It's All About Us

Chapter 2: "Yeah, I'm excited to have a sister."

Anna

I have half-brothers.

As per what the social worker, Ms. Calder, was saying, they all live in Virginia, USA, and the eldest was coming here to pick me up.

Then he will take me back to live with him and my other brothers.

Is this a prank?

In all my 12 years of life, it was always just me and my Mum. There was never any mention of any brothers or a father.

Apart from that one time.

And the fact that Mum had already made a will with a stranger's name as my guardian is somewhat betraying.

"The police couldn't find anything intact in the debris of the fire." Ms. Calder was saying. "I'm sorry, Anna. 90% of your house got destroyed."

So that meant I didn't even have a home to go back to.

"Also, if you want, we can hold a funeral for your mother tomorrow."

I just continued looking out of the window at the late afternoon sun going down while laying on my hospital bed.

The police had come in earlier to talk with me and get my statement about last night, but after trying for 10 minutes, they gave up on me.

I wasn't cooperating, they said.

Can you blame me? Was my statement going to make my mom alive again?

I heard Ms. Calder sigh, which she was doing a lot with me, and take a sip of her coffee. Then she said something about making arrangements for the funeral and left me alone.

Moving my head towards the bedside table, I decided to look at all the things the police had found in my Mum's bank safe.

A small purple jewelry box was stored alongside some of my documents. It had my name taped on the front, so I slowly take it in my hands to open it.

It was a silver bracelet with a weird sphere attached in the middle. One side of the sphere was flat to rest upon the wrist, and it had two initials carved on it.

B.R.

As far as I could remember, there was no one close to us whose name had the initials B.R. So it's another mystery why Mum must've kept this bracelet so safe in her locker. I closed the lid again and kept it on the table before grabbing my documents.

First there was my American passport, then my citizenship card and birth certificate.

Name: Olivianna Aster Grace
Date of Birth: 1st January, 2010.
Place of Birth: Smithfield, Virginia.
Mother's Name: Lillian Grace
Father's Name: John Greeley

Wow, I didn't even knew I was born in Virginia. I always assumed I was born here in Vancouver itself, where I had lived my whole life.

This was the first time I looked at my own birth certificate, so I also had no idea that my father's name was mentioned on it.

John Greeley.

If I remember correctly, this name was once trending everywhere. It was three years ago when this person died in a car crash.

Why do I remember it so well?

Because it was the first night my mom had come home drunk.

The front door banged shut, which made me jump up in fright.

I remembered Mom's instructions that when someone is breaking into the house, the first thing to do is grab the house phone and hide in a safe place while calling 911.