The Guardians (The Highest Order, Book One)

CHAPTER 16

'Faith?' A panicked voice calls from the living area as I let the door slam shut behind me. Mom appears from around the corner with a phone held to her ear. Her blonde hair was thrown down her shoulders and the top two buttons of her fuchsia blouse were open. Her face is what had my stomach in knots, thought. She was a mess, a mixture of panic, anger, and relief, as if she didn't know which one to express first,

'Where the hell have you been? I've been worried sick, Faith Louise.' She demands, crossing her arms over her chest. Anger. I guess she decided.

Dropping my bag by my side, I hadn't even noticed her car in the driveway, 'Mom,' I start, putting hands reassuringly on her shoulders, 'It's no big deal'

'No big deal?' She all but yells, grabbing my face in her hands, checking my face for any clear indications of injury, 'When the school called me and told me you were hurt, I expected the worst, Faith, and then you didn't come home,' She shakes her head as if forcing some obscene thought out of her mind with worry etched into her face.

'I'm okay, mom, not even a headache' My eyes are reassuring as I grab her hands which are still holding my face and give them a tight squeeze, 'I do need to talk to you though' My face and tone are serious as I address her.

The worry on her face increases with severity as I speak, 'Are you sure everything's okay?' Her motherly tone is back as she eyes me spectating.

'Yeah' I gesture to the living room, 'We should sit though.'

Walking into the cream decorated living area, we both take a seat on the three-seater sofa, unlike the rest of the room it's a deep brown leather, worn from years of use prior to our buying it. A lot of the furniture we bought was pre-owned but it added to the aesthetic of the room and home we'd built in the month and a bit we'd been here.

'Mom,' I start, taking a breath, 'I know this is weird and completely random, but I haven't been able to stop thinking about it all day and I just need to ask...'

Her eyes closed briefly, a breath leaving her, 'I knew this day would come, eventually' She stood up and walked to the mantle place opposite us, picking up a picture frame that had a photo of me and my father. 'I still remember the day this was taken' She smiles a sad smile and tears outline her eyes, 'you were so happy,' she said her voice clouded by her tears.

I interrupt her as she speaks, 'Mom,' I press, 'Am I adopted?' I ask, standing up to meet her half way.

A sob rips through her body like a tidal wave, 'We swore, we'd never tell you where you came from, where we found you' She said over her cries, turning to me and running a hand through my hair. She no longer donned the look of the calm and collected woman I knew her to be, 'But i knew eventually, you'd realize how different you were to us. Your father wouldn't hear it, he refused to see you as anything more than his daughter. Countless hours of arguing, we finally settled on a compromise. If you asked, we'd answer but until then, we'd keep quiet. We didn't want you to feel like you were different to everybody else, but the truth is, you are different' She pauses, sitting back in the chair she'd just risen from, still holding the picture to her heart.

'We knew from the moment we found you in that damned forest, wearing nothing but a flimsy oversized shirt to cover your tiny little body that you were different, that you weren't like any other child we'd met' Her voice quivered as she took a breath, closing her eyes and letting the tears that begged to be released, fall free.

I stood, frozen to the cream carpet as she continued, 'We went to the police but there was no record you'd ever existed much less gone missing but it didn't matter to us because by then your father already had enough influence in the world. He'd had a birth certificate and all other forms of identification made for you, he made you our daughter. We'd named you Faith because that's what you gave us, standing there terrified for your life outside of that cottage your father had just bought me for a wedding present, you were so tiny and scared, protecting you felt like a privilege.'

She paused, wiping tears from her eyes, still looking at the photo in her shaking hands, 'But as time went on, things got' She paused again, trying to figure out how to word it, 'weird' she lets out a breath, 'when you were nine, some kids from your class had dared you to climb the biggest tree behind our house, it was massive, Faith, you were terrified, but you did it anyway. And then you fell. No normal person could have survived a fall that high, but you did, you came crying with a broken arm and told us you'd fallen from a tree. We'd assumed you meant some small tree on the outskirts but then you showed us and...' She looks up from the photo, 'Faith, it couldn't have been anything less than 10 meters. The fall should have killed you but it didn't. Even your broken arm had healed in a matter of days. If we'd have thought there was something different about you before that, the fall confirmed it.'

I'm silent throughout her declaration, lost for words for the umpteenth time today, 'I know this is a lot, Faith, and I'm so sorry to force it all on you now, but,' she pauses again, 'And i know it sounds completely barbaric, but your father was convinced that' She shakes her head with a sad laugh before rising to meet my eyes, 'Your father thought that you weren't human.'

It was as if she could read my mind. As if she knew all the questions that crowded my brain. That's what mothers do though right? They sense it, they know when their children are upset, they know when they're stressed and when they're struggling to cope. It was their job. SO when my breath caught in the back of my throat, I was lost. I didn't know what was expected of me or what I was supposed to say.

'Do you want me to leave you? I know it's a lot, honey' Mom comes to level with me, her hands repositioned on my shoulders as she reaches up to kiss my head. I still can't find it in me to respond.

I guess that confirms it.

Mom leaves the room silently and goes into the kitchen. The only reminder I have that she's still in the house is the clanging of pots and pans every now and then and the closing of cupboards but even that is faint.

Eventually, by some strength, I carried myself up the stairs and into my room where Kaleb already sat, looking at the same frame I'd caught him holding only weeks before. He turns to face me and it's as if something snaps within me.

A sob wraps itself around my body, shaking me uncontrollably until a pair of arms wraps around my form. Kaleb pulls me to his chest, one hand running through my hair and the other running up and down my back in a soothing motion. He holds me as the tears force themselves out of my eyes and everything I'd been holding in everyday for the past ten months tears out of me in a sobbing cry.

Kaleb moves us slightly, allowing us to fall, as one, onto the bed. If I'd have been in the mood I'd have laughed at the groan he made when I landed on him. We lay there for what felt like hours, no speaking, as I lay crying in his arms.

After some time, just laying there, I slowly drift off into a dreamless sleep, my head laying on his chest, listening to his heartbeat as some sort of melody.

~~❤Word Count  = 1389❤~~