And I'm back with a new update, fellas! How are you feeling? Thanks once again for your support! I love you all. xx

Dedicated to TrisEverden ! Thank you for reading this book and for your support. ❤️

Enjoooooy! ;)

|Chapter 27|

I was stunned. My jaw was dropped. My head was paining me, but my heartache gave me much more pain than I could ever explain. I shouldn't have asked her. She must feel devastated, for I may have crossed a line I shouldn't have. I probably opened a lane of memories she locked up inside for a long time. To say I felt terrible is an understatement.

I felt atrocious.

This dinner visit is giving me a headache. There are too many things revealed to me at once and it makes me sick to the deepest pit in my stomach. Justin's appearance, his "flirting" with Eleanor, their announcement that they're family, then, the confirmation of them being siblings, and finally, the admittance of Eleanor being adopted.

Ouch.

   I didn't want to ask her about it. Not today, now. Not tomorrow. Not in the future, ever. Because if I was in her place, I would have flinched at the thought. I would have wanted to run away and hide in the darkest shadows. I would have not said anything about this at all. I wouldn't have put myself in that position.

But why did she?

   I found it hard to breathe properly. I wanted to go home, fall in my bed, and get the deepest sleep I could ever. I wanted to forget everything that's been happening today, yesterday, and every single day in my troublesome, messed up life.

   I'm a human that's living, but I don't feel alive. I'm breathing, but the breaths of fresh oxygen that should make me feel animate, do the complete opposite. I'm a messed up human.

No wonder why people hate my guts.

"Elizabeth? Why are you..." Eleanor looked at me, wide-eyed. She was next to me in a millisecond, hugging me tighter than she ever have. She touched my face, wiping away the tears on my cheeks.

Tears.

Betrayal.

Grief.

   I started sobbing. I held onto her like she was my life that I'm trying to save. I cried way too hard. More than I ever wanted to. I just let it all out. My tears fell like fresh water breaking through a destroyed dam. It was like someone took out the essential block in the middle of the wall I was building around me, and it all fell down into pieces way too many. My cries grew louder than they have ever. I sat there, bowling my eyes out on Eleanor's shoulders as she whispered comforting words in my ears. I could feel Justin's sad eyes staring holes into my back, but that never seemed to make me stop. I went on.

   I had always promised myself to never let anyone see my tears. To never let anyone watch me cry. I didn't want anyone to see how weak I really am. I wanted them to believe that I'm someone I'm not. But today... today felt different. I cried and I actually had someone be there for me. Comfort me as I let out my agony, pain, devastation, and grief. Eleanor and Justin didn't laugh at me. Eleanor's small hand drew small, comforting circles on my back. She spoke the most soothing, sweet, and encouraging words I have ever heard in my entire miserable life. They didn't push me away. They didn't judge me. They didn't insult me. They didn't take the opportunity to bully me.

They stayed.

   Justin joined. He hugged me just as tight as Eleanor did. He joined her attempts in comforting me. In making me spill everything out.

"You're strong, Elizabeth. It's okay to cry. It's good for you. It's good to let everything out. You've been keeping everything in for way too long and you don't deserve this. You need to breathe," Justin whispered soothingly into my ears.

   He was right. My dreaded memories, my mocking conscience, my wince-worthy regrets, my viscous demons, they've all been trapped inside me, enjoying the torture they're causing me. They're been suffocating me, and I allowed them to do so. I needed to set them free in order to breathe again.

"I didn't mean to make you cry. I didn't know this would make you sob. I swear it. I'm sorry. It's okay. You'll be okay," Eleanor apologized thoroughly. I shook my head, sniffing and trying to control my crying.

"It's not okay! It never was, it never will. You told me that you're adopted and I have no clue why on Earth you'd tell me something like that. Both of you. You both told me things I wouldn't have told anyone. They're obviously painful and touchy subjects, yet you still trusted me with them. That makes me scared to death. This day has been hectic and I just couldn't take it anymore. I had to let go. I was suffocating.

"Everyday is a new fight for me. My whole life has been a battle I try to win. I try and try and try and it never works out. I always end up hurt, betrayed, and used. I've been bullied every single day of my life for being who I am and no one around me cared to help. No one. I had no one. Even the person who I thought loved me, betrayed me the minute they could. I thought that maybe, just maybe, this hell of a life would stop torturing me if I hid everything from everyone around me. But look at me now. I'm in ruins. I'm breaking apart in front of your own pair of eyes. I give up. I'm a weakling and I'll probably stay that way until the day I'm longing for. Until the day I die," I ended my speech with a loud howl of agony. My sobs started becoming louder and louder, and my breaths became shorter and shorter.

I was done for. My walls were crushed in front of Justin and Eleanor, and there's nothing that could happen to take back everything I said.

"Elizabeth, listen to me. I know life's hard, but at the end, it always gets better. Take me as an example. My father died of pancreatic cancer, and neither me, nor my mother knew about it. He took medication and hid his sickness from us, thinking that one day, his disease would fade away and he'd be cured without giving us any fret. However, he found out from the doctor that the medicines he's taking have no effect on him. And so, he fell unexpectedly in his workplace and died in the hospital. The hospital called my mother and told her about the news, which caused her to crash her car as she was speeding up on the snowy roads on the way to the place where my father died. Both my parents passed away on the same day and I was left alone.

I had no one at all. My grandparents were already dead and my extended family were either not willing to adopt me due to family fights and terrible crap like that, or they couldn't afford to take care of me. I was admitted to an orphanage, where I stayed for two years, refusing to talk to anyone. I had only me and my memories. I wasn't able to trust anyone. I was a misfit. I only ate and cried myself to sleep. I felt dead. Deceased.

It was all until the day a family decided they wanted me to join them. It was the day I met my adoptive parents and Justin, the best brother I could ever ask for. And look at me now. I've learned how to trust people and I'm as happy as I could be. If I could survive these hardships, I'm sure you could do, too."

I couldn't believe my ears. I wasn't the only one who felt alone in this world. Eleanor and Justin fought battles, just like me. They've survived and they've accomplished many things. It gave me a feeling of hope I never thought I'd ever feel again. Not since the day it was taken away from me.

I wiped away the tears that stained my red cheeks. I rubbed my puffy, swollen eyes. I sniffed and cleared my throat, preparing myself to ask the question I've been wanting to ask all evening.

"Why are you guys doing this?"

Eleanor smiled at me, squeezing my hands. "Because we trust you," she confirmed.

My eyes locked with Justin's, and for a second, I couldn't breathe. My heart skipped a beat as our eyes silently danced with each other. Justin took my breath away with his charming, sweet, sincere smile.

My breath hitched in my throat when he told me, "because you're worth it."