I had borrowed Olivia’s car for the day. Today was important. It was something I had promised myself to check after I left the mansion.
It had taken nearly three hours to arrive. It was a nice sunny Sunday afternoon with birds chirping in the afternoon sun and a pleasant atmosphere. The breeze and the faint smell of the salty sea in the air brought back fun childhood memories spent with my parents and my uncle and aunt.
Today was Sunday which reminded me that Ethan was supposed to move out on this day. He hadn’t tracked me down and came to talk like he said he was going to on the phone and I wondered if he was just giving me time and space or that he genuinely didn’t want anything to do with me anymore. I tried remaining optimistic. There was no way he wouldn’t come. On top of that he knew about me from the very beginning and still fell for me so I found no reason as to why he wouldn’t find me.
We called Heather the next day after returning because we were curious as to what was happening there. She told us that she got Juliet to keep quiet about it but she still feels awkward to fill in after me. She said that Juliet was finding it difficult to act like me and I was surprised and confused because I was pretending to be Juliet all that time. Then again I didn’t exactly do a good job at it and was mostly just myself. The bad news was that her parents were starting to become suspicious and had even asked if she was on drugs and to be honest about it if she was taking them.
She told me that Ethan wanted to move out of the mansion at the earliest because he was already fed up of Juliet.
I rolled to a stop in front of the old house. It looked just the same except that my aunt had grown a few plants in her little garden which reminded me of my own garden with Ethan.
My aunt was Summer Greene and my uncle was Jeffrey Greene. I had lived with them in the city after my parents died and once I moved out of the house, they moved back to their house in the countryside.
I got out and took out the chocolates which my aunt loved so much and my uncle’s favorite wine.
I called out once I entered but no one answered so they were probably at the back where our farm was. As expected my aunt had just finished picking the eggs the hens laid and my uncle was just sort of sitting in front of the crops, eating peanuts.
When my aunt spotted me her face lit up brightly and she rushed towards me. “Julie!” She squeezed me into a hug and that caught my uncle’s attention. He smiled widely and got up to walk towards me.
“It’s been months since we last saw or heard from you!” My aunt was still enthusiastic from my visit. She playfully hit my arm. “Why didn’t you even call?”
I smiled and handed her the chocolates and the wine.
“There was no need for this! Why’d you buy it?”
“Oh come on, I know you love these chocolates.”
“That’s true but you still don’t have to buy anything for us. You need the money so don’t waste it on us.” There was an uncharacteristic seriousness to her words but I ignored it.
She led us inside and I took a seat in the living room where she offered me freshly baked cookies which she had made to sell it in the market but had put aside some for themselves.
“These are really good!” I said, reveling the taste of her heavenly cookies. She was a really good baker.
My eyes skimmed over the small living room, lingering over the photo frames on the table of me with my parents along with them. We didn’t really have a lot of pictures so the few that we had were treasured.
“So what is the real purpose of this visit?” My uncle asked without wasting any time, straight to the point. He was really good at catching on things and my restlessness must’ve hinted that I had an ulterior motive behind coming here.
I too saw no point in dilly dally around as I just wanted to get this over with. “I have some questions about my parents.”
There was no visible reaction to that so either it wasn’t what I suspected or that they were very good at masking their emotions.
“What about them?” My aunt asked absentmindedly as she tended to me by getting me snacks and drinks.
“This might sound silly but I was wondering if they were my-” I stopped abruptly, analyzing internally if this was appropriate to ask. “-my real parents.” I finished anyways, knowing if there was anyone who could clear my doubts it would be them.
I watched them closely to catch a slip up but there was none if I ignored my aunt’s hand freezing in the air for barely a millisecond before she continued to pour the tea into cups.
She let out a loud nervous laugh. “What rubbish.”
I was lucky to catch their brief exchange where my aunt looked at my uncle for help and he gave her a sharp look.
She sighed. “Why are you asking this?”
“I guess I always had my doubts from the time I learned about DNA and inheritance. I knew they put it down to their mother’s or father’s traits but I was never fully satisfied with their explanation. You know something, don’t you?” I didn’t want to tell them about all that had happened to me over the months.
“You’re right. They aren’t your real parents.” My uncle said blankly.
“Jeff! Don’t just drop a bomb like that! We should first explain what had happened.” My aunt didn’t look impressed at my uncle’s bluntness.
I wasn’t shocked. I kind of expected it. I had never felt the deep parent-child connection with my parents, well ex-parents.
My aunt who wasn’t even my aunt at this point now looked at me with wide eyes.
“I’m fine.” I assured them. “Just tell me what happened.”
“Your real parents… they are-”
My heart was beating fast. I could hear it in my ears and it actually sounded louder than Summer’s voice.
“They are the Jenson’s. I’m not sure if you know them-”
“I do.” I interrupted as I gripped the armrest of the couch. “I very well do know them. How did this happen? How did I end up here?”
If they were at all surprised with my lack of a dramatic reaction they didn’t show it.
Summer started, looking away as she recalled a time I wasn’t aware of. “You were born in a hospital where my sister’s first husband used to work as a nurse. He was one filthy money hungry bastard. The woman, Charlotte Jenson gave birth to triplets in the hospital where he worked and he was planning on kidnapping the three girls and holding them for ransom. He couldn’t manage to kidnap all three but made away with two. One of it was you.” She met my eyes.
There was another one apart from Juliet and I.
Julia.