EMBRACE winrina

CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

"Winter...? Are you there?"

I stared at Karina, raising the phone to my ear. "U-uh yeah," I stammered, "just give me one second."

Karina looked up at me from her seat and asked, "Do you want to take it into the hall?"

I nodded absentmindedly and she spoke again, "Just don't let the door close on the cord."

I walked out into the hallway, letting my body fall back against the wall. I had no idea what to think. A minute ago I had been desperately trying to keep my mind occupied by talking to Giselle, and now my mind was anything but unoccupied. "I'm here," I spoke into the phone.

"I thought I scared you away," the woman that had labeled herself as Summer's mom answered, sighing a breath of relief. "Have I got the right person?"

"I should hope so," I mumbled, "because if your Summer isn't the sister that I've been searching for the past few months, I'm going to be pretty let down."

"Oh my god," she breathed, "It's so good to finally talk to you... although certainly not under such unfortunate circumstances..."

"What circumstances?"

"You know, your whole.. situation, with your step-mom and her husband. It's how I found you."

I sighed heavily. Why did everything have to revolve around Leo? "Unfortunate circumstances indeed," I muttered. "I'm sorry, I'm confused. You found me? Have you been looking for me? You're Summer's mom? Does that mean she's adopted too now? Is she-"

The woman chuckled. "Well aren't you cute? I'd love to explain, but I was hoping I could do that in person."

"In p-person?"

"I know me calling out of the blue is kind of a lot to process, and I'm sorry that I haven't had the opportunity to get in touch with you before now, but I thought maybe you'd like to meet your sister."

I swallowed. "Does she.. want to meet me?"

There was a painfully long silence that followed my question. When she finally answered, I found myself feeling quite similarly to when Emma had tried to explain why she kept the truth about my sister from me. "Well, she... she um, she doesn't know that she has a sister."

My voice cracked. "W-what?"

"I know how hard news like this could be- okay well maybe I don't. But I am truly sorry for the way things have worked out. It's just, my husband and I spent ages looking for Summer's sister back when she was only two but she, you, had essentially been, as the adoption agency put it, lost in the system. We just felt that it was better Summer didn't know until we could find you."

Emma leading me to believe that my sister had passed away was terrible, but I was a strong believer of the fact that keeping my entire existence a secret from Summer was much, much worse. The woman spoke again, "Winter? Are you still there?"

"I'm here," I mumbled. "I'm pissed but I'm here."

"Oh god I know, I'm sorry. Summer deserves to know... and now that I've found you, of course we're going to tell her. She asked Matt and I a while ago why we never considered having another child and the guilt started to set in after that because I know she wishes she had a sibling-"

I braced myself against the wall, cutting her off. "Uh, go back. She asked you why you never considered having another child? Quick question, does she know she's adopted?"

"Yes of course!" she answered quickly. "But... I suppose it is recent news."

"Recent? How recent?"

"She's known for about two months now. I know you must think we're terrible people, it's just, I can imagine the burden you must carry knowing that your parents aren't alive anymore and we didn't want Summer to carry that same burden. We were always going to tell her... and then we kept pushing it and pushing it-"