Chapter 56• Secret Revealed
★★★
"Hey, hey… shhh. Don’t let Lara and Xan hear anything." Melvin whispered.
Gemma broke down. "She… she might… she might not even survive this. She might hate us."
"Gem, stop," Melvin cut in firmly. "Just stop. Our daughter will survive. She will. You need to hold on to one thing. One decision. And that is this, she will survive. Stop being pessimistic today and optimistic the other day." He pulled her into his arms.
"Annora left us… not Auri too," Gemma sobbed against his chest, her breaths uneven.
He rubbed her back slowly, grounding her.
"What did she do to deserve that?" Gemma cried harder. "As if making her witness what happened to Ginny wasn’t enough… it happened to her too. She slipped into a coma. She almost gave up. And when she survived, she couldn’t speak for almost two months. She was just… numb. That was why we were pushed to wipe her memory. To block it. And now, now that she’s remembering… "
Her voice cracked, and she couldn’t finish.
"This is all because of her jealous friend," Gemma muttered bitterly. "How can a teenager be that heartless? All because of a boy."
Melvin cupped her face gently, forcing her to look at him. "Breathe. You’re burning up," he said calmly. "We’ll handle this. I promise." He kissed her forehead, then her lips, reassuring.
Outside the room, Elara’s chest clenched.
The jug of water in her hand trembled as tears spilled from her eyes.
She had been coming from the kitchen when she heard Gemma’s voice. She would have walked past, she almost did, until she heard something unimaginable.
Elara leaned against the wall, sobbing quietly, gripping the jug until her fingers hurt.
"N-no… Rora was… she was…" Her voice broke.
With heavy, unsteady steps, she returned to her room. She put the jug down and dropped on her bed.
She cried into her pillow, shaking.
Does Oma even know about this?
How would Aurora ever take the truth?
Elara squeezed her eyes shut, wishing she hadn’t left her room. Wishing she hadn’t been thirsty.
Wishing she hadn’t heard anything at all.
How was she supposed to look Aurora in the eye now, knowing this?
She cried silently, burying her face deeper into the pillow.
And Annora. Gemma had said Annora. Who was that?
What else were they hiding?
---
[LOPEZ MANSION]
Aurora sat on her bed, watching Oma pace angrily around the room. Oma grabbed her phone, ready to block and delete Kiara’s number. Just then, she got a notification.
★Kiara left the group chat.★
"Oh." Oma scoffed. "She’s not even hiding it. Even better."
She frowned.
"The switch-up is crazy." Aurora finally spoke.
Oma turned to her. "Meaning?" she asked.
Aurora shrugged. "Oh well, I expected you to be adamant and trust Kiara. Didn’t expect you to believe me immediately."
"Have you lost your mind? I trust you more than anyone. I’ve known you longer than, besides, why would you lie?" Oma rolled her eyes.
"Whatever." Aurora sighed.
Oma sat with her.
"So this is why you’ve been acting strange all day. Especially in college today," she said.
Aurora’s mind immediately travelled back to the night before. The moans, the swim, the pool.
She straightened slowly. "Nothing much. I just wanted to be alone." She muttered.
"You and your mood swings." Oma said, rolling her eyes.
Ivy sent a message to the group chat…
~ Whoa, Kiara left the group by accident
Seconds later, Roseanne typed.
~ How would anyone do that by accident tho…
Oma sighed. She typed.
~ That's not an accident. The kid has been exposed. I'll explain later.
She threw her phone on the bed before the others could reply.
Aurora rolled her eyes.
The hallway was too quiet for Xander's liking.
He'd already finished two episodes of whatever show he'd been half-watching, raided the kitchen twice, and sent three unanswered texts to his friend back home.
Bored. Completely, insufferably bored.
He pushed off his bed and padded down the hallway to Elara's room.
He'd bother her. Only logical solution.
He knocked once. Didn't wait.
"Lara, I'm literally rotting in my room, come watch some—"
He stopped.
Elara was face down in her pillow, shoulders shaking.
Xander leaned against the doorframe, completely unbothered.
"Okay." He tilted his head. "Did you rewatch Titanic again?"
Elara didn't move, just kept sniffing.
Xander's smirk faded.
He stepped inside. "Lara."
Nothing.
“Alright, that's it. What's going on?"
She shook her head against the pillow. "Nothing."
"You're literally sobbing at midnight. That's not nothing."
Silence stretched between them, heavy and unfamiliar. Elara never cried like this.
Not over boys, not over grades, not over anything Xander had ever seen.
"I heard something," she finally said, voice muffled. "I wasn't supposed to. I was coming from the kitchen and I heard
Auntie Gem and Uncle Vin and I just—" Her breath hitched. "I wish I hadn't."
Xander frowned. "Heard what?"
Elara lifted her head.
Her eyes were wrecked. She looked at him like she'd been carrying boulders alone for hours.
"Xan." Her voice cracked. "Rora… Rora was raped."
The words hit the room like a brick through glass.
Xander didn't move.
His face didn't change.
But something behind his eyes just... switched off.
"That night everyone thought only her friend Ginny—" Elara's voice broke. "It happened to Rora too. They wiped her memory with some drug. She doesn't even know. She doesn't remember. And now the doctor said the injections aren't working anymore and she's going to remember everything and—"
"Stop."
He was already standing.
"Xan—"
Already at the door.
"Xan, wait, just think for a second—" Elara scrambled off the bed, grabbing his arm.
He looked at her hand. Then at her face. "I am thinking," he said quietly.
He shook her off gently and walked out.
Elara ran after him, whispering his name like a prayer as he took the stairs fast, one hand on the railing, jaw locked, eyes straight ahead.
Xander stopped in the middle of the room.
"GEMMA." His voice tore through the silence. "MELVIN."
Elara flinched behind him.
"AUNT GEM. CHIEF. COME DOWNSTAIRS. NOW."
Footsteps above. Muffled voices. Movement.
Gemma appeared at the top of the stairs first, robe half tied, brow creased with confusion.
"Xander? What on earth—"
"We need to talk."
Something in his voice made her stop talking immediately.
She looked at Elara. Elara looked at the floor.
Melvin appeared behind her. One look at the two standing in the living room was enough.
They came down.
Gemma's eyes swept between them.
"What is going on?"
Nobody spoke.
Then Elara's voice came out small and trembling.
"Who is Annora?"
Gemma went completely still.
Melvin's face didn't move. But something behind it did. Something that looked like dread.
The name sat in the room like a ghost that had been waiting years to finally be spoken out loud.
Xander watched their faces. Watched Gemma's hand reach slowly for the back of the sofa like she needed something solid.
He took one step forward.
"And what really happened to Rora?"
Low. Even. Worse for being calm.
Gemma's mouth opened.
Nothing came out.
Her eyes filled slowly, and she pressed her hand over her lips like she could physically hold everything in.
Melvin's hand found her shoulder. His jaw worked silently.
Gemma crumbled first.
Her legs gave slightly and Melvin caught her, steadying her with both hands.
She pressed her fingers harder against her mouth, eyes squeezing shut like she could block out the room.
"Auntie Gem—" Elara started.
"How much did you hear?" Melvin asked. His voice was controlled. Barely.
Elara swallowed. "Enough."
The word landed heavy.
Xander hadn't moved from his spot. Arms folded now, jaw tight, eyes fixed on Melvin with an expression that was too old for his face.
"So it's true," he said. It wasn't a question.
Melvin didn't answer immediately. He guided Gemma gently to the sofa and sat beside her. She was shaking, still pressing her hand to her mouth, tears falling silently now.
Nobody sat down.
Xander and Elara stood there, waiting.
"Sit down," Melvin said quietly.
"I don't want to sit down," Xander said flatly.
Melvin looked at him. Really looked at him.
For a long moment, the only sound was Gemma trying to hold herself together and failing.
Then Melvin exhaled. Long and slow. Like a man setting down something he'd been carrying for years.
"What do you want to know?" he asked.
If anyone is more stubborn than Aurora, it's Xander. When he wants to know something, nothing and no one will talk him through it. And in a situation like this… It's best to comply with him.
"Everything," Xander said immediately.
Elara grabbed his hand. Squeezed it once.
Melvin looked at Gemma.
Gemma was staring at the floor, tears dripping silently off her chin. She gave the smallest nod.
Permission. Or surrender. Maybe both.
Melvin leaned forward, elbows on his knees, hands clasped.
He was quiet for a moment. Gathering words that had never been spoken out loud to anyone outside this marriage.
"The night of the party," he began, voice low. "Aurora didn't just witness what happened to Ginny."
Xander's jaw flexed.
"She was there too. In that room. Tied to a chair first. Made to watch." Melvin's voice dipped even lower. "And then…"
Elara made a small broken sound.
"She fought," Melvin continued, eyes on the floor now. "The doctor said she fought hard. But she was just sixteen. And there were..." He stopped. Jaw working.
Gemma let out a sob she couldn't swallow. Melvin reached for her hand without looking.
"When we got to the hospital," he said, "she was barely conscious. She slipped into a coma. Her body just... gave up trying."
His voice cracked for the first time.
"We sat by that bed for three weeks not knowing if she was going to wake up."
The room was completely silent except for Gemma's quiet crying.
Elara was openly weeping now, tears running freely, not even bothering to wipe them.
Xander hadn't moved. His eyes were wet but nothing had fallen.
He looked like a boy trying very hard to be a wall.
"The memory wipe," Xander said. "Whose idea was that?"
"The doctor. Dr. Nina." Melvin said. "She said if Aurora woke up with full memory of that night, the psychological damage could be irreversible. She said partial suppression was the only way to give her a chance at a normal life."
"And you agreed," Xander said.
"We were desperate," Melvin said simply. "Our daughter was dying."
Silence.
Xander unfolded his arms slowly. He turned away, running a hand over his face.
Then Elara's voice came again, quieter this time.
"Who is Annora?”
Melvin went still.
The question hung in the air, delicate and dangerous, like a thread that if pulled would unravel everything else holding the room together.
Gemma's crying stopped.
She looked up for the first time since she'd sat down. Her eyes found Elara. Then Xander. Then dropped to her own hands in her lap.
"Where did you hear that name?" she whispered.
"From you," Elara said gently. "You said it. Tonight. You said Annora left us and you couldn't lose Auri too."
Gemma closed her eyes.
Melvin said nothing. He just sat there, very still, like a man who had accepted that this moment was always coming and had simply been waiting for it to arrive.
"Gemma," he said softly.
She opened her eyes.
And when she spoke, her voice was so quiet the room had to lean in to hold it.
"Aurora had a twin sister."
Elara's breath caught.
Xander turned around slowly.
"Her name was Annora." Gemma's voice was hollow, like she was reading from somewhere far away. "They were born four minutes apart. Aurora first. Then Annora."
She paused.
"What happened to her?" Xander asked. His voice had lost its edge completely. He sounded young. Just young.
Gemma's lip trembled.
"She was taken," she said. "From the hospital. It… happened so fast." Her hands twisted in her lap. "The nurses took both girls to the nursery. When they brought them back—" Her voice broke clean in half. "When they brought them back, there was only one."
Elara pressed her hand over her mouth.
"The hospital said it was a mix up. That maybe she was moved to another ward." Gemma laughed, but it was the most humorless sound in the world.
"They searched for two days. Then the police got involved. Then more days. Then weeks." She shook her head slowly. "She was just... gone. You uncle angrily got the hospital shut down but it still didn't bring… my baby back.."
"Did they ever find out who took her?" Elara asked barely above a whisper.
Gemma gave a tired sigh, enough to give the twins an answer.
"And do my parents know about this? I'm sure they know." Xander said.
"They only know about the twins, not about Auri’s truth.” Gemma replied weakly.
"You could've at least told your sister." Xander said, clearly displeased.
Melvin shook his head once. "That's not a conversation for tonight."
Xander opened his mouth.
"Xander." Melvin's voice was firm but not unkind. "Not tonight."
A beat of silence.
Xander backed down. Barely.
Gemma wiped her face slowly with the back of her hand. She looked exhausted in a way that had nothing to do with the hour.
Exhausted in the way of someone who had been tired for years and years and years.
"Aurora doesn't know," Gemma said. "She has never known. About any of it. Not Annora. Not what really happened to her that night."
She looked at both of them, eyes red and raw. "And I need you both to understand something."
She leaned forward slightly.
"When she finds out, and she will find out, I know that now, I've accepted that, it cannot come from gossip. It cannot come from a slip. It cannot come from either of you looking at her differently every single day until she starts asking questions."
Her voice steadied with something fierce underneath it. "She has to be ready. And she has to hear it the right way."
Xander stared at her for a long moment.
"So what are we supposed to do?" he asked quietly. "Just act normal?"
Gemma held his gaze. "For now," she said. "Yes."
Xander laughed once. Short and humorless.
He looked at the ceiling, jaw tight, eyes finally glossy.
"She's my cousin," he said. Quietly. Like that explained everything.
"I know," Gemma whispered.
"She walks around every day not knowing..." His voice cracked. He stopped. Pressed his lips together hard.
Elara reached for his hand again. This time he let her hold it.
The room sat in silence for a long moment, all four of them suspended in the heaviness of everything that had just been spoken out loud for the first time.
Then Melvin looked at the clock on the wall.
"It's late," he said quietly. "Go to bed. Both of you."
Neither of them moved immediately.
But eventually, slowly, they did.
Then she and Xander went upstairs.
The sound of their footsteps faded down the hallway. Two doors closed softly, one after the other.
Downstairs, Gemma and Melvin sat alone.
Neither spoke for a long time.
Then Gemma leaned her head on Melvin's shoulder, and he pressed his lips to her hair, and they just sat there in the wreckage of the night, holding on.
TBC...
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That's gon be hard for me.