As Draco and his parents embraced, a nurse came into the waiting room. She had a clipboard in her hand and a smile on her face. “Excuse me, are you here for Amira Wylde?” she asked.
They looked up and nodded. “Yes, we are. How is she?” Angelina asked.
“She’s doing well. She’s awake and stable. She has a concussion and some bruises. She broke her arm… but otherwise, nothing serious. She’s very lucky,” the nurse said.
“Can we see her?” Draco asked eagerly.
“Of course. Follow me, please,” the nurse said.
The door to Amira’s hospital room slowly opened, and three people stepped inside. Amira looked up from her bed and saw her mother, Angelina, her classmate, Draco, and another man she’d never seen before.
“Amira,” Angelina said, “we have something to tell you.”
Amira looked at them both, her eyes wide with anticipation.
“What is it?” she asked.
Angelina took a deep breath. “Amira,” she said, “you have a twin brother and an older sister.”
Amira’s eyes widened even further. “What?” she asked. “I do?”
“Yes,” Angelina said. “His name is Draco, and your big sister’s name is Ashlyn.”
Draco gave Amira a slight smile, but his eyes were too warm and friendly to be natural.
“It’s true,” Draco said. “I’m your twin brother,”
Amira was silent for a moment, taking this in. “I can’t believe it,” she said finally. “I have three siblings… two brothers and an older sister.”
“We’re so glad you’re okay,” Ash said. “We were so worried about you.”
“I’m okay,” Amira said. “I’m just a little confused.”
“We know,” Angelina said. “We’ll explain everything to you.”
Amira listened in disbelief as Angelina, Draco, and Ashton revealed their family history to her. They explained how she and Draco were twins, who had been separated when their parents divorced.
They told her the story of how they had found each other again. How Draco had been at the scene when she was hit by a car, and how he called the ambulance. How Angelina had received a call from the hospital, and how she had rushed to see her daughter and, by coincidence, her son. How Ashton had noticed that Draco was missing, and how he had used his smart watch to track his location to the hospital, where he had met his ex-wife and daughter by chance.
They told her about their older sister Ashlyn, who had grown up with Ashton as a single dad, and to their younger brother Oliver, who had lived with Angelina as a single mom.
The revelation of her family history left Amira stunned and disoriented. She felt like everything she knew was a lie. She glanced at Draco, who gave her a faint, yet warm smile, very unusual of him. She wondered how he could cope with the situation, when she was so upset and furious. How could he embrace her mother as his own, when she was a stranger to him? How could they keep this secret from her for so long, and expect her to trust them?
She felt nothing but resentment. “How could you do this to me?” she shouted. “How could you lie to me for so long? How could you keep me away from my siblings? How could you pretend to be someone else?”
She pointed at Draco, who flinched. “You! You knew all along, didn’t you? You knew we were twins, and you never told me. You acted like you hated me, like I was your enemy, just because I broke that stupid phone. Why? Why did you do that?” Draco looked down, unable to meet her gaze. He felt guilty and ashamed. He wanted to explain, to apologize, to make her understand. But he didn’t know how. He didn’t know what to say. He opened his mouth, but no words came out.
She looked at Angelina, who was wiping her tears with a tissue. “You’re a liar,” she said. “You’re not my mother. You’re the woman who kept me away from my twin brother and my older sister for eight years. You’re the woman who made me think my father was dead, and that me and my brother were alone, when I had more siblings who needed me – more children who needed you! You’re the woman who betrayed me and lied to me.”
Angelina shook her head, sobbing harder. “No, Amira, no. That’s not true. I love you, I always loved you. I never meant to hurt you, but I had no choice. Your father and I were young and stupid and we made a mistake. We weren’t able to raise four children, so we decided to split up, probably find other partners, and each take two. We thought it would be better for you to have a stable and loving family. We thought we were doing the right thing.”
Amira scoffed in disgust. “The right thing? The right thing would have been to stay together, to raise us as a family, to be our parents. The right thing would have been to tell us the truth, to let us know who we really are, to let us see each other. The right thing would have been to love us unconditionally, not selfishly.” She turned to Ashton, who was standing beside his ex-wife, silently. He had a pained and regretful expression on his face. “And you?” she asked him. “Are you my father? Are you the one who let me go...?”
Ashton nodded slowly. “Yes,” he said softly. “I’m your father.” Amira felt a stab of pain in her heart. She had always wondered who her father was, what he looked like, what he did, if he ever cared about her. She had always dreamed that he would come back for her someday, that he would hug her and tell her that he loved her and that he was sorry for leaving her alone in this world. But now that she saw him, she felt nothing but disappointment and resentment. He was not the father she had wished for or deserved. He was a stranger too.
Amira felt a gentle hand on her shoulder, and looked up to see a friendly face smiling at her. It was the nurse who had been taking care of her since she arrived at the hospital. She wore a white uniform and a name tag that read “Nora”.
“Visiting hours are over, I’m afraid. Amira, you need to get some rest.” Nora said softly, as she glanced at the clock on the wall. It was almost midnight.
She saw them walk away, talking in low voices, unsure of how to deal with Amira, and how to make her see reason. She felt a surge of anger and betrayal, mixed with sadness and confusion. She didn’t want to hear their lies and excuses anymore. She didn’t want to be part of their twisted family. She wanted to be free. But first, she wanted to sleep.
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