Truth be told. Pt.1

Mariana Pov

Yelling...again. It's like I never even left home. Mary's voice can be heard through the closed door and through the pillow on top of my head. I groan at the sound of the noise. Other voices, male voices, can be heard too. And then there is Maria trying to calm them all down. I really needed this sleep but with the way they are carrying on, I won't be sleeping much at all. When I open my eyes and look at the clock it is barely past three, which means I have slept about two and a half hours. Not nearly enough, but it'll have to do.

In my frustration I hop out of bed, slam the door against the wall upon opening it and march out to the living room where the screaming is coming from. My face is turned into the face of an angry nightmare. Blood red face, eyes popping out and mouth pressed in a firm line almost appearing white. "What the Hell is going on?!" The sound of my voice is that of an angry God, shaking the ground, making all glass objects to klink and clatter. The force of my power is poured into my every word accentuating my anger for being disturbed in my sleep.

They all fall quiet at the sight and sound of me. Holding their breaths in obvious fear and tension. Mary knows I'm not a morning person, especially when I lack sleep and have a lot to deal with. Everyone else at home noticed this same issue when my days spent with the prince became more frequent. Maria also noticed that on the first day here. I was scowling at her rather nasty. "Um, we kinda started talking when you went to bed and...it slightly escalated." Ryan answers me hesitantly.

"Slightly?!" I yell, looking at all of them. "You are all much older than me and behaving quite the opposite!" Sighing, I walk to the sofa and plop down into it. My head hurts a lot after that show of power, which was not intended by the way. We have got to get this whole deal over with. I pinch the bridge of my nose trying to calm down so this headache can go away. I feel a dip in the sofa next to me and then a cold hand on my shoulder. "Here, lassie. Drink." Papa hands me a glass of water with white pills which tells me that they are likely to be painkillers. I take them gladly, sipping the water first before popping both pills in my mouth and drinking all of the water in one go.

Without lifting my head to look at them, I glare at them all. Maria is just standing there looking lost while Papa got comfortable next to me. Mary is clearly flustered while Carlos is fuming. There is definitely a history there, one I am adamant to find out about. Ryan seems to be fighting himself mentally with the way his facial expressions keeps changing. Logan looks annoyed, as per usual. I'm just angry at the bunch of them. But I can't really be can I? It's been a rough week and we could all use a break. "We are going to settle all of this, right now. I'm gonna start asking questions and then we'll all take turns to ask and answer, truthfully." They all nod in agreement and take a seat one by one. "Alright. Let's start with Papa and Maria." They seem to look surprised but I turn ther surprise into shock with my question, "How do you know Neptune?"

The both of them are sputtering inconsistently, trying to form solid words but fail. "H-How do you know about that?" A flustered Maria asks eventually. "I heard you talking the night after the movie." I say simply, not wanting to elaborate and reveal that I was in fact eavesdropping. Papa shifts uncomfortably in his seat while taking deep breaths every few seconds. When I look at him he has tears gathering in his eyes. "It's okay..." I whisper, reaching out to him and embracing him. Maria comes over to envelope the both of us in a motherly hug.

"Ye're granddad, he saved us from a terrible fate." Papa sniffs back his tears while telling us their story. "Our lassie, Rachel, she had a friend like you." He looks up at me with a smile on his tear filled eyes. Maria sits down behind him, still hugging her husband of sixty years. "She would be a grandmother by now, had she lived." Maria says with sadness in her soft voice and it pains me to hear them this way. "Ye're granddad came to us when she was just a babe, with a babe of his own. We were camping on the beach that night. There he came from the sea, clad in royal clothes. The babe crying in his blood covered arms. It was a terrible sight."

Maria takes a sharp breath in as if she is experiencing the whole thing all over again. Papa continues where she stopped, "The wailing infant screamed bloody murder. We thought he was the one who hurt the child. Until he fell down, cradling the child to his scarred body. We rushed to his side, our poor Rachel crying because of the sudden thunder that followed this strange being." Papa too takes a breath and Maria then takes the turn to continue. All the while the rest of us are leaning in to hear what they have to say.

"He struggled to keep his eyes open. Pushing the babe to us he breathed out strange words. We felt the energy leaving him and coming to us the moment the words left his mouth. He asked of us to take care of his boy, Marcus." They both then smile at the memory of having another child, given to them. Their eyes then sadden once again and Papa speaks once again. "Then in one sweep, we were pushed back and the ocean came for him. Higher than the mountains was the wall of water. It descended upon him like a fist striking down. And then...he was gone."

Papa pauses to take a steadying breath, his hands combing through his tousled hair. "We were left with two gifts that day, a son of royal blood and an eternal life." Papa finishes at last. My brows furrow in confusion. There has to be more, right? "How does this have anything to do with your 'terrible fate'?" Mary asks aloud. While I have been thinking about what they just said I never thought about how Rachel was any part of this let alone this fate of theirs.

"Had Neptune not showed up, the wave would have destroyed the entire coast. We were in the middle of a earthquake and then came the tsunami. What a terrible time for camping!" Maria laughs, it's awkward and forced, she's trying to lift the mood with a bad joke. It makes me cringe. "A terrible battle between a God and a traitor..." Ryan mumbles lowly. That's right! Ryan is supposed to be the Keeper of History. He can elaborate on it. That will have to wait though, I'm still curious about Rachel's role in all of this. I glance at Ryan and then the others to see that they are also looking at Ryan. Yeah...they don't know what I do.

"Okay, since that is somewhat cleared up, where does Rachel fit in?" I question and the others nod in agreement, eager to find out more. Papa looks to Maria and they share a knowing look. They both turn their attention to me and I hold my breath. "Why are they looking at you?" Logan speaks up for the first time and I have to admit, his voice calms me down a bit. I'm glad he's still here, even if he doesn't seem like he wants to be. I breath a sigh to calm down my racing mind. It's filled with new information and there is still plenty to come.

"Now...d-don't freak out okay, lassie?" Maria asks me with a hesitant breath. Oh boy, I have a bad feeling about this. The ground starts to shudder and the glass clink against one another slightly. "Calm down, Mariana." Mary instructs me with a monotonous voice. I turn my head at her and huff which earns me an eye roll from my sister. Still, I calm down slightly and brace myself for what Maria and Papa are about to tell me. "Rachel died in childbirth." Maria begins slowly, eyeing me the whole time as if she's being careful of what she's saying. I look to Papa and he just looks back at me with a blank face. Unreadable, for the first time since I met him, which in truth is just a few days.

"She was...Marcus's...m-mate." I'm pretty sure my eyes just fell out of their sockets. There is not a sound that can be heard from within the house, nor outside. "Um, we uh, we're your great grandparents, closest to Neptune. Since, well, he's really old but we are close to a hundred, he is still your ancestor because your bloodline started with him not so long ago." I'm still sitting there speechless with my mouth hanging open. I notice that everyone is staring at me, waiting for my next move. I close my mouth which has run dry all of a sudden and signal for then to continue.

"Your grandfather, Matteo, is our grandson. Rachel and Marcus's son. And your father is Matteo's son." Maria continues to explain to me and all I hear is Papa gulping and nothing else after that. They're my family. They see me and see their daughter, my grandmother. I've always been part of both worlds. And here I thought that I was going to have a struggle to unite both land and sea. But no, I'm already part of it all. It all started with Neptune having a human mate. My bloodline started out half human, half mermaid. It makes me feel...I don't know how I feel. I get up and run my hands over my head, feeling the headache return. "I need a minute." I managed to whisper out. Honestly, I didn't know my voice was going to work. I can't wrap my head around the fact that I have more family then I thought, right in front of me.