ADOPTIVE PARENTS

AMARIS POV

Before I could struggle or even realize how far I had sunk into the large pool, a second splash came.

My eyes located Zevian, his body moving towards mine speedily. Then a hand wrapped around my waist, yanking me up.

After coughing up the water I had mistakenly swallowed, I caught sight of Zevian, still looking irritated.

Quickly but stupidly, I pulled myself away from him without giving a thought to the fact that I was still in the water and couldn’t swim. Before I could go deeper, Zevian pulled me by the waist again.

“I would appreciate it if you stopped trying to unalive yourself… at least for now,” he said, holding me as he swam to the edge of the pool.

“Sorry,” I mumbled as he sat on the edge, wrapping my arms around the wet cloth that had begun clinging to my skin.

Zevian’s eyes glanced at my hand movement before propelling himself out of the pool. “Get inside,” he said while turning to walk away.

I glanced back at his moving body, feeling a sense of loss. “Don’t go,” I said, my voice barely above a whisper, but somehow, he heard me despite the distance between us.

Zevian paused and turned, his eyebrow raised in question.

“I…I can’t sleep, and I had another…” I stammered, but his eyes just stared intently at my face.

“Just stay here for five minutes, please. I promise I won’t speak to you throughout the entire minute. In fact, you wouldn’t even notice I’m here,” I said.

Zevian seemed reluctant at first, but my guess was that he had something on his mind too. That was probably why he came here initially. But then he wanted to leave knowing I was here.

After some time, Zevian turned and walked away.

My heart ached at seeing his back. I guess he couldn’t spare me those five minutes. I turned back with a loud sigh.

Lifting my legs out of the water, I folded them against my body as I was now starting to feel the cold. The universe felt colder today.

Another sigh escaped my lips. Maybe I shouldn’t have walked down those stairs. If I hadn’t, I would be at home, and Amoria would have been here, happy, with her husband.

I placed my chin on my kneecap as I stared at the reflection of the bright moon through the water. But my attention shifted as I jolted as something warm dropped on my head, covering my vision.

My heart spiked as I quickly dragged the item away from my head, but I was shocked to find Zevian standing behind me, a towel around his body as he raised an eyebrow at me questioningly.

Then my gaze shifted to the item that was now in my hand, only to find a warm towel.

I gulped down the saliva in my mouth as I had no idea how to react. Zevian had gone to get me a towel?

I opened my mouth, but nothing came out, and I was fully aware that I was looking like a fish with a wide mouth from a cartoon series.

“I see you’re having a difficult time pronouncing the words, ‘thank you,’” Zevian said before waking to the edge and taking his seat beside me, but at a reasonable distance away from me.

“No...I…thank you. I thought you left,” I mumbled, biting my lips nervously.

“I did,” he said.

“Oh,” I whispered as a little disappointment rose in my chest.

Then he added, “But then I realized you’re twenty-one and still don’t know how to swim, and you seem to fancy participating in things that might end your life.”

I shifted my gaze away from the pool back to him. “Thank you,” I said again, even though a part of me was vividly aware that he was here to check up on me because of Amoria. But even at that, it still felt good.

I relaxed, wrapping the towel around my body.

Minutes passed as we sat there silently, the only sounds being the crickets chirping from the long grass and the beating of my heart from what I was about to say.

“The story you heard isn’t the whole truth.”

“What happened to your promise of keeping quiet and my not noticing you’re here?”

“Werewolves aren’t exactly known for keeping their promises,” I mumbled. “You don’t have to answer. Just assume I’m part of the crickets chirping.” I said.

I needed to let it out. I needed someone to hear my side of the story, even if it was the man who wanted to kill me the most.

When Zevian said nothing else, I took it as my cue to go on.

“I didn’t entirely grow up with Amoria,” I started, looking at the water as the memories opened like a flood.

“I was stolen at the hospital when we were born. Life was good. The couple who raised me seemed like a blessing, but that blessing soon turned into a nightmare when I clocked ten. That was when I found that room… where their real daughter was, lying down in a room filled with a large machine. She was a bit older than me, but I can remember how very thin and pale she was. Her veins could literally be seen through her skin.”

“That’s when I also saw the vial, the blood they had always collected from me, claiming they were taking it to the hospital for checkups. I was a kid, so I believed every word they said, seeing it there didn’t sit well with me.”

“Then they found me. They got mad, and although they tried to hide the changes, it wasn’t long before I noticed them. They stopped paying attention to me, forgot to feed me, and only came to my room when they wanted something. My blood…it got so bad that they didn’t even need to lie anymore. They just took it.”

I turned to face Zevian, whose face was no longer facing the water but on me. Searching.

“It went on for a while, and I didn’t blame them. There was no harm done; it was just blood, after all, and I knew Gia was sick, though I didn’t understand how my blood was of any help to them.”

“But day after day, it became worse. They took larger quantities, and soon, I started falling sick. Then one day, Gia died…They were pissed. They were so mad, but for some reason, they accused me of having a hand in it, even when I was always on the bed, weak because of their actions. They stopped. They ignored my presence entirely, to the extent that I had to fend for myself. But on the brighter side, I was getting better…or so I thought.”

I swallowed, my voice strained by what I was about to say. I noticed Zevian had shifted a bit; his body was no longer facing the water but me.

“It was my seventeenth birthday. Like every other year since I found the room, they didn’t celebrate my birthday. They weren’t around, and I was down, so I sneaked into their room, thinking it would help me.”

“But that’s when I found the document of my real family, my parents. That was the first time I found out I wasn’t their child. There wasn’t an adoption document to show I was given to them, and somehow, it didn’t sit well with me. So I made the decision to find out for myself.”

“That’s when I saw Amoria for the first time. She was like a reflection of myself. I remember how she ran to them happily after getting her exam results. They all looked perfect. I wanted to belong, but just as I was about to walk up to them to meet my family, that’s when everything went blank…”

“And when I opened my eyes, I was in an empty room that I didn’t recognize…then blood was all over me… At first, I thought it was my blood, that I was injured… but then I looked and saw my parents…with holes in their chests.”

Zevian's face flashed with confusion.

“Did you kill them?”he asked, but I noticed this time it wasn’t judgemental. He wasn’t mean, just curious.

“Yes.”