Lahat ng Kabanata ng CONFESSION WITH MY STEP DAD : Kabanata 11 - Kabanata 16

For a moment, nobody spoke.I stared at Nick, waiting for him to take back his words. I waited for him to shake his head, laugh nervously, and tell me that this was some terrible misunderstanding.But he did none of those things.He stood in front of me with his shoulders tense and his eyes filled with something I had never seen in him before.Fear.Not the kind of fear a person felt when they were about to lose an argument. This was different. It was the fear of someone who had carried a secret for so long that the truth had finally become more frightening than the lie."I'm your father," he repeated quietly.I took a step backward."No.""Melody—""No!" My voice cracked. "Don't say my name like that. Don't stand there and tell me you're my father as if you've just told me the weather!"Clara remained beside the doorway, watching us. She didn't look surprised. That frightened me almost as much as Nick's confession."You knew?" I asked her.She lifted her chin slightly."I suspected."

"You're my sister."The words echoed through the dark hallway.I couldn't move.I couldn't even breathe.I stared at the woman standing several feet away from me.Her face was older than the little girl's face in the photograph, of course.But the eyes were the same.The shape of her smile.The small mark just beneath her left eyebrow.Even the way she tilted her head when she looked at me.I had seen those things before.In a photograph.In a memory I had spent years believing was nothing more than a dream."Lily?" I whispered.The woman nodded.Tears rolled down her cheeks."Yes."My hands began to shake.I looked at Andrew.Then Nick.Neither of them looked surprised."You knew she was here?"Nick shook his head."No.""Don't lie to me.""I'm not."Lily stepped forward."He's telling the truth."I looked at her."How do you know?""Because I didn't tell him."Her voice was soft.Almost too soft for everything that had just happened.I took another step toward her."You are really L

"Someone in this room."The man's words seemed to freeze the air around us.I looked at everyone.Nick.Andrew.Clara.Lily.Then back at the stranger.Someone among us had betrayed my mother.But who?My heart pounded so hard that I could hear it."You're lying," Nick said.The man smiled."Am I?""Who are you?""Someone who knew Eleanor before any of you understood what she had discovered."Nick took a step forward."Show your face."The man moved closer to the light.He looked to be in his late fifties. His hair was mostly gray, and there was a scar running from the side of his forehead toward his cheek.I had never seen him before.But something about his eyes felt familiar.Not because I remembered him.Because I had seen those eyes somewhere else.In a photograph.I looked at the file in my hand.Then at him."You were in the photograph."His smile disappeared."What photograph?""The one with my mother."He said nothing.I turned to Nick."You know him."Nick's face remained ha