Rose’s POV;
Before he could utter another word, I heard a familiar voice,
“What the hell do you think you are doing?”
We both turned towards the source of the voice only to witness the said source marching towards us like a fuming dragon.
“Mark!” left both of our mouths in shock.
“Are you two nuts? What do you think you are doing?” Mark asked in anger.
He grabbed Oliver’s arm and pushed him away from me.
“Mark, I can explain!” I said but was cut rudely by him.
“You better shut your mouth!” he said in an angry voice.
“Mark, it’s not what you think…” Oliver tried but was awarded with an equal rage of emotions.
“Oh, shut up, Oliver! Like you were not going to kiss her” Mark said with a look of disgust clear on his face.
“How can you do that? How can you kiss your own cousin? Its disgusting bro!” Mark added making me cringe a bit with the unnecessary title. I knew it was about time that we cleared some conceptions.
“That’s the thing, Mark! Listen to me. We are not related!” I spoke from behind him.
Mark turned towards me with the speed of light and shouted back, “WHAT?”
I hate this habit of him when he shouts like a freaking banshee on your face!
“We are not related by blood, Mark! We are not cousins!” I tried to explain but only my fool of a brother can come up with the worst conclusion ever.
“You are adopted? That explains why you look so different and why they were always rude to you!” Mark said pointing a finger towards me which looked as if he was accusing me of being adopted.
‘How can he come up with that of all things? And how dare he point his finger at me?’ I thought looking murderously at the said finger like I would break it at any moment. Mark instantly understood my intentions and hid his accusing finger behind his back.
“Not me, dumbass! Oliver is adopted!” I was more than just offended by the way he belittled me.
“What? Oliver? That is not possible!” he screamed back in his high-pitched voice.
“You act smart in everything related to me but whenever it comes to observing someone else you are as dumb as a panda, Markie!” I said happy with the comparison.
“And for your kind information, I look exactly like my beautiful mother. I am a walking and talking carbon copy of our mum and the same goes for you with dad, but have a good look at Oliver. Does he look anything like his mother or his father? Do you even find any similarities between you and him?” I asked giving enough time to Mark to start up the gear in his unused brain.
“Hmm.. Actually no” Mark scratched his chin as the thought never crossed his brain.
‘Pea-size unused brain’ I looked disappointedly at the monument standing in front of me.
“Yeah, I guess you are right, but is it really true?” Mark questioned still in doubt.
Oliver who was listening to our conversation silently after my betrayal, spoke for the very first time.
“She is telling the truth, Mark. We are not related. I am not your cousin” he said in a solemn voice.
“When did you find out?” Mark asked, he looked concerned. He actually really cares about his best friend.
“It’s been a while. Rosey helped me” Oliver revealed and Mark again turned towards me.
“You did?” Mark looked at me with shock.
“Yeah. He had his suspicion. I was working in the medical field. So, when he asked me to search about his birth and stuff, I checked thoroughly” I replied honestly.
“and what did you find?” Mark asked his question was really valid.
“His birth certificate was fake. We confirmed it first by Minnie’s parents, who were working in the same hospital. Dr. Dsouza made one after Uncle Levi gave them some generous help” I said with an eye roll.
Mark was smart enough to understand that Uncle Levi gave the hospital money to make a fake birth certificate.
“Then Minnie’s Father took Dr. Dsouza for drinking and found out that Oliver was adopted from St. Mary orphanage” I added the information that I had with me for years.
“He was adopted from an orphanage?” Mark asked in wonder.
“Yes, do you remember Eddie and Maddie, the twins?” I asked and Mark had a look of recognition on his face.
“Those twins from your junior college?” Mark asked and I nodded in confirmation.
“Yup. So, luckily their grandfather was working in the orphanage for years and it was his last year before retirement when the twins and I requested him to look for a document with our Uncle and Aunt’s name” I narrated the tale and Mark was hanging on to my every word.
“His grandfather couldn’t get anything from the documentation room but surprisingly, when he was instructing the cleaner to clean the storage room, he found some old files, and guess what, one of them included Oliver’s in it” I said and Mark shook his head.
“It sounds strange” Mark added.
“If you find this strange, I don’t know how will you react when you hear the next part” I added and Mark listened attentively.
“Shoot” he replied.
“He was only a few days old when they adopted him and he was adopted the same day he was brought to the orphanage. In a few hours, to be precise” I replied which made him even more weary.
“What?” Mark asked.
“Yup. She has the original document and I have a copy of it” Oliver finally added something.
“Also, we have a pdf too” I added again.
Oliver and I exchanged looks and he nodded.
He removed his cell phone and opened the pdf before giving his cell phone to Mark.
Mark read the entire old document silently. I guess he read it many times to actually believe everything.
And then he finally spoke, “I can’t believe it, we are really not related!”
“I know. It’s hard to believe” Oliver confirmed.
“How did you find out?” He asked Oliver this time.
“I heard my parents talking about it” Oliver replied.
“What about Olivia?” Mark asked in confusion.
“She is also adopted from the same orphanage. They chose the same orphanage as they kept their first secret hidden really well” Oliver replied.
“You are the one behind this discovery too?” Mark looked at me and I chuckled lightly.
“I can’t believe this girl and you hid everything from me!” Mark added in annoyance for being left out of the secret.
“It was Oliver’s secret. How am I supposed to reveal it without his permission?!” I asked with a raised eyebrow.
“Thanks for keeping your promise. At least one of them” He said, his words sounding bitter, unlike his usual angelic tone.
“Okay rest all seem good but..” Mark said casually and added,
“Now tell me what is going on between you two?” He asked, his expression hardened again.
‘Is this guy on his periods? What are these mood swings?’ I looked at him weirdly.
“Nothing” I was quick to answer. It came out like an automatic response.
“Nothing?” Both of them asked in unison.
“Yeah, nothing” I replied strongly.
“You heard her. I mistook her sisterly feelings for something else” Those words which came out of Oliver’s mouth felt like a hard slap.
“I think I should go” I said wanting to get out of this nasty situation and also remembering that I need to update Elijah about the recent findings.
“Where do you think you are going? You owe me an explanation!” Oliver’s tone hardened this time.
“I owe you nothing” I replied with the same intensity and left.
I ran towards the basement and opened the door to see Elijah sitting on the couch with his hands folded on his chest which was flexing his chest muscle even more.
“You are late. What took you so long?” he asked, his voice sounded cold, not playful like it was in the morning.
“I was eating. I have a big appetite” I replied casually as I moved toward the closet.
In a fraction of a second, I felt a dark presence behind me.
I turned around to see Elijah standing right behind me. I looked up to meet his eyes which were burning with fire of an erupting volcano.
“Where were you?” he asked slowly defining each syllable carefully while both of his hands were caging me from either side of my body.
“I said I went for breakfast!” I replied firmly looking right back into his wild eyes.
I felt like the flame in his eyes increased after my lie. His face was cold but his voice was colder than an iceberg,
“I can smell him on you!”