The Secrets She Kept

Epilogue

My phone vibrated at the new message alert. Climbing clumsily from the passenger seat of the car, I pulled out my phone. I blinked and stared at the screen a few seconds too long.

"Everything okay?" Richie asked, closing his door and coming to stand at my side. The gravelled driveway crunching with every step.

I swiped to view the message and allowed my lips to pull up into a smile. "Yeah, actually."

I lifted my phone towards him and showed him the simple birthday message from Graham.

"That's nice of him."

After being so isolated and alone for such a long time, it was still so baffling that I suddenly had people that cared and wanted to know me. The communications with my half-brother had been sparing but, despite the reticence of his siblings, he was still trying. He still sent messages from time to time even if our communications were awkward and stilted. We still made plans to meet up in the future, date yet to be determined.

If we ever even set a date.

I shook my head. "I know but it does mean that I might have to remember his birthday."

"Put it in your phone. Honestly, you'd forget your head if it wasn't screwed on. Heck I wouldn't have even known it was your birthday today if your sister hadn't reminded me."

I shrugged my shoulder as pang went through my chest. "I know but my birthday hasn't really been a thing for a long time. With Mum being so ill, those kinds of things just didn't matter. You know?"

Even as I spoke, a familiar wave of grief and guilt rose up, making my throat tight. He reached out a hand and squeezed mine even as my eyes squeezed closed against the familiar torrent of grief.

Fuck, I miss you mum.

"Well, all of that is going to change." Richie promised, shaking my hand until I opened my eyes. "From now on, we are going to celebrate your birthday and it is going to be a very big deal."

"Oh yeah?"

"Yes, starting with now." Richie stated, taking my phone from my hand. "Now, close your eyes."

I squinted up at him suspiciously for a moment before I slowly shut my eyes. I heard the gravel crunch under his feet as he moved around me. His arms brushed past my face, his head bowing close to the back of my head before a small weight settled around my neck.

"Okay, you can open them."

I peeled open my eyes and glanced down at my chest. Carefully, I lifted the pendant into view to see a small metal medallion and imprinted on it, a sun setting on the sea. My eyes burned and I had to blink rapidly to keep the tears at bay.

"Richie, it's perfect."

"It's just something small. I saw it and thought of you."

He couldn't have picked anything more perfect if he tried.

He really knows me.

I opened my mouth to say something but he shook his head. "Come on, they're all waiting and I'm starved."

I wanted to protest, to have a conversation, but he was already edging towards the house.

"Fine." I replied before striding forwards, nudging him with a shoulder as I passed. "But we need to go in through the side gate, Dad said they are in the garden today."

I walked up to the wooden gate set in the fencing to the side of the house and pushed the gate open, my glancing back at Richie as I did so.

"Surprise!"