering around the street, I met granny and which was how she took me in”, Ellie said, now tearing up. Kevin hugged her, consoling her. After she had cried to her satisfaction, she wiped away her tears, trying to force a smile just to convince Kevin that she was okay.
“Do you still get in touch with your father and who is he?”, Kevin asked, upon seeing that she had stopped crying and was now calm.
“No, I don’t. And as for his identity, he is the only son of the owners of Bloom Electronics”, Ellie said.
“What? You father is that rich and you are suffering here? Why don’t you try and get in touch with him?”, Kevin asked.
“I do not want to have anything to do with the murderer of my mother. If not for him, my mother wouldn’t have died”, Ellie declared, with pain in her eyes.
“You are going to be fine. Should we head home now?”, Kevin asked, with Ellie nodding her head in affirmation.
That night, Ellie slept peacefully as she felt that a huge load had been taken off her chest. She felt grateful towards Kevin as he had relieved her of her pains that night.Contentt bel0ngs to N0ve/lDrâ/ma.O(r)g!
They all continued to live in harmony, until the unexpected happened. The unexpected event, that turned the family into a chaos.