You Again (Completed) ✔️

38.

Mom and Dad are sitting on the couch as we enter the living room and take a seat across from them.

Mom starts laughing and then says. "Well if it isn't my lonely children. Coming back home to me. Too bad you're not wanted here."

Dad touches mom's hand and he whispers something to her. He looks at us. "I'm glad you're all here. There's something I need to tell you about your mother."

I look at Dad and say. "Dad after you tell us about what's wrong with Mom I want to know why you're all so angry. I know there's things you haven't told me about while I was gone and I want everything in the air at once."

Dad nods. "That's fair." He looks at the three of us and says. "Your mother has a brain tumor. She needs to get it removed ASAP, but she's afraid to go to the specialist. I have to take her next week and organize a day for it to be removed."

"I'll come with you, Dad." Antwon says. "I want to be there every step of the way."

Dad smiles. "Thanks, son. I'll need someone to drive us around. I don't think I'll be able to do it on my own."

Tears roll down my face as I take in what Dad said to Mom. "Is that why Mom's been mean to me since I arrived home?"

"Yes, it seems the tumor is pressing on a part of your mother's brain and it's making her have unusual outbursts."

"At least I know why she's treating me differently. Can you tell me what's going on with you, Daddy?"

Dad looks at me. "It was a year after you left that we started to notice that some money was disappearing from the vaults. A couple months later our clients found out some of their stuff went missing. I had to find out what was going on and I hired someone to investigate what was happening, but by the time the investigation finished all the money my parents left was gone and the private investigator told me who did it. Kevin, my brother, was the one to take everything from me and I was broke. I lost everything until someone came along with money and told me that he will help us. That person was..."

"Cole Mason," I say. "He told me that much."

A smile spreads across his face. "I really like that boy."

I stand up and move next to my father. "I'm sorry you went through all that Daddy. I wish you called me though. I would have come home."

Dad wraps his arms around me and says. "I couldn't let you miss school to help us. Besides, you needed to live your life away from your parents. Your brothers did that for a while, but they wanted to come to come home and save money."

I pull away from him. "Until Uncle Kevin stole from them too."

Dad looks at Antwon and says. "You should tell her what he did to you, Antwon. You're the one that lost a lot because of that man."

My attention turns to my brother and he looks down at his hands. From the way he's acting I can tell that whatever he's about to say will hurt the most.

I think he lost a lot when it came to what Kevin did. But, the thing I don't get is why he blames me for it.

Antwon takes a deep breathe. "A couple weeks after you left I met a beautiful woman at a pub. She looked similar to you with dark hair and eyes, sun kissed skin and a beautiful laugh. She was a wonderful woman. We started to see each other regularly and I fell in love with her. A year into our relationship Uncle Kevin started to take notice of her."

Oh, no. I hope he didn't do what he did to those girls in New York to her. If he did it's my fault that my brother's story is his personal hell.

"He watched her when she came to visit me when I was helping out at the vaults. When she left he told me that she was hot and if he was younger he'd bang her."

My hands start to shake and tears begin to fall down my face. "You don't have to continue." I interrupt him.

He shakes his head. "I need to let it out, Julia. I've bottled this up for nine years and the story needs to be told."

Dad moves away from Mom and sits next to me. His attention turns back to Antwon. "Tell us what happened next."

Antwon stands up and starts pacing. "I proposed to her when she was two months pregnant with our child. We were going to move in together and start a family. One day she didn't return home from work. I looked for her everywhere and couldn't find her. After 48 hrs. of her disappearance I went to the police and told them she was missing and pregnant with my child. They questioned me most of the night before they ended up sending someone to look into the case. It turns out Uncle Kevin took her." His eyes land on mine and says. "He dressed her up like you. He beat and raped her."

I run out of the room and up to the bathroom. I lean over the toilet and throw up.

It's my fault that he lost everything.

I hear footsteps approach the bathroom and look at my father. "Daddy, this is all my fault. I knew Uncle Kevin was obsessed with me. I didn't know he would do something like that to my brother's fiancé."

He grabs a tissue and hands it to me. "There's more to the story, Julia. He's never been able to get this far without breaking something. You being here is going to help him heal."

Shaking my head I say. "It's not going to heal him. He hates me because the girl he loved look like me with the dark hair, dark eyes and sun kissed skin."

Dad places his hand on my arm. "Come back downstairs and let him finish the story and then you can tell us all about Kevin and what you've seen."

"I can't do that, Daddy. They're going to blame me for not helping the girls out." I stand up and walk to basin. I wash hands and face. Grabbing the mouth wash I swish it in my mouth before spitting it out.

Dad leads the way to living room where Antwon is leaning against the window looking outside. "You can continue, son."

He nods. "The police found her in a hideaway house that Uncle Kevin owned. She hung herself and left a note for me." Pulling out the note he reads it. "Dearest Antwon, I couldn't live with what your Uncle did to me. Losing my daughter, being beaten and raped continuously has made it hard for me to continue to live. I don't blame you for the things that happened to me. I need you to know that I love you and always will. - Kyra. Ps. please, look out for your sister. She's in danger." Looking at me he says. "I'm sorry I didn't check on you when I had the chance, but grief had a hold of me."