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“Who are the ‘them’? You can tell me.”
“Ariana and Kendal,” she muttered.
Oh, those kids living with her. I didn’t know she cared about them so much.
“Who are Ariana and Kendal?” I asked and she narrowed her eyes before giving me a scoff.
“Ask John.”
I lined my lips to hide my laughter. She was definitely telling me to ask John because she knew he could easily get information on her. I guessed Ariana and Kendal were really the children of the man she killed.
“Do they know?” She turned to me at my question.
“Know what?”
“That you killed their father?”
Her eyes darkened and her jaw clenched. I worried that I had said something I shouldn’t have, I was just asking. “They don’t, and they won’t,” she spelt out and I immediately bobbed my head. She straightened as if she didn’t just threaten my life. “We need to leave now, you don’t need to pack anything?”
“No I don’t, I can get whatever I want there.” She didn’t pack much either, just a mini travel handbag that she would need because she was a woman and women needed more stuff than men.
Actually, who was I kidding? The most important thing to her in that hand bag was her knife and her mother’s journal.
* * *
After spending almost twenty-two hours on a plane almost thirty-six thousand feet above land, we got to South Africa. According to Jordan, it was where she opened her eyes after a whole year in coma.
I was shocked when I heard that she went into a coma and I blamed myself more, if that was even possible.
She explained that it was where she lived for about six more years before returning to Canada. She also said that it was where she met Ariana and Kendal, and where she met Chan. I made a mental note to ask if Chan was her ex-boyfriend or one of her flings. While he was none of that, he was something that bothered me more –her best friend.
I had scoffed and said he would always be second, and she proceeded to tease me by asking who the first was.
I had a good time with her on the plane. She even slept on my shoulder and acted like anormalgirl –minus that part where she promised to kill an air-hostess for serving her food that had egg powder as an ingredient.
We both finished reading her mother’s journal and it just contained more of her and my dad’s flings that were still hard to believe. There were some absurd dates written down that they got together, like Jordan’s third year birthday (September 16), my seventh year birthday (October 13), and even her own birthday.
My dad had allegedly gotten her a green pendant on that day and Jordan confirmed seeing the pendant when she found the journal and had thought her dad got it.
It was unbelievable and weird.
I rented a hotel for us since it was late, so that we could visit her mother the next morning and take the next flight immediately. She hadn’t been able to rest because all she kept saying was that Ariana and Kendal must be okay.
I asked her twice to tell me their school so I could send another bodyguard to them, but she kept telling me to ask John.
“How much was the room?” She asked as we entered the hotel room “And why did you get just one?” She continued with her interrogation and I huffed.
“You wanted me to get two? I didn’t know.” She glared at me and I laughed. I stood in front of her and pushed her with her shoulder to sit on the bed. I bent down and removed her sneakers, as I gently squeezed her feet to give her a small massage. “You must be tired, you should shower and take a rest.”
“What do you think my mother will say?” She asked again as she kept her face on mine, playing with the hem of her shirt. I knew she was nervous about meeting her mother, I was too. I didn’t want to meet her because I didn’t want to hate her. She was still the mother of the woman I love and I wanted to respect her for that.
“And why are you not mad at her? Why did you come here with me?” She asked again.
“I’m mad at her, Jordan, I really am. But I can’t hate her, she’s your mother.”
She shook her head vigorously. “No, are you insane? Your mother got killed because of her, you would have a mother if my mother and your dad weren’t involved with one another. I want you to hate her because I hate her too. I don’t want you to forgive her because of me, I want you to despise her and when we get to her place tomorrow, I want you to confront her.”
I nodded and held her face in my hands. “Okay, I will do whatever you say,” I said quietly, my voice barely audible. But I was sure she heard me, because her attention was only on me, and mine was on her.