SHE'S NOT YOUR REAL COUSIN
'Believing the unbelievable'
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"Th-- thank you." Ariel appreciated greatfully.
He smiled nicely at her :)
"Please don't mention." his voice sounding dip but soft.
He has a captivating smile, his face pale but cute, he has a brown long hair which stopped right on his shoulders.
"So are you in the mood to talk?" he asked politely.
"If you want." She replied nonchalantly.
"I know you are upset, but with time you will supersede your worries, pain and sufferings."
His kind words really touched her and she turned to look at him.
"Do you think... I will ever be happy in my life? after what has happened to me. you think I will supersede my pains?"
She chuckled and look up at the sky before adding,
"No, is not possible."
back at JAMES HOUSE
"Can someone tell me where ariel is?" Elizabeth's voice echoed in the house as she stood looking desperate.
"Mother! where have you taken her? provide her now."she yelled at her mother causing her to stand angrily.
But before she could react the door swinged opened reviewing James with a desperate look on his face, but he quickly cheer up on noticing beth present.
"Why are you so fierce, my darling?" James asked tenderly.
She quickly rushed and hugged him.
"Dad, I woke up this morning, only to find ariel's room empty." She said as tears rush down her face.
He Chuckled and said:
"My angel, I can see how concerned you are towards that girl, I just want you to know that, she's now in a safe place."
He look at her to see her reaction before he added;
"Working."
"Working? really!" she asked while looking sad.
"That's a good news, but why must she live over there?" asked beth with much concern.
"The place she got the job is far from our house, so she got to live there." Replied James.
"What kind of job is that?" questioned Beth causing the house to remain silent.
James eyes met his wife's, then he turned to face his daughter.
"Umm.....she's -- i--." James didn't know exactly what to say, as he began to stammer.
"She's now working at the bookshop in MEGAN city."
She said cutting her husband off from his incoherent words.
"Bu-- but.... why didn't she tell me?" Elizabeth sounded hurt as she uttered the last word.
"Now you see how ungrateful people can be." Felicia chipped in.
"Maybe... she didn't remember, because I was with her last night, she didn't say anything like that, it was a coincidence." beth tried defending Ariel.
"Stop defending her beth, that girl is not your real cousin." Felicia spat out.
"What? What do you mean she's not my real cousin, mother?" beth asked confused.
"Honey, why don't you tell her the truth?" Felicia urged her husband while smirking at him.
"Tell me what? what's going on here?" beth turned confused as she kept on asking.
"Well...." he trailed off before clearing his throat, then he began.
"Actually, your mother is right, ariel is not your real cousin neither her mother my sister." He said causing beth's jaw to drop in awe on hearing what her father said.
"We didn't even relate, back then when my mother was till alive, and when you were still very young to know anything." He began to tell his story on how he came to know Lily.
"One day," he continued,
"When i was on my way back from work, I heard a woman's cry in the bush, so I decided to check who it was. When I got there I found ariel's mother. She was pregnant and seems to be the time of her delivery, she seems to be in so much pain.
so I slowly approached her, she begged me to help her, so I helped her by taking her to my mother at home."
Elizabeth stared quietly at him as he
continued;
"My mother was a nurse back then and she took her in and helped her deliver ariel. after her delivery, she begged to stay. She said, she has no home, no relatives, no where to go. So my mother accepted her and took her as her own daughter and that was how we got related."
He chuckled on hearing his story, but he added;
"Ariel was so soft and tender back then, her skill was glowing like a light, her eyes was shining like the sky blue and large, she didn't look like every other normal babies, she was different and the purest thing I've ever seen in my life."
The moment of silence lasted for five minutes as everyone allowed the story to sink in them before beth broke it the silence by saying:
"But that doesn't mean we can't treat her like our family, especially now she has no one, you shouldn't have let her go, you should have trained her together with me and make her your own daughter, than sending her off."
"We tried our best dear, but she insisted on going so we couldn't stop her . James lied
"oh, I see." beth replied. then she added;
"I hope she's save."
"I know is difficult for you to believe, but you will forget some of your pain, then with time it will gradually disappear." he said trying to encourage her.
"I'm Winter Haven by name, my mother died after giving birth to me." He began to tell his story.
"From that day, my father coursed me, he said I was an evil child that killed my mother."
He stopped and stared into her eyes and said:
"Twelve years later, he stopped feeding me, and I was forced to live in the street."
The emotions of his past began to return gradually.
Then he turn to look at the people before he continued;
"When I turned twenty, he sold me as a slave, I tried to run, but the hunters captured me and took me away, I never lived a happy life."
He look at her noticed that her emotions has taken over her.
"You mean, you passed through all this?"