Tentatively I took a seat right in front of her. Her stoic visage hadn't changed a bit since I'd come here.
"So you're finally going to tell me the truth about her?", I asked her.
Heather barely moved an inch in her chair except to tilt her head to the side, examining me as if I was a major inconvenience that needed a quick fix.
With a deep release of breath her facade shatters and she allows me to see just how tired and frustrated she was feeling. She reaches for a key and opens a draw on her side of the table and pulls out a brown file then places it flat on the desk.
"You're one stubborn kid Blake," she chuckles tiredly. "I guess at this point telling you the truth would serve you better".
She opens the folder and hands me a photo of a young woman. The long blonde hair and stunning blue eyes are almost an exact replica of my mother's.
"Who is she mom?", I demand rather that ask. I have no idea what any of this has to do with Alana but I do have a pretty guess who that woman in the photo might be. Though as far as I know my mom was supposed to be an only child.
"That's my sister", she confirms.
"You don't have a sister", the words are almost automatic for me. That's the truth I've known all my life.
"She was my younger sister", Heather confirmed. "Your grandfather had another child that wasn't with your grandmother. I had a younger sister Blake; her name was Elena".
Elena? Why does that name sound familiar.
Alana?
No, that must just be a coincidence.
"We both got pregnant around the same time", Heather continued. Her words fueling my suspicions to no end, "the only difference was that I was married to the love of my life and she got knocked up by some guy she barely knew".
I sucked in a hard breath and settled in on the chair across from my mother.
Surely what she's saying can't be true. I could feel the confusion and disbelief radiating off of me in waves and engulfing the room.
I didn't want to hear any of this. I couldn't believe..
"She's your cousin Blake", Heather ripped off the band aid. Revealing a truth that left no room for turning back or denial. "Do you get it now? She's your god damn cousin! Do you understand why you need to stay away from her now?".
"What about her parents?", I contested, "the people that actually raised her".
"You're smart enough to figure out that those people aren't her biological parent, aren't you Blake".
My eyes immediately met my mother's and I had no idea what my expression must've been.
Alana is truly my cousin. That's what my mom has been keeping a secret from me this whole time. But why? Why keep something like that a secret. Why not just tell us.
All of a sudden my mom stands up from her seat. Her action is so fast that it sends the chair toppling over behind her. Her eyes meets mine with a fiery indignation and I almost shrink back in my chair.
"Blake Bennett she says suddenly, please tell me that you did not sleep with Alana!", her voice is an outrage.
The thought of sleeping with Alana doesn't allure to me anymore and when I delay my answer and my mom notices the thoughtful look on my face she begins to shake her head and step away from me.
"Wait", I interject. Immediately stopping her mind from wondering, "We never slept together. We kissed a couple of time and that's it!".
Her face is still masked with disgust and it's in that moment that the shock and confusion that I was so suddenly forced to endure begins to wear off and the truth begins to settle in.
"Don't you dare look at me like that mother!", I stand from my chair and stare her down. "You knew all this time that Alana and I were related and you said nothing even though you knew that we were getting close to each other, having feeling for each other!".
She looks irked by what I had said and honestly I'm just waiting for the consequence of it all.
"Don't you dare make this out to be my fault Blake. I told you not to get romantically involved with that girl and you didn't listen. I tried to warn you-"
"Warn me?", I laughed in mock humor. "If you wanted to warn me you would have told me the truth. News flash mother: telling someone that they are forbidden to be with the person they like is only going to make them want that person more!".
"You insolent boy!", she began before I cut her off.
"Don't you dare, I need to find Alana. I need to talk to her".
"She doesn't know about any of this Blake and you're going to keep it that way. She cannot know about our relations to her"
I scoffed at her audacity, "Are you serious right now?".
She sighed but didn't once lose that angry glint in her eyes, "You'll be going to London tonight. You don't have time to talk to her".
My head whipped around to face my mother, "You can't possibly think that after what you just told me, you can still force me to go on that business trip with Siara!".
She took a threatening step towards me with a dangerous glint in her eyes that made warning bells go off in my head.
"I can and I will, that is if you want Alana's dad to live. He's currently in the hospital in a coma battling for his life", I could smell the ultimatum before she even said it, "I know a doctor that can help him. And you know how much Alana loves her 'parents' it would be a shame if that doctor couldn't make it in time to help".
My eyes narrowed at my mother, "You wouldn't".
Uncertainty. I saw it in her disposition. Only a flicker. But it was there, until she hardened her features again.
"Try me".
There was no contesting that. Because I knew my mother and I knew she meant whatever she was saying. In some sort of messed up way I could almost see that through all that she was doing right now she genuinely believed that it was for my good. But I was too angry to accept that. I didn't want to accept it.
Just at that moment my phone beeped in my pocket and I pulled it out to see that I had a message from Alana. A part of me was afraid to read it. What was I going to say to her now.
My mom looked at me. Waiting for me to take on her challenge but before I could even consider what my next move was, my phone started to ring.
Alana was calling me.