I lived my whole life as an only child, but it wasn’t a privilege in my case. To think I had a potential sibling was crazy.

And a criminal boyfriend.

A month after my mother’s death, I was back in class. Finals were approaching, but I was unmotivated. I felt as if I had no reason to study anymore. I had a loaded boyfriend like Mum wanted, right? I needed no degree or job.

I considered it a coping mechanism rather than moping around Kai’s place and overthinking possibilities. Kai refused to listen to his mother and stay around her after the way she had degraded me. I hadn’t confronted him about his past yet, however. Mum’s mail didn’t settle right in my head, so I couldn’t face him about it.

Considering the overall vibe of the mail and the way she ended her life, she simply could’ve been bluffing or holding incorrect information. Moreover, I had a more significant personal issue: decrypting the similarity between my eyes and Ryan’s.

Although he was closer to blond, I discovered we had the same hair type, skin tone, and eyes. I was darker than my pale British mother, a rarely found skin tone among the original Europeans around me. Ryan’s, who claimed to be Latino, was almost identical to mine. There was a possibility I was merely seeing things as well.

I dropped my pen and palmed my face. I couldn’t wait for that lecture to be over. Why? I didn’t have anything to do anyway. I was jobless since I didn’t work for two weeks without further notice, so they fired me. I was turning into a leech, like my mother wanted me to be, living on what Kai offered me. Not that I ate much or asked for anything anyway—I only needed a place to sleep and shelter myself from the rain.

I sighed, probably loud, because the professor asked me whether I was good.

“Actually, I’m not,” I responded, eyes gazing at my lap.

He was unfazed, neither were my classmates. It went like an unspoken rule on campus to let Melanie González be.

“You may take a break if you wish,” he offered, his eyes dripping with pity.

I nodded and left the classroom straight to the toilet. I stormed inside, knowing well who was there touching up her makeup at that time of the day. The girl winced. She quickly collected her belongings and dumped them in her bag. I felt like a monster she needed to avoid at all costs.

She had apologised a tonne through the last month. It took me some time to go back to normal with her. Besides, even if I hadn’t fully forgiven her yet, I needed her in my plan.

If she wanted to prove she was sorry, she ought to help me.

“I need your help, Massie.”

\

“Ryan, hey,” I greeted once he came from behind the butler, throwing myself on him in a hug in front of the Martinez mansion.

Ryan was wearing an apron and had a few flour specks on it. He felt stiff in my arms, but he quickly regained his cool and hugged me back. I might or might not have lingered a little more in his arms to test how it’d feel like to hug… a possible brother. He felt warm and welcoming. He hugged Massie briefly after and let us in.

“To what do I owe the pleasure of this lovely visit?” he asked.

“Are you not happy to see us?” Massie retorted, taking a seat. “We thought we could hang out together. Kai is busy, though.”

“I was in the middle of baking.” Ryan pointed to both of us. “And us?! You two?”

We nodded.

“We’ve made up,” I explained, smiling.

Ryan looked mortified, anxious as if he knew something was coming ahead from the union of two ladies, but he couldn’t quite predict it. “Well, lemme get the muffins out of the oven, then. At least, I have tasters now.” He disappeared into the kitchen.

“Which of those vases is the cheapest?” I whispered to Massie, assuming she would be experienced in the field. “Quick! This is our chance.”

She said through gritted teeth, “Melanie, do we need to? He is already busy in the kitchen, distracted.”

My facial muscles tensed as I whispered-shouted, “Yes, we do! I’ll break it and get him busy while you pretend to go to the toilet and do what we planned.”

“You don’t need to break a vase!”

I wanted to.

I chose one without her help and knocked it down. I hoped it was somewhat expensive to cause a minor loss to the Martinez. Massie screeched, but I wasn’t bothered the least. It felt good to see the thing scattering before my eyes.

“Mierda!” Ryan came back, face contoured with worry. “Qué pasó?”

So, he spoke Spanish, and it was the first language that would come to him in such cases. Would I have grown up speaking the language if I was a daughter of that family? I only spoke English and a little Spanish from self-learning to understand my heritage.

I rubbed my nape sheepishly. It finally dawned on me what I did was more than just releasing anger—I broke something that wasn’t mine deliberately. If that item was too valuable, and they were to press charges, I wouldn’t know what to do.

“Ryan, I’m sorry!” I bit my lip. “I was just checking this out, and it slipped from my fingers…”

Sighing, he shook his head in dismay and came closer. He crouched down and swatted my hand away. “Don’t hurt yourself. I’ll do it.”

My hand sneaked behind my back and gestured for Massie to move.

“Ryan, I need to use the toilet. I know my way, yeah?” Massie excused.

Ryan nodded idly, busy with the shards.

Massie went and came back shortly. I hoped no cctvs would catch her, or they simply wouldn’t check. Yet, in all honesty, I didn’t care. She gave me a wink from behind the guy’s back. Ryan and I were done cleaning the mess. We tasted his surprisingly great muffins and talked about school—I couldn’t help but notice the expensive ingredients added. I was getting impatient in my seat and wanted to leave. We excused ourselves at my sign.

“What did you bring?” I asked once we rode in her car.

“Some hair from his hairbrush.” She smiled triumphantly.

I took the plastic bag that had strands of my supposed brother from her. “Thanks for helping me, Massie.” I meant it. It added up to the sincerity of her apology.

“The least I could do.” She pressed her lips in a tight line. “But Melanie, I don’t understand. Why don’t you just ask Ryan?”

I had already explained everything to her in the shortest way possible, but she still bugged me with the question.

I stared at the blankness of the sky for a second and replied, “Because if he wanted to tell me, he would have long ago. It’s been months since he had been following me and acting weirdly around me.”

I knew DNA tests cost a shíttonne, but I was still willing to do it. I inherited the left cash in Mum’s account, so I could use it along with my savings. My sanity was way more valuable than some cash. Besides, I wanted to be one hundred percent sure.

I lingered for some more time in front of the bank after I had withdrawn the cash. What came out wouldn’t come back as long as I stayed jobless. Did I want to do that? Did I want to be hit by another truck if the test came out positive? Did I want to waste the money in case it was all nonsense and possibly another plan of Mum’s after she had thrown me on the Kingstons?

That was an important thing to lie about, however. I doubted Mum was that low. She was still a strong woman who took care of me all those years, even when she was kicked out, according to her.

I went ahead and did it, promising myself no more hesitation. I used my hair for the test. They told me to wait for a few weeks until they sent the results to my address.

When I was back home, a frowning Kai was waiting for me.

“Where have you been, baby? I worry about you,” he demanded.

I was just going out of my shell, so he was often paranoid about my wellbeing. I hadn’t told him or anyone else about Mum’s mail, and how I worked with it as well. I opted to have it as something personal between me and her, and she would have wanted it to as well.

“Looking for a job,” I lied, entering the living room.

He came closer and hugged my waist. “I told you, you don’t need to. Let me take care of you, and you relax and try to focus on what you missed,” he coaxed, meaning school.

I pecked his cheek. “I know. I guess it’s just a part of me that got used to working. Who knows, it might help me cope with all the drastic changes happening recently.”

Kai and I sat in the living room, killing some time with the TV. I was just getting better and moving on from mum’s death, but I couldn’t relax with a web of questions in my head in the light of the mail and Massie’s mention of a second lady in their lives. I wondered if everything was connected.

“What’s the worst thing you’ve ever done, Kai?” I asked, sitting beside him on the sofa.

He snorted. “Acting on impulse, I guess? This usually generates bad results, doesn’t it?”

That was generic. I nodded. “What did you dream of last night?”

Kai looked up at me, licking the corner of his lips. “Nothing logical.” He giggled. “Why?”

Because you were chanting ‘Kim’ in your sleep, I wanted to say. Because I want to know who she is, what happened between the two of you, and whether she was the one who got you in jail.

“Because you were chanting ‘Kim’ in your sleep,” I pressed on, receiving an unexplainable look from my boyfriend.

“Kim?”

I nodded.

For a second, he looked deep in thought. I hoped he wasn’t looking for a way to wrap up the subject. “I think you’re mistaken. I can’t…” he trailed off.

“Can’t?”

“I don’t know—”

I stopped him right there, “Please, don’t make up things or try to… lie.” I didn’t ever want to bring up that word between us, but I had to. “If you don’t wanna talk about it, I’m cool. I will wait. But eventually, I think I have the right to know. Massie mentioned her too.”

He looked away. “Well then, I’m not ready to talk about it.”

. . .

If you still don’t get what Ryan said: Shít, what happened?

Do you think Ryan is really her sibling?

Have you figured yet who Kim could be?

Do you forgive Massie?

I’ll give readers a little of a choice for next chapter: Do you wanna know Kim’s or Ryan’s truth? Lemme know!

Vote, share and comment xx 😘