When Opposites Attract - Chapter 27

This chapter is dedicated to Shannen. =)
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The whole world stopped.

And then…

‘WHAT?!’

Selene looked haggard, and it didn’t suit the beautiful lines of her face; it made me want to envelop her in a big hug. ‘I…’ She pressed the tips of her fingers to her forehead. ‘I’m your mother.’ Her voice came out in a croak, and this, for some reason, made the life-changing truth sink in.

‘You’re my…my mother?’ I sounded repulsed, I know I did.

Her eyes closed, her lips trembling. She nodded. ‘Yes,’ she whispered.

‘But you…’ I gulped and looked at her accusingly. ‘You said my parents left me at birth.’

‘I know,’ her voice was quiet, and she folded her hands together in her lap. ‘I know I did, Kaia. But I…I couldn’t tell you.’

It was then that something else occurred to me. In order for her to be my mother…she must have…wait a second. Selene and Leion?

‘You and Leion?’ I squeaked, feeling rather perplexed by the whole situation. But could you really blame me?

She nodded again, and when I gathered up the courage to look her in the eye, she seemed far away. Another place, another time.

‘I loved him,’ she whispered, and those three words somehow showed me the pain that had always been on her face, but the pain I had never seen before. Until now. ‘I loved him so much,’ she breathed.

I felt awkward, uncomfortable. Selene was clearly in a lot of pain, and I didn’t know how to comfort her. So instead I settled on something else. ‘What…what happened between you two?’

She turned her head to look out of the window, and, not for the first time in my life, I wished that I could be one of the birds that soared so freely out in the sky. She kept quiet for so long I thought she had chosen not to answer me. But then she spoke, her eyes still trained out of my window. ‘Nineteen years ago, I had been newly voted head leader of this coven. I was…ecstatic. I had always wanted leadership, and finally, I had gotten it.

‘You probably already know that, at that, time I was still attending school. I could easily pass as a sixteen year old, even though I had stopped aging. But to celebrate my leadership, we moved here - yes, Kaia,’ she added with a small smile, to my startled expression. ‘We moved here, to this little town in Calypso Valley.

‘Anyway, previously, I had not graduated from school. We had moved, and all I needed to do was to graduate from my new school, then I wouldn’t have to repeat the whole process again elsewhere.

‘When I was your age and I moved here, I went to the school that you go to now. I wasn’t particularly nervous. I mean, I had done the whole school process before. Why would I be afraid the second time over?

‘Things were going Okay. I mean, I could sense…could sense that there was something at that school, something that wasn’t any ordinary thing, but I figured that, in time, it would reveal itself.’ She blew out a deep breath. ‘And it did reveal itself. Much quicker than I expected.

‘Leion was in my fourth period lesson, if I remember quite correctly, and I can’t…I can’t tell you how surprised I was Kaia. I never expected to encounter one of them in my entire life, never mind having to put up with one of them through my schooldays. But there he was.

‘You’ve probably seen Leion, Kaia,’ yes, it was true; I hung my head in shame. ‘He’s a very…handsome man, your father, and…and it was to be expected that he would have a certain amount of…admirers.’ Her lips twisted bitterly. ‘He was surrounded in them, admirers, I mean, when I walked into class. And he looked at me, and that look…I….’ she trailed off, and for once, I understood. The look that Mateo had always looked at me with. The look that Dan looked at me with. Selene was beautiful, much more beautiful than I could ever be, and so I could only imagine the lustful look that Leion gave her.

‘I ignored him as best as I could, but he sat right behind me, and I - I could practically feel his eyes burning into my back. When the teacher’s back was turned, he leaned forwards in his chair, moved my hair from the side of my cheek and whispered, ‘Surprised, baby?’ I - I can’t tell you how I felt because I…I wasn’t used to…the feelings. And then, when fourth period had ended, I tried to get out of there as quickly as I could. But, as you probably already know, Kaia, Leion was….faster – than me.’ Her teeth gritted together momentarily, and I realised that this trivial fact probably irked Selene.

‘He told me that I should watch myself. And I didn’t know what that meant at the time, though I do now, suppose.’ It was hard to miss the bitterness that was so clear and seething inside her. ‘I tried to ignore him from that day on. I mean, thought it wouldn’t be hard, considering that I was in my last year of High School, and I was usually focused at everything I attempted, but I just…I just couldn’t stop thinking about him.

‘And what was worse was that I think he knew that I was constantly thinking about him. He always used to corner me, and his face would be just an inch from mine and I…’ she gulped. ‘Well, you probably know, Kaia.

‘Anyway, you probably know that I would have wanted nothing to do with them,’ I felt my cheeks burning up. ‘But he…he kept on persisting and - and eventually I gave in.’ Selene blew out a heavy breath and massaged her forehead with the edges of her fingertips. ‘I don’t now why I did, to be honest, I really don’t. But the next thing I knew, I was his best friend, and he was mine, and it was sinking into something much, much deeper…

‘I loved him, I’ve said that, I know, but you need to understand just how much I loved him. And…and I thought he loved me, too.’ Her voice broke, and I reached out a hand and comfortingly laid it on her shaky one. She gave a wobbly smile. ‘He told me, about two, three months into our friendship, that he was in love with me. I was….ecstatic, over the moon, so, so happy. And, well, you know, one thing led to another, and eventually you were created, though not yet born.’ I grimaced.

‘I didn’t tell him that I was pregnant with his child. I was waiting for the right time. But then, roughly three weeks after we…we made love, I found out the truth.

‘He was using me to lower down the competition between our covens.’ Her eyes filled with tears, and that’s when the sobbing started. ‘Y-you know that we’re e-enemy covens, d-don’t you, K-Kaia? He was trying to get me to f-fall in l-l-love with h-him, so that there w-were less chances of a w-war starting between our c-covens. He th-thought that if I f-fell in love with h-him, then I’d join his coven. Th-that m-my coven wouldn’t exist a-anymore, and there would be no w-war. A-and do you kn-know how I f-found out?’ I shook my head slowly. ‘I c-came down the s-stairs in his h-house and h-heard him t-talking about it in the d-drawing room.’ With horrid realization, I realized that the drawing room was where I had found out that Mateo had betrayed me. I looked up at Selene, horrified.

‘He b-begged me to c-come back to h-him, p-pleaded even h-harder w-when he found out that I was p-pregnant with you. But I said that I’d n-never let someone like him be the f-father of m-my b-baby. A-and then, I decided that it was b-best to move away,’ One solitary tear dropped onto my duvet. ‘I d-don’t like r-running away f-from things, K-Kaia. I th-thought that it was b-best if we m-moved back h-here so that I could p-prove to myself that I wasn't scared of a-anything. I thought he w-would have m-moved somewhere e-else, though. I d-didn’t th-think he’d still b-b-be here.’

I had never seen her like that. Ever. Her cheeks were stained with both hurt and tears, the hurt obviously stronger than anything else could ever be, Her arms were curled almost child-like around her knees, which were pulled up to her chin. Her lips continued to tremble, even when the words that were required for me to understand had long left her mouth. He dark, lustrously long hair was dishevelled, fly away hairs poking out at every angle. She looked vulnerable.

But then, what else would she look like? How dare anyone hurt her like that? Even worse, I thought with revulsion, was that it was my father, the man she had loved, the man she had given her heart to. It was an unforgivable crime. In fact, I felt so hurt for her, that tears began to fill in my own eyes. They hesitantly dripped over the edge and streaked down my cheeks. I angrily bushed them away. It wasn’t time for me to start bawling - Selene needed comfort.

‘Selene,’ I whispered, leaning forward and enveloping her into a hug.

She shakily wrapped her arms around me, and let out a trembling laugh. ‘Look at us, huh?’ She dried her eyes with the bottom of her t-shirt. ‘We’re a mess, the pair of us.’

I nodded, smiling through my tears, just as the doorbell rang. ‘You better go answer that,’ I told Selene. ‘The others are probably going to want permission to come back inside now.’

She smiled bigger now, and that one smile was worth everything, because although Mateo had betrayed me, Selene had been betrayed in the same kind of way, twice as bad.

I would never trust any of them again.

I brushed myself off, and then made my way downstairs, making sure sure to splash water on my face first. I didn’t need the rest of my coven seeing my tears, even if they were family.

As I padded down the stairs, I thought it odd that it was so strangely silent. Rhys would no doubt be making a ruckus, wondering what all of the fuss had been about, as well as the others.

I rounded the corner, frowning. I stopped short - and froze.

Selene was standing there, one hand on the handle of the door, her eye staring up at the man that stood in our doorway, her eyes round, her breaths quickening as if she couldn't quite believe what she was seeing.

'Selene,' Leion whispered.