Following the events of the previous day, Hope would not have thought it possible for her to wake up the next morning feeling as peaceful as she did, but that was exactly what she woke up feeling. Curled up next to Raymond, his presence next to her brought her a sense of comfort and security that she hardly felt anywhere else. It just served to reiterate the fact that he was her happy place and she was more than content with it.
He'd told her he loved her. Hope felt a smile spreading across her face at the thought. If anyone had told her few months ago that she and Raymond would be where they were right then, she would have outright laughed at them. It still felt unbelievable sometimes when she thought about it. She'd just never thought them possible. Even with her crush on him, it'd just seemed highly unlikely, but it was real and if she could have her way, she would shut the rest of the world out forever and just stay right there in the bubble she was in.
Her moment of daydreaming was however cut short when she felt soft lips grazing her forehead.
"Hi."
She tilted her face upwards and was met with Raymond's smiling face. She just loved looking at that face. "Hi. Good morning."
"Morning, love."
Love. There was no getting over that.
"I didn't think you were awake yet," Hope stated, turning more on her side so she could address him properly.
"I've been awake for a while now. You looked so peaceful and I didn't want to do anything that might wake you."
"Awww, isn't that so thoughtful?" She cooed teasingly, although her heart swelled at the gesture.
He rolled his eyes, catching her tease. "Also, I discovered a new hobby and I wanted to take my time exploring it."
"What do you mean? What are you talking about?"
The second a wide grin sprang up on his face, she just knew he was going to say something ridiculous. "I just discovered I love watching you sleep. You snore like a horse."
Hope gasped, appalled. Did he just say that? "I.Do.Not.Snore!"
"Oh yes, you do," he countered, expression deadpan.
"I do not!" Hope replied, indignant.
"Mm. Whatever you say then," he conceded, his eyes twinkling with mischief.
"I really do not. You and I both know that I do not snore." And she really didn't. Hope was sure she didn't so she knew he was only teasing her but . . . The effrontery!
"Yes, yes! I've heard you. You do not snore. Absolutely not. Got it."
There went that smile again; the one that always sent her heart in a frenzy. He was bound to give her an heart attack at the rate he was going. She coughed to hide the big smile creeping up on her face. She was supposed to be offended, not smiling.
He let out a hearty laugh, knowing exactly what she was trying to do. Hope ignored him, determined not to let him get the better of her. Her efforts to get off the bed were quickly thwarted by his strong hold on her. The laugh eventually faded and his face took on a more serious expression as his fingers crept into her hair. "How are you feeling?"
Hope huffed out a breath, her thoughts wandering in the direction she didn't want them to. "Now that I've had a good night right, I do feel better than I did yesterday, but as for what to make of this whole situation, I'm not sure, to be honest. Everything's all jumbled up in my head and it just feels like a whole lot of mess in there."
He nodded, his face communicating his empathy and understanding. "I can only imagine how that feels, but you'll be fine."
"Yeah, I will."
Skeptical she'd agreed so easily, he regarded her thoughtfully, and Hope didn't miss it.
"Yes. It's just . . . The worst is over just like you said, and I'm trying to concentrate on the bright side of things. I'm still here, in one piece and however unpleasant, I have gotten all the answers I wanted and I can rest easy from now on." She shrugged, a thoughtful look on her face.
"And all of these occured to you between you sleeping yesterday night and this morning?" Raymond asked, a bit bewildered.
She shrugged again. She couldn't explain it much either. It was what it was. "I guess so. You shouldn't be so surprised though, I thought we already established that I'm the real life adaptation of superwoman."
"Indeed you are," Raymond reiterated with a fond smile.
"You know, he was never going to hurt me . . . " She trailed off, gracing him with an albeit uncertain yet genuine smile. "I guess that makes me feel better as well; knowing I wasn't actually in any real danger."
Raymond wasn't so sure he agreed with that. Sometimes the mental danger was way scarier than the physical, but he wasn't going to go there.
"What?" Hope asked, sensing there was something on his mind.
He shook his head, the smile still plastered on his face. "Only you, Hope. Only you."
Her face scrunched in part confusion, part tease. "Only me what?"
He shook his head again, doing away with the thought entirely. He had a feeling they still had a lot in store for them the rest of the day. "Nothing, don't worry about it."
Her eyes narrowed pointedly but she didn't say anything else.
He hummed, his mind suddenly driving in a direction he'd totally forgotten about. "I can't believe I didn't remember until now. That text . . . Were you the one that sent me that text with your address?"
"What text?" Hope asked, and her confusion was enough of an answer for Raymond.
"I got a text with the address . . . How do you think we managed to know where you were?"
"I don't . . . " They started meaningful looks and just knew what the other was thinking. "Do you think he sent it? Was it his plan to get caught right from the start?"
Raymond couldn't answer. He'd included it in the statement they'd given the police then totally forgotten about it. Now that he thought back on it, it was such a major part of the whole thing he chastised himself for forgetting about it in the first place.
"And why send it to you?" Hope wondered aloud. If he'd been following her closely enough to know she and Raymond had gotten close . . . The thought honestly spooked her. Maybe he was actually more obsessed than she'd given him credit for.
"You know what? There's no point dwelling on this," Raymond decided, quickly catching on that she was about going into another spiral. "We should get you something to eat. You didn't eat much throughout yesterday."
"That's a bit of an exaggeration," Hope replied distractedly. She scowled teasingly when his words fully registered, "And what's with you and this habit you have of always wanting to feed me?"
"I believe it's the other way around, actually. You're the one who's always wanting me to feed you cause you're always hungry."
She reasoned he might have a point there. "Eh. Now that you mention it, I do feel kind of hungry."
An disbelieving chuckle escaped Raymond's lips as he watched her spring up and out of bed. "And where are you going?"
"To brush and bathe, duh. I expect food to be ready by the time I'm done. You still have an extra toothbrush lying around somewhere, right?"
"And why the sudden rush?"
"It suddenly occured to me that Alex would have told mum and Sophie about what transpired yesterday by now. Knowing them, they're probably worried out of their mind and since it's not a situation that would go away forever if I avoid it, I might as well deal with it this morning and get it over and done with."
Raymond was at a loss of words as he watched her hesitate a bit, probably waiting for his response before she disappeared into the bathroom.
Raymond released a heavy sigh when the door shut behind her. She'd said she was okay, but he knew enough about her to be worried she was only trying to put on a bold front. Hope was strong, but even the strongest men fall. He couldn't help but be worried that she'd one day snap and then it'd be much harder for her to put herself back together.
â¢Â  ~  â¢
Hope was reluctant to admit it, but she dreaded the confrontation with her mum. Granted, it wasn't exactly a confrontation -- not exactly-- but she had come up with different ways the whole thing could go down in her head and none of them was particularly appealing. No matter how she tried, she just couldn't come to terms with the fact that her mum could have been part of something like that. Regardless of how the morning went, a lot of things were going to change and she wasn't quite ready to face them as she'd made Raymond believe, but just as she'd told Raymond that morning, there was no point running.
"Are you okay?"
Realizing she'd frozen right in front of the door, Hope nodded at Raymond, her smile not so confident. "Yes, I am."
"Take your time. Whenever you're ready," he assured her.
"I am." Hope grabbed the door knob, twisting it and opening the door before she had any chance to change her mind.
Her gaze immediately darted to and caught on the figure of her mum on one of the sitting room chairs, looking lost in her own world. If she'd heard the door open, she didn't make any indication of it and for some reason, the sight brought a heaviness to Hope's heart.
She almost turned around and left right there, and maybe she would have if not for the girl that was now bounding over to her, arms akimbo.
"Aunty Hope!"
Hope crouched just in time for Angel to jump on her, hugging her for all she was worth. "Hi, my love."
"Thank God you've been discharged already. I really hated seeing you in the hospital," she declared, a big smile on her adorable face. "I hate it when people are sick."
"No sane person likes it when people are sick, Angel," Alex pointed out, interrupting their conversation as he smiled warmly at Hope. "Hi, Hope."
"Hi," she said, returning his smile.
"Ray," Alex called as his attention briefly diverted to acknowledge his brother. He turned back to her when Raymond nodded at him in response. "Excuse us for a bit, Angel."
"But--" the girl protested, stopping at the look her father shot at her.
"The adults want to have a conversation. You're not invited," he dismissed firmly, his tone leaving no room for argument.
The girl scoffed, her eyes rolling exaggeratedly as she made a huge show of dragging her feet up the stairs. She turned back around and yelled at Hope not to leave without seeing her before finally disappearing up the stairs.
"How are you feeling?" Alex asked, his voice uncharacteristically soft.
"Much better," Hope replied, finally letting her eyes go back to her mum who now had her head buried in her hands. She wasn't even acknowledging Hope's presence and Hope wasn't sure what to make of it. "I assume you told her already?"
He nodded, his gaze following hers to settle on her mum. "She was quite adamant about going over yesterday so I had no other choice but to tell her. She's been beating herself up over it since--"
"Hope! Thank God!"
Hope barely had time to react to the sound of her name before she was being squeezed for the second time that morning, this time by her sister. The speed with which everything happened almost had Hope bursting into laughter.
"I'm so sorry I didn't hear you come in. Ella has been in a foul mood all night until this morning and I only just barely managed to get her to fall asleep." All of these came out in such a rush that Hope almost couldn't decipher what her sister was saying. Exhaling to calm herself, Sophie continued, "How are you holding up? Alex told me everything that happened. Are you okay?"
Hope had a lot of answers to that question on the tip of her tongue but what came out eventually was, "We have a brother, Sophie, and another sister, I keep forgetting that he's a twin."
"I'm still trying to get my brain to adjust to that information and look at you already joking about it. It's been a crazy couple of days," Sophie said. "But really, are you okay?"
Hope shrugged. "Are you?"
"I don't know. Mum hasn't been herself since yesterday night and it's been worrying me a lot. She locked herself up in her room and I have no idea what she was doing in there then come this morning and she's just been like this. Couple that with Ella choosing this period to start acting up and . . . It's all just been overwhelming."
"What about Ella? Is anything wrong?"
Sophie dismissed her worry with a casual wave of her hand. "She's fine. She was just running a bit of temperature, the doctor already came to attend to her this morning and she's sleeping now."
"Poor baby."
"It's mum I'm really worried about." Sophie sighed. "She isn't taking it well at all."
Hope's feet of their own accord carried her over to where her mum was sitting and she crouched in front of her mum.
"Mummy," Hope called gently. It broke her heart when her mum refused to meet her gaze. "Mummy, please look at me."
Her mum did but there was a look of anguish on her face, identical to the one Hope was sure she'd had just the previous day, but maybe more intense. Seeing her like that further broke her heart. It all seemed ridiculous now, Hope realized; her thinking there was anything that could make her despise her mum. All it took was one look at that crestfallen look on her mum's face to realize this. She would do anything just to make the woman smile brightly again.
"I remember the woman; the one that had claimed she'd been impregnated by your dad." When her mum started talking, she sounded tired. "At the time, I didn't want to believe it. A part of me knew that she was telling the truth because I'd been suspicious about your dad having an affair at the time but I didn't want to believe it. My family hadn't wanted me to marry your dad and against their wishes, I'd gotten pregnant for him so they had no choice but to let me marry him, but they never hid it for a day that they weren't in support of us and they made it a point of duty to remind your dad every single time. It made him so frustrated and I thought it was excuse enough for the affair and I could forgive him, but a pregnancy? How was I supposed to explain it to my parents that the man I'd forced on them and gotten pregnant for had gotten another woman pregnant at the same time? The shame . . . The disappointment on my parent's faces when they'd tell me they had been right all along . . . I didn't want to go through that so I pretended to believe your father when he claimed she was only trying to pin a pregnancy on him because he refused to have an affair with her. I didn't think I had any other choice."
"Mum," Hope whispered, trying to console her mother even as she felt the disappointment settling in the pit of her stomach. She'd hoped that her mum would've had some sort of explanation that'd liberate her from it all.
"I knew he was lying. I knew I was probably making a mistake but then the woman disappeared and we never saw her again. I assumed she'd done something about the pregnancy and I didn't ask your father because I didn't want to address his cheating. He was so good to me after that and so devoted that all I wanted was to forget everything that'd happened and move on. I know it was wrong and selfish of me and I don't want to lie that I didn't know any better but I really did think I was doing what was best for me and my unborn child at the time. I'm really sorry, Hope."
"It's okay, mum, I understand."
"No." Her mum shook her head. "I was the one that made the mistake but you were the one that had to deal with the consequence. If I could, I'd take it all back. I'd do things better."
Her mum weeping was one of the sights Hope hated ever having to witness in her life. "Mummy, it's okay. We can't change the past, but we can decide to make better choices going forward, and make amends in the ways we can."
"Yes, mum," Sophie agreed, sitting on the armrest and wrapping both hands around her mum with her head resting on her shoulders. "You're still the best mother I could have ever asked for. What happened doesn't change that fact. There's no point crying over spilled milk, what we should do now is think of what to do going forward."
"Exactly," Hope agreed, feeling lighter after having that out of the way. "We should think of a way to fix things instead."
"What if there's no way to do that?"
"We won't know until we try. You made a mistake avoiding things once, but you don't have to do it again."
"And remember that whatever happens," Sophie added, buttressing Hope's words. "You have us, and we have your back always. One hundred percent of the time."
Overwhelmed, their mum hugged them both and she went into another tirade of silent tears. Hope and Sophie exchanged small smiles as Alex and Raymond watched the scene with different conflicting emotions.
Nobody said anything else, because they all understood their mum's need to let it all out.
â¢Â  ~  â¢
"Are you okay?"
Hope chuckled. "And is that like the new national anthem?"
"Hope," Sophie chided.
"I'm fine, really." Hope replied, and it was true. A huge part of the burden had been lifted off and she felt much better.
"Go-- Hey! Ouch!"
Hope laughed, realizing what'd happened. Ella had woken up just after the whole episode with her mum, enveloping the whole house with her wails and Sophie had needed to attend to her. Hope had gone with, wanting to see the baby for herself. Even though Sophie had assured her everything was fine, she was relieved to have confirmed it herself with the sight of the girl lazily milking her mum, that was until she decided to chew on her mum's nipple instead, of course.
Sophie glared at her sister. "It's not funny. I should be used to it by now considering how often she turns my nipple into a chewing stick, but there's no getting used to it."
Hope laughed again. "The perks of being a mother."
"The cons, you mean."
Hope mock gasped. "Why you would ever think there's any disadvantage to being a mother to this adorable bundle of joy is beyond me."
Sophie snorted. "It's not your fault. You're not the one she keeps awake every single night, and that is after she turns your breast into chicken o."
Hope burst out laughing again. Her morning really was going better than she'd expected.
"So . . . " Sophie said, laughing along with her sister. "We have twin siblings, hm?"
Yeah. Hope still found it hard to believe it herself. "That we do. Although seeing how you were born around the same time, you might as well be triplets."
"Oh, shut up." Sophie chuckled. "It's crazy that we're even smiling about this honestly. We're so weird."
"Yeah," Hope agreed. "But it's us so it's not so surprising. In Raymond's words, we're built strong in here."
"Raymond, huh?" Her sister inquired, brows raised in mischievous suspicion. "So you call him by his name now?"
Realizing her slipup, Hope feigned a cough, her reaction eliciting another chuckle from her sister.
"You know what, I don't even want to know just yet. There's too many other things going on right now."
"I totally agree," Hope agreed quickly, grateful for the opportunity to avoid the conversation.
Sophie snorted, almost tempted to keep teasing her sister. Hope was hardly ever fidgety. Sophie didn't need anyone to tell her it was a big deal. She decided to drop the topic anyway. "So what are we going to do now? Do you think we could ever actually be siblings?"
"To answer your first question, I don't know. As for the other, I wouldn't hold my breath, the chances are next to impossible. Honestly, I think that ship already sailed a long time ago," Hope admitted, collapsing on the bed, her gaze returning to the baby who was now trying to grab the other nipple with her toes. "But it's okay. We already have all we need right here."
"Yeah. Yeah, we do."